(Some of the remarks I am about to make, were inspired by the writing of Gregory Petsko 1 and Patricia Horan 2.)
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Graduates of the NYU Graduate School of Arts and Science, today we celebrate your achievements at one of the most daunting times in modern history, but also one of the most hopeful.  You embark from here in 2009, a landmark year for many reasons.  After eight years of watching others throw the loaded dice of social Darwinism — survival of those already on top — you now can and must focus on the principles of the real Darwinism, which revolves around creating positive change.

Our historic presidential inauguration coincides with another special moment in world history - the 200th birthday of two revolutionary thinkers who literally re-wrote the way we think about change.  They were born on the same date, February 12th, 1809, some four score and 120 years ago, an ocean apart.  

“Their lives were in most respects different.  The American was born poor and endured many failures; the Englishman was the son of a wealthy doctor.  The Englishman hated politics; the American reveled in it.  Still, it is striking what they had in common.   Both men valued reason over ideology.  Neither was afraid to take unpopular stands when he thought he was right.  Both were gentle of manner, but brave and tough.  And both men changed the world.  Each saw the world in an entirely new light, and each had both the courage to forcefully present his vision and the capacity to express it so compellingly that he transformed the way people thought.   The American was Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States; the Englishman was Charles Darwin, discoverer of the principle of evolution by natural selection.” 1

Darwin’s experiences traveling around the world provided him with the raw material for his revolutionary theories, and today we can compare Darwin’s voyage on the Beagle to your own journey through graduate school.  “Darwin started his forty thousand mile journey as a young man his eyes wide open.  He was only 22.  His office on the ship, where he recorded his notes, was a part of the desk in the poop cabin, which feels the worst of the ship’s pitch and yaw.  For most of his five-year journey, Darwin was a seasick sailor” 2.

Darwin’s ideas continued to mature for some time after he gratefully returned to dry land, and when “On the Origin of Species” was published 150 years ago, it unleashed a storm, that not only replaced one scientific view with another, it challenged the views almost universally held by an entire culture. Darwin’s theory was that natural selection, acting on many small differences arising in individuals in a population, was the driving force of evolution leading to the generation of new species, best able to adjust to a changing environment.  As Darwin put it, “I can see no limit to this power, in slowly and beautifully adapting each form to the most complex relations of life.”

In the same way today, the ability of our society to adapt to a world that is changing politically, economically, and environmentally, will be based on the changes that all of you graduates will make individually and collectively as you embark on your professional careers.  Remember though, that Darwin’s theory was not that the largest and most muscular species survived, (think of the dinosaurs, or General Motors), rather, the ones that thrived were those best able to adapt to an environment in flux.  Significantly, the changes that spell success result from an accumulation of mutations — changes — within a population.  

Just 16 months after Darwin’s thesis caused turmoil in the scientific and religious worlds, political turmoil brought civil war to our country.  Yet, as President Obama noted in a recent address 3,  “On March 3, 1863, only a few months after a devastating defeat at Fredericksburg, before Gettysburg was won, long before Richmond fell, before the fate of the union was at all certain, President Lincoln signed into law an act creating the National Academy of Sciences.  In the midst of civil war, the worst war in our country’s history, Lincoln was still able to see that our nation's purpose went beyond mere survival, that in fact, its continuity depended on creativity of spirit and  mind.  During that difficult time, Lincoln not only created the National Academy, he founded the land grant colleges, and began work on the Transcontinental Railroad, believing that we must”,  (in Lincoln’s words):  “Add the fuel of interest to the fire of genius in the discovery... of new and useful things."

President Obama, on the eve of his 100th day in office, addressed the National Academy of Sciences, backing up with financial stimulus his inaugural pledge to:“ restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to harness the sun and the winds and the soil.”   President Obama called the work of our newly elected National Academy members,  “A testament to the restless curiosity, the boundless hope, so essential, not just to the scientific enterprise, but to this experiment we call America.”3

And now, all you seasick sailors, today we celebrate the completion of one voyage and the beginning of the next.  You are a remarkable population of scholars, who are now poised to make positive changes in many ways and on many scales — in our economy, our society and our environment — because thanks to your experiences, opportunities, and hard work over the past few years, you have changed.  Congratulations!      

Citations:
1.  Adapted from Gregory Petsko (2009), Genome Biology, vol. 10, 102.
2.  Adapted from Patricia Horan’s foreword to “On the Origin of Species” by Crown Publishers (1979).
3.  President Obama, Address to National Academy of Sciences, April 27, 2009.