March 24, 2026
Dear Members of the ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ Mellon Community:
Each year at Commencement, ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ Mellon has the privilege of honoring individuals whose leadership, creativity and discoveries have expanded what is possible — and whose work reflects the values we aim to instill in our graduates: excellence, imagination, courage and impact.
I am delighted to announce ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½â€™s 2026 Honorary Degree Recipients, who will join us during Commencement on Sunday, May 10, as we celebrate the accomplishments of the Class of 2026.
Jensen Huang
Founder and CEO, NVIDIA
Commencement Keynote Speaker
Honorary Doctor of Science and Technology
We are honored to welcome Jensen Huang — founder and CEO of NVIDIA — as our 2026 Commencement keynote speaker and an honorary degree recipient.
ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ Mellon confers an honorary degree in recognition of Jensen’s extraordinary contributions as a visionary founder and technology leader. Since founding NVIDIA in 1993, Jensen has helped redefine what computing can do — from pioneering high-performance graphics to advancing the invention and evolution of the modern GPU — and enabling new eras of accelerated computing that have become foundational to today’s AI revolution.
What makes this recognition especially meaningful for our community is that Jensen’s leadership exemplifies something we value deeply at ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½: turning bold ideas into transformative impact. The technologies NVIDIA has helped bring to the world are now fueling breakthroughs across disciplines, from scientific discovery and engineering design to medicine, creativity and the future of work. In honoring Jensen at Commencement and featuring his remarks as our keynote address, we celebrate his role as a societal changemaker, and we aim to inspire our graduates to lead with the same combination of technical excellence, imagination and purpose.
Jamie deRoy (CFA 1967)
Broadway and Off-Broadway Producer, Performer and Arts Advocate
Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts
We are also thrilled to confer an honorary degree on ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ Mellon alumna Jamie deRoy, an accomplished producer and performer whose extraordinary career has made her one of the most influential champions of American theater.
A Pittsburgh native who studied drama at ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ Mellon, Jamie has built a remarkable legacy as a Broadway and Off-Broadway producer, performer and arts advocate. Over the course of her career she has co-produced more than 170 Broadway and off-Broadway productions and earned 15 Tony Awards, along with numerous Drama Desk, Drama League and other industry honors.
Her productions have included acclaimed and award-winning works such as "Angels in America," "A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder," "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" and "The Ferryman."
Thomas J. Sargent
Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences
Honorary Doctor of Science and Technology
ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ Mellon will confer an honorary Doctor of Science and Technology on Thomas J. Sargent, whose scholarship has shaped modern macroeconomics and deepened our understanding of cause and effect in the macroeconomy.
Thomas earned the 2011 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, shared with Christopher Sims, for pioneering empirical research that transformed how economists analyze the relationship between economic policy and real-world outcomes.
Early in his career, Thomas spent a formative year at ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½â€™s Graduate School of Industrial Administration — today’s Tepper School of Business — where he collaborated with scholars whose interdisciplinary approach to economics helped shape his future research.
We are proud to recognize his extraordinary intellectual contributions and his connection to ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ Mellon’s legacy of interdisciplinary scholarship.
Samuel John Hazo
Founder, International Poetry Forum
Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters
Finally, ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ Mellon will confer an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters on Samuel John Hazo, founder of the International Poetry Forum and a distinguished poet, translator and educator, whose work has enriched literary culture and civic life for more than half a century.
Through the International Poetry Forum, founded in Pittsburgh in 1966, Sam created one of the nation’s most vibrant venues for poetry and public dialogue, bringing many of the world’s leading poets to the city and elevating the role of poetry in public life.
That legacy continues today. In 2024, the International Poetry Forum was relaunched under the leadership of Jake Grefenstette, the poetry editor at ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ Press, renewing the Forum’s connection to our university. We are honored to recognize Sam and a life devoted to the power of the humanities.
I am grateful to the members of our Honorary Degree Review Committee, led by Richard Scheines, the Bess Family Dean of the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. This committee’s thoughtful consideration and review process has resulted in an extraordinary lineup of honorary degree recipients. You can learn more about the ceremony, which will take place on Sunday, May 10, from 10-11:30 a.m. ET at Gesling Stadium, by visiting our Commencement webpage.
Honorary degrees — which are among our university’s highest recognitions — reflect the ideals that we hold for ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ Mellon and the kind of impact that we hope our graduates will pursue in the world. Please join me in congratulating our 2026 honorary degree recipients. I look forward to honoring these remarkable individuals and celebrating the Class of 2026 in just a few short weeks!
Warm regards,
Farnam Jahanian
President
Henry L. Hillman President’s Chair