Join us for our annual Colloquy, a lively conversation with our Commencement honorary degree recipients — two remarkable leaders at the forefront of science and health care.

Doors open at 3PM. Colloquy begins at 3:30PM and will be followed by a reception with refreshments in Evelyn’s Café.

Free and open to the public. 

Watch Live

Featuring

The Honorable Dr. Darío Gil

Dr. Darío Gil is Under Secretary for Science at the U.S. Department of Energy. His office is the nation's largest federal sponsor of basic research in the physical sciences, supporting all 17 National Laboratories of the United States, and responsible for programs including advanced computing, fusion, nuclear and high energy particle physics, basic energy sciences, and biological and environmental research. He is the department’s principal advisor on science and technology.

Prior to his current position, Dr. Gil was IBM Senior Vice President and Director of Research, where he was responsible for one of the world’s largest and most influential corporate research labs. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering “for his contributions to artificial intelligence and quantum computing” and is a globally recognized leader of the quantum industry. Under his leadership, IBM was the first company in the world to build programmable quantum computers and make them universally available through the cloud.

Dr. Gil is an inventor and an institutional innovator, the force behind the creation of the International Science Reserve, the AI Alliance, the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, and the COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium.

He has served on the President’s Council of Science and Technology Advisors (PCAST) and on the National Science Board (NSB), where he was the first member from industry to be elected chairman in 30 years. He has served on numerous boards including the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the New York Academy of Sciences, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), the New York Hall of Science, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Dr. Gil is the recipient of two honorary doctorates and received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT.

Christine Ann Miller ’97

Christine Ann Miller ’97 is a life sciences executive who most recently served as President and CEO of Melinta Therapeutics, where she led a significant transformation of the company into a leading player in the hospital acute care market. When she stepped into the role, Melinta was a pure-play antibiotics business facing industry headwinds. Under her leadership, the company evolved into a more diversified and resilient organization, doubling its revenue, securing multiple FDA approvals, and expanding its portfolio through a combination of licensing and acquisitions. She also guided the business to sustainable profitability while strengthening operational discipline and execution, ultimately positioning Melinta for a successful strategic acquisition in August 2025.

Miller is known for her people-first leadership philosophy, grounded in the belief that strong performance follows strong teams. She focuses on building organizations where accountability, clarity, and collaboration are embedded into how work gets done. Her leadership style emphasizes aligning teams around shared goals while empowering individuals to operate with ownership and purpose, enabling organizations to navigate complexity and deliver meaningful, measurable results.

Prior to Melinta, she held senior global leadership roles at Sandoz, Actavis, and Merck, where she led large-scale portfolio transformations, executed product launches, and drove growth initiatives across both branded and generic pharmaceutical businesses. Her experience spans commercial strategy, operations, and enterprise leadership, giving her a comprehensive perspective on how to build, scale, and evolve healthcare organizations in dynamic markets.

In addition to her executive leadership experience, Miller has served on both private and public company boards, as well as nonprofit boards, including Iveric Bio, BioNJ, and the Antimicrobials Working Group, along with advisory roles with the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association and the Lighthouse Guild. Through these roles, she provides strategic, operational, and governance oversight while contributing to broader industry advancement and the development of future leaders in life sciences.

Martin A. Schmidt ’81
Dr. Martin A. Schmidt is the 19th president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), the first technological research university in the U.S. Founded in 1824, RPI is recognized as a premier university, noted for its robust and holistic learning community that connects creativity with science and technology. Under his leadership, RPI is advancing emerging fields like quantum computing and semiconductor research to address urgent global challenges.  

An accomplished researcher and entrepreneur, Dr. Schmidt holds more than 30 U.S. patents and has founded or co-founded seven startups, several rooted in his pioneering work in microfluidics. Prior to RPI, Dr. Schmidt served as provost and senior academic and budget officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He earned his B.S. from RPI in 1981 and his S.M. (1983) and Ph.D. (1988) in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT. 

