C. D. Mote, Jr.

C. D. Mote, Jr., President of the National Academy of Engineering and Regents Professor on leave from the University of Maryland in College Park, will deliver the commencement address at Illinois Institute of Technology’s 2013-14 ceremony at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 17, 2014 at the Main Campus.

Mote has led the NAE since July 1, 2013 when he was elected to serve a six-year term. Under his leadership, the NAE will focus on the global role of the organization, the importance of talent in the engineering workforce, and the visibility and understanding of engineering.

Prior to his election, Mote served as president of the University of Maryland for 12 years. His goal as president was to elevate the university’s self-expectation of achievement along with its national and global presence. During his tenure, the number of NAE members among the faculty tripled, three Nobel laureates were recognized, and an accredited school of public health, a new department of bioengineering, and 130-acre research park were created. While president, Mote also founded a charitable foundation for the university whose board of trustees launched a $1 billion capital campaign that reached its goal.

A native Californian, Mote earned his bachelor of science, master of science, and doctorate degrees at the University of California, Berkeley in mechanical engineering between 1959 and 1963. After spending a postdoctoral year in England and serving three years as an assistant professor at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, he returned to Berkeley to join the faculty in mechanical engineering for the next 31 years. As a faculty member, Mote, along with his students, investigated the dynamics, stability, and control of high-speed rotating and translating continua (e.g., disks, webs, tapes, and cables) as well as biomechanical problems of snow skiing. In fact, Mote coined the area called “dynamics of axially moving materials” encompassing these systems.

In addition, Mote held an endowed chair at Berkeley in mechanical systems and served as chair of the mechanical engineering department from 1987-1991 when the National Research Council ranked its graduate program effectiveness highest nationally. Due to his success at raising funds for mechanical engineering, Mote was appointed vice chancellor at Berkeley to create and lead a $1 billion capital campaign that ultimately reached $1.4 billion.

Mote’s recognitions include the NAE Founders Award, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Medal, and the Humboldt Prize of the Federal Republic of Germany. At the University of California, Berkeley, he was honored with the Distinguished Teaching Award, Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award, Berkeley Citation, and Excellence in Achievement Award. Mote is an honorary fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Academy of Mechanics, the Acoustical Society of America, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He holds three honorary doctorates and two honorary professorships.