COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR RAYMOND FLANNERY AT QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY GRADUATION '98

GRADUATION '98

THE QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY OF BELFAST

COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS

RAYMOND FLANNERY

GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

JULY 1, 1998

Thank you Professor Walmsley for all of your kind remarks. I must say that I am deeply honored with the award that Queen’s University has bestowed on me today. Thank you. There’s nothing like coming back home to receive this award. Before I begin I should like to mention that I am also particularly honored that a very special lady is here with us today in the audience and that special person is Lady Barbara Bates. Lady Barbara’s late husband was Sir David Bates who was the distinguished scientist who made the Dept. of Theoretical Physics into a world class School of Theoretical Atomic and Molecular Physics. I graduated from that School in 1964 and from that time to his untimely death in 1993 Sir David remained my mentor. Lady Bates also took a great interest in the School and in Queen’s and she was always there at David’s side to welcome us. So I would ask Lady Barbara to stand up so that we can today all acknowledge by applause the tremendous contributions she and Sir David made to Queen’s. Thank you, Barbara.

A few days ago in the remotest mountain area of Achill Island overlooking the cliffs, some of the highest in Europe, I had the unfortunate experience of slipping on the very soggy wet mountain and my leg was broken in three places. If it were not for this accident, I would never have met ten men who were members of the Mountain Rescue Team. These men left their work when called put me on a gurney and with ropes got me slowly, carefully and laborously down from that mountain to the ambulance waiting below. It took 2-3 hours of their skillful labor under dreadful wet and dangerous conditions to get me down. This team was prepared for mountain rescue over many years and had gone to considerable lengths towards developing that great expertise they exhibited that day at Achill. I salute these men who to my mind are ten modern heroes, without whose help I would not be before you today.

All of you graduates before me here today are also heroes, because whether at the Bachelor’s, Master’s or Doctoral levels, you have also prepared for today; you have all worked hard to achieve this day; you have also gone to considerable lengths towards developing that great expertise you are in command of today.

Graduates, I also salute you today. Congratulations! Today, July 1^st is indeed a splendid day for us all to come together and celebrate your achievements and to wish you well as you are set forth onto the next stage and new beginnings. It is also a splendid day for the parents, families and friends. With your contributions and commitment to bring about this successful day, the parents and families have done a significant and substantial accomplishment – all the years of nurturing of love and financial support have now finally borne fruit. I know that it has not been an easy commitment. It has been said that between the ages of 18 and 22 of a student, a parent can age 20 years!

So let me say to the parents and the families – in acknowledgement of your tremendous efforts and contributions – We are proud of you. We’re grateful to you. Families of the graduates and my family, please stand up so that we may recognize you. I now invite all the graduates and the faculty to warmly applaud these great parents and families. Congratulations and thank you parents.

It is now the faculty’s turn to receive acknowledgement. For with each class of graduates, the promise of a University is fulfilled. It is fulfilled when the faculty transmit to the students those core values and principles of what a great University represents – intellectual honesty, respect for other people and their points of view, and the desire for learning. You have transmitted these principles to your students. Remember Graduates: These values and ideals are like tuning forks – you must sound them frequently to keep your mind up to pitch and your life in tune and these will serve you well in all your future enterprises. Congratulations to the Faculty for serving the students well!

When I was asked by President Bain to give this address, he mentioned that the address should last no more than 10 minutes. Now this threw me into a spiral because I wondered how could I say all I know in 10 minutes. Then I remembered George Bernard Shaw’s sage advice to a young man who had asked him a similar question. "Then Sir, if I were you," Shaw said, "I would speak very slowly."

But back to the graduates. Congratulations to each and every one of you. Today is the big payoff for all that you have accomplished while at Queen’s. All of you have deserved this day. We are all here today to mark, to affirm and to celebrate your past and present achievements. Your degree is an embodiment of these achievements. We are also here today to promote your readiness and preparedness to proceed into the world outside of Queen’s University.

I have mentioned your "preparedness." Your preparedness to carry out a project, your preparedness to pursue knowledge and your preparedness to enter the outside world. It is your mind that has been prepared at Queen’s. And this is important. Preparation of minds depends on an excellent and advanced education, all of which you have received at Queen’s. In this light, we must remember that advanced education depends most of all upon a creative faculty engaged in significant research, teaching and discovery. As Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin noted, "The unprepared mind cannot see the outstretched hand of opportunity." Curiosity alone does not produce new knowledge. No. Skepticism alone does not produce new knowledge. No. Confidence alone does not produce new knowledge. Chance alone does not produce new knowledge. No. Significant new knowledge depends on the rigorous work and on the imagination of prepared minds. Knowledge and prepared minds then lead to new ideas. As someone has said, new ideas consist of seeing what everyone has seen, but of thinking what nobody has thought.

Preparation, knowledge and new ideas all depend on information. Today, the Internet and web sites are all supplying us with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of information. As you know, surfing the Web has become a regular part of the day and can absorb most of the day. Most of all of us could not have predicted five years ago that people would now be routinely surfing the net to find everything from ordering a pizza or groceries to be home delivered, to viewing the latest scientific publications. We have all embraced this new culture with gusto, and some of us without reserve. We can however become paralyzed by the sheer volume of information we have to absorb. We have all felt "the paralysis induced by an overload of information." Without deep thinking, we are in danger of drowning in this sea of hyper-information in which we are suspended, we have no navigational compass or pole star to successfully emerge from this sea, we can lose our bearings.

In this context, I am reminded of the 1934 lament of T.S. Eliot, which takes on new significance in this modern world of the Internet. In his poem "The Rock", T.S. Eliot wonders:

"Where is the life we have lost in living

Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?"

All of the Knowledge and Information in this world will be to no avail, unless we use it wisely. Knowledge and Information are not merely enough; we need to develop wisdom. In the end as we know, education is a fundamentally human process. It is a matter of values, significant action and wisdom; not simply information or even knowledge. I know that Queen’s University has given you the education, the values, the desire to keep on thinking deeply and learning always throughout your lives, the desire to pursue new directions, new knowledge and then to wisely apply it. You will always need this wherever you go.

But you do not have to rush out and complete all of your goals by tomorrow, or even the next day or the next. Relax. Break a leg! You will have plenty of time to craft lives of significance. So take your time, enjoy yourselves, enjoy your friends and families, enjoy this wonderful world of ours. Don’t be too serious by letting your relentless search for meaning extinguish the meaning and the joy of this life. And just don’t stay at home unwilling to leave the fish you haven’t yet caught. Expand your horizons and enter into a rhythm all of your own. To quote Robert Frost, "We dance ‘round in a ring and suppose, but the secret sits in the middle and knows." I hope each of you will someday find your way to the center of this ring. And I hope that I shall also be there to find you there. In the Meantime, Graduates and Families, Congratulations, Good Luck, Good success and Safe passage to all of you.

Thank you.