The North American Conference on Video Game Music (NACVGM) returns May 1–2, 2026 as a hybrid event hosted at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY at The Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC), bringing together scholars, composers, performers, and practitioners to explore the vibrant, interdisciplinary field of video game music and sound. Since its founding, NACVGM has served as a key international forum for research and creative work on game audio, fostering dialogue across musicology, ethnomusicology, sound studies, media studies, composition, critical game studies, and game design.

Our keynote this year is Dr. Melanie Fritsch who is currently Junior professor for Media and Cultural Studies with a focus on Game Studies and related fields at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. She is a team member of the Ludomusicology Research Group as well as the speaker team of the AG Games of the Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaft. Further, she is a co-founder of the Society for the Study of Sound and Music in Games and the Journal of Sound and Music in Games as well as the AG Spiele (Verband DHd – “Digital Humanities im deutschsprachigen Raum”). She co-edited the Cambridge Companion to Video Game Music in collaboration with Dr. Tim Summers.

The conference features a dynamic program of scholarly papers, panels, and creative work, alongside performances and opportunities for community engagement. Participants present 20- and 10-minute talks, poster sessions, and demonstrations of game and sound art, reflecting the breadth of contemporary approaches to game audio research and practice.

This year’s program highlights a wide range of timely topics, including adaptations and transmedia reworkings, radio and broadcast aesthetics in games, ethnographic approaches to listening and play, sound design and accessibility, and critical perspectives on identity and pedagogy. Recent panels have explored themes such as musical adaptation across media franchises, sonic worldbuilding and placemaking, literacies of listening, and the intersections of game audio with race, gender, and social justice.

In addition to paper sessions, NACVGM features keynote presentations by leading scholars in the field, as well as an evening concert showcasing live performances of video game music and game-inspired works. These events underscore the conference’s commitment to bridging scholarship and creative practice, offering attendees opportunities to engage with game audio as both an object of study and a site of performance.

With both in-person and virtual attendance options, NACVGM 2026 continues to cultivate an inclusive and collaborative space for exploring how music and sound shape the cultural, aesthetic, and technological dimensions of games.

For more information, registration, and the full program, visit https://nacvgm.org/.

North American Conference on Video Game Music 2026

Visit link for details.

From Academy Award®-nominated director Robert Stone, a New York Times Critics Pick documentary. In this meditative, intergalactic biopic, we follow Gentry Lee, Chief Engineer for Planetary Exploration at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and sci-fi writer, on his journey through space and on Earth. From the Viking and Voyager missions to co-authoring the future with Arthur C. Clarke, Lee’s life has been spent with his head in the stars and his feet on the ground. The octogenarian Starman reflects on decades of space exploration alongside friends like Carl Sagan.

Following the screening, Director Robert Stone will sit down for a live Q&A moderated by Dr. William Gibbons, School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.   

Reception to follow with a selection of bites and refreshments. Seats are limited. RSVP required. 

The combined forces of the RPI Orchestra and Empire State Youth Orchestra's Symphony Orchestra unite to perform Gustav Mahler's epic Symphony no. 1. The program will be led by RPI music faculty Dr. Robert Whalen, and will also include a performance of Edvard Grieg's famous Concerto for Piano and Orchestra by 2025 Concerto Competition winner Armstrong Wang '27.

To round out the program, ESYO Music Director and guest conductor Etienne Abelin will conduct Bedrich Smetana’s evocative “Vltava” or “The Moldau”, a masterful musical depiction of a river and the surrounding countryside and people who depend on it.

This performance will take place at 7:30pm on March 31st in the EMPAC Concert Hall. Admission is free.

Wednesday, January 14 
Levent Ozruh
Beginning at the End

POSTPONED
Wednesday, January 28 
Cecilia Puga / Paula Velasco Arquitectura
Some character in search for an author
Mosaic Associates Architects Lecture

Wednesday, February 4
Florian Idenburg / Solid Objectives (SO–IL)
Once Again, but This Time with More Feeling
Mike Wacholder Memorial Lecture
Lecture Begins at 5:30 p.m.

