MIT holds a “Hooding Ceremony” the day before commencement, where all the doctoral degree recipients are individually invested with the medieval hood, signifying that they are henceforth “doctors.”  At commencement, undergrads and grad students all march, have their names read individually, and are presented their diplomas, in front of their classmates and families.  The faculty also attend to observe and cheer on the distribution of diplomas.

At the hooding, I focused on three students in particular: Caleb Hug, my EECS doctoral student, who celebrated not only the completion of his PhD but also the birth of his second child, Peter, five days earlier; Chris Cassa, who had finished his HST PhