Dedicated students, distinguished colleagues and dear friends,

Happy Friday!

Just as I was feeling comfortable with the word sesquicentennial, which I learned when celebrating our, well, sesquicentennial anniversary in 2020 here at S&T, I learned that semiquincentennial means half of a quincentennial – kind of a cool way of saying 250th anniversary.

Vocabulary aside, as we welcome Independence Day tomorrow and celebrate the national semiquincentennial anniversary, it behooves us to celebrate the engineers, scientists and innovators whose ideas and inventions have helped shape the nation. These were remarkable individuals willing to solve problems, challenge the status quo, and create new possibilities through innovative thinking and hard work. Here at S&T, we take the opportunity during this national celebration to reflect on our enduring purpose of preparing engineers and scientists throughout our history. From our roots as the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy, MSM, to University of Missouri-Rolla, UMR, to now Missouri S&T, thousands of our faculty and staff have educated our graduates who have gone on to revolutionize industries and strengthen our economy for over 150 years.

Engineers and scientists have changed the world – from mining deep earth, to exploring outer space, to treating previously incurable diseases, to creating new knowledge, to revolutionizing American business, to educating our youth, to defending the nation, and to building hospitals, schools, hotels and houses of worship. These men and women were the impetus for something much bigger than themselves. These catalytic leaders became creators and rainmakers who provide critical contributions to critical challenges facing their communities, the country, the world and all of humanity.

Today, we acknowledge our graduates who have helped shape America and have improved the world through their possibility thinking, innovation and unyielding desire to make our world a better place. From Gary White, who co-founded Water.org to bring safe drinking water and sanitation systems to millions around the world; to Cindy Tang, whose advocacy for women in academia led to S&T’s Woman of the Year Award; to Farouk El-Baz, the remote-sensing guru who identified the Apollo 11 moon landing site, to the late Ed Tuck, who created the first hand-held GPS, and to Sandra Magnus, the NASA astronaut whose accomplishments include living on the International Space Station and flying on the final space shuttle mission, just to name a few, S&T alumni including our Alumni of Influence have advanced our world and enhanced our lives.

It is interesting to note that although the majority of our most influential alumni never held high political offices or became household names, they have provided opportunities for countless others and have built bridges across differences to form successful teams and enterprises. So on this special national birthday, we salute them for advancing our democracy by serving as military, civic, business and education leaders and for their commitment to creating opportunities for future generations.

We here at S&T are proud to continue to create pathways for our students and educators to discover their talents and thrive. And in doing so, we celebrate liberty as a founding principle and as a shared responsibility to invest in future generations who will learn, lead and provide critical contributions to critical national challenges.

Wishing you a happy and safe semiquincentennial 4th of July weekend.

Warmly,

-Mo.
 
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Mohammad Dehghani, PhD
Chancellor
mo@mst.edu | 573-341-4116

206 Parker Hall, 300 West 13th Street, Rolla, MO 65409-0910
chancellor.mst.edu