Wednesday, February 11
Sou Fujimoto
Between Nature and Architecture
Kenneth L. Warriner Memorial Lecture

Wednesday, March 11
Javier Senosiain
Organic Architecture

Note:

All lectures will start at 5 pm est. Design studios will end early to allow students and faculty to arrive on time.

Søren Pihlmann / pihlmann architects
Adding Less, Changing More – When Form Features Constraint
Wednesday, September 10

pihlmann architects was founded by Søren Thirup Pihlmann in 2021. Their portfolio ranges from temporary pavilions, over single-family houses to transformations in cultural environments worthy of preservation and cultural institutions.

To pihlmann, architecture is defined by the two outermost positions of the architectural scale – context and component – and the space in between is created as a result of these. philmann is involved throughout all phases of a projects: Conducting research and experiments with one hand while constructing with the other.

pihlmann projects are characterized by the idea of highlighting the material itself as the protagonist of architecture. By exploring the immanent processes and potentials of materials, they believe that robust and simple architecture comes to life. An architecture which inherits both character and atmosphere from the function and origin of the applied materials.

https://pihlmann.dk/

Sharon Johnston / Johnston Marklee
Architecture & the City: Extremes & In-Betweens
Wednesday, September 24
Frank Pitts ’75 Lecture

Sharon Johnston, FAIA, and Mark Lee are the founding partners of the architecture firm Johnston Marklee. Since its establishment in 1998 in Los Angeles, Johnston Marklee has been recognized nationally and internationally with over 50 major awards and numerous publications.

Projects undertaken by Johnston Marklee are diverse in scale and type, spanning fourteen countries throughout North and South America, Europe, and Asia. Recent projects include the Menil Drawing Institute, on the campus of the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas, which opened November 2018; a renovation of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, which opened in September 2017; the new UCLA Graduate Art Studios campus in Culver City, California; and the design of the new Dropbox global headquarters in San Francisco.

Johnston and Lee served as Artistic Directors for the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial. In 2016 the duo was named USA Oliver Fellows for Architecture & Design by the United States Artists. A book on the work of the firm, entitled House Is a House Is a House Is a House Is a House, was published by Birkhauser in 2016. This followed a monograph on the firm’s work, published in 2014 by 2G.

In 2018 Johnston and Lee were named Professors in Practice at Harvard Graduate School of Design, and Mark Lee was appointed Chair of the Architecture Department. They have also taught at major universities including Princeton University, the University of California, Los Angeles, the Technical University of Berlin, and ETH Zurich and have held the Cullinan Chair at Rice University and the Frank Gehry Chair at the University of Toronto.

Johnston Marklee’s work has been exhibited internationally and is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Menil Collection, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Carnegie Museum of Art, and the Architecture Museum of TU Munich.

https://www.johnstonmarklee.com/

Canceled: J. Alfonso Quiñones / BAAQ
Due to unforeseen circumstances, Alfonso Quiñones / BAAQ’ will be unable to present his lecture scheduled for Monday, September 29 at EMPAC. We look forward to welcoming him at a future date.

20 years under the sun
Monday, September 29
Steven Ehrlich ’69 Lecture

BAAQ’ is an architectural firm founded by Alfonso Quiñones, based in Mexico City with a branch in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca. The office operates very much like a studio, because a studio is where things are made, where you imagine something and produce it.

