University Day is Oregon State University's celebratory launch to the academic year. During this event, the university welcomes new employees, celebrates excellent work, and recognizes awards for teaching, mentoring, engagement, and research. Part of this event is the University Day Lecture, delivered by a distinguished leader, thinker, or scholar who inspires faculty and staff to reflect on their roles as educators committed to delivering OSU's land grant research university mission.

2023

Marcia McNutt, Ph.D.
President, National Academy of Sciences

SPEAKER BIO

Dr. Marcia McNutt will be Oregon State's 2023 University Day Speaker. McNutt is a geophysicist and the 22nd president of the National Academy of Sciences. From 2013 to 2016, she was the editor-in-chief of Science journals. McNutt was director of the U.S. Geological Survey from 2009 to 2013, during which time USGS responded to a number of major disasters, including Deepwater Horizon oil spill. For her work to help contain that spill, McNutt was awarded the U.S. Coast Guard's Meritorious Service Medal. She is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union, Geological Society of America, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the International Association of Geodesy. McNutt is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Foreign Member of the Royal Society, UK, the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a Foreign Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy. In 1998, McNutt was awarded the AGU’s Macelwane Medal for research accomplishments by a young scientist, and she received the Maurice Ewing Medal in 2007 for her contributions to deep-sea exploration.  


KEYNOTE LECTURE

Tuesday, September 19 at 10:30 a.m. | LInC 128

Universities in the 21st Century

The university system is one of the oldest continually-operating human institution. Although universities are centers for creating new knowledge, they themselves have been slow to evolve over the ages. With the advent of disruptive factors such as a global pandemic, AI, challenges to affirmative action, and rising competition globally, it is time for universities to take a fresh look at how they hire, promote, and retain their faculty, educate their students, and engage with their communities. A number of artificial factors, such university ranking systems and how faculty are assessed, stand in the way of much needed change at a time when education has never been more important to the future of society.  

2022 

Ruth V. Watkins, Ph.D.
President, Strada Impact

2021

Dr. Holden Thorp
Editor-In-Chief of Science

2020

Dr. Freeman A. Hrabowski
President, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

2019

Dr. Diana Natalicio
President Emerita, University of Texas at El Paso

2018

Michelle Kuo
Author, Reading with Patrick

2017

Harry Boyte
Senior Scholar in Public Work Philosophy, Augsburg College

2016

Dr. Carmen Suarez
Vice President for Global Diversity and Inclusion, Portland State University

2015 

Brandon Busteed
Executive Director, Gallup Education

2014

Jeff Selingo
Author, There Is Life After College

2013

Dr. Caryn McTighe Musil
Distinguished Fellow, Association of American Colleges and Universities

2011

Kevin Fitzgerald
Veterinarian

2010

Dr. Jillian Kinzie
Associate Director, Center for Postsecondary Research