David MacMillan, Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry, Will Address Spring 2024 Graduates

NC State will celebrate the class of 2024 during its spring commencement ceremony at PNC Arena on Saturday, May 4, at 9 a.m. with Nobel Prize-winning chemist David W. C. MacMillan delivering the commencement address. 

During the ceremony, Chancellor Randy Woodson will confer an honorary degree on MacMillan. The ceremony will also feature remarks from Benjamin Poovey, who is graduating with a bachelor of business administration with a concentration in finance. 

MacMillan received his undergraduate degree in chemistry at the University of Glasgow. In 1990, he began his doctoral studies at the University of California, Irvine, before taking a postdoctoral position at Harvard University in 1996. 

He began his career at the University of California, Berkeley, in July 1998 before moving to Caltech in 2000 as the Earle C. Anthony Chair of Organic Chemistry. In 2006, he moved to Princeton University as the A. Barton Hepburn Professor of Chemistry. He served as department chair from 2010–2015 and is currently the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry. 

He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in July 2022.