As part of our resume, BAAQ’ was the local associate architect for Casa Wabi, the most recent project in Mexico by master architect Tadao Ando (1995 Pritzker Prize winner). We are currently working alongside the first project in our country by both Alvaro Siza (1992 Pritzker Prize winner) and Kengo Kuma.
Our projects have been recognized in various publications, and in 2012 we received an award at the 12th Mexican Architecture Biennial for our project “Casa del Río.”

http://www.baaq.net/

Barry Wark
The Architecture of Ecology
Monday, October 27

Born in Scotland, Barry Wark is an architect and designer who combines his New York-based design studio with research and teaching activities at the Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania. The origin of his practice is deeply rooted in his hometown of Glasgow, where the climate and gritty qualities of the city nurtured his sensibility for eco-centric architecture. Barry’s work has been published internationally in both physical and digital media, most recently being the cover of frame magazine, a leading international publication focused on architecture, interiors, and product design. Barry has given lectures and workshops about his research to architects and other design disciplines such as film studios and game developers. His work has been exhibited internationally, most notably at the Dubai Museum of the Future (‘Nadarra’, 2023) and the Venice Biennale (‘Printed Parts’, 2022).

https://www.barrywark.com/

Michael Hansmeyer
Tools of Imagination
Wednesday, October 29

Michael Hansmeyer is an architect and programmer who explores the use of algorithms to generate and fabricate architectural form.

His recent projects include two full-scale 3D-printed sandstone grottos, the production of an intricate Muqarna for Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, the installation of a hall of columns at Grand Palais in Paris, and the design of the 3D-printed Tor Alva aka White Tower in the Swiss Alps. His work has been exhibited at museums and venues such as the Museum of Arts and Design New York, Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Martin Gropius Bau Berlin, Design Miami / Basel, and the Gwangju Design Biennale. His designs are featured in the permanent collections of the FRAC Centre and Centre Pompidou.

Michael has taught architecture as a visiting professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and at Southeast University in Nanjing, and as a lecturer at the CAAD group of ETH Zurich. He previously worked for Herzog & de Meuron architects, as well as in the financial and consulting industries. Michael holds a Master of Architecture degree from Columbia University.

https://michael-hansmeyer.com/

Constellations” explores open-form, structured improvisation, using both acoustic and electronic instruments, as well as generative algorithms to guide parts of the performance.  Nick Dunston — an acoustic and electroacoustic composer, improviser, and sound artist — will lead the students through the concert using conduction. This is a way of guiding musicians without a score, using only hand gestures, allowing players to improvise their parts while Dunston’s cues shape the overall form. 

Featured in parts of the performance will be DJ Rekha, a well-known and highly regarded NYC-based DJ who is currently earning their Ph.D. in Electronic Arts at RPI. 

Also featured in the performance will be Ph.D. student Joey Latka’s animated notation composition, Radix, which uses a generative algorithm in place of a traditional score. In Radix, musicians respond in real time to symbols appearing on a monitor, generated by Latka’s custom software. The system draws on a cross-mapping of the zodiac and the musical circle of fifths, prompting performers to improvise based on visual cues. 

The Contemporary Improvisation Ensemble is made up of RPI undergraduate and graduate students across disciplines. The group is focused on the art of musical improvisation — “an art that is too often overlooked in music education, despite being  a central aspect of all music making,” according to RPI Professor of Music and New Media, Michael Century.
 

The Rensselaer Music Association will be performing in EMPAC this Friday! Our groups are excited to perform for you in this beautiful space - this brass heavy set will feature Symphonic Band, Trumpet Troupe and Analog Brainrot, the RMA's tuba and euphonium quartet. Hope to see you there!

Repertoire:

    Symphonic Band: Guadalcanal March (Richard Rodgers, arr. Erik Leidzen), Sea Storm (Qunicy Hilliard), Arabesque (Samuel Hazo)

    Trumpet Troupe: Antiphon for Trumpets (Stan Pethel),  Waltz in A Minor (Chopin arr. Cameron McCracken), Legend of Zelda Medley

    Analog Brainrot: Sleeping Beauty Waltz (Tchaikovsky, arr. David Werden), Songs of the British Isles (David Werden)
 

Ensembles:

Symphonic Band, Trumpet Troupe, Analog Brainrot

FREE and open to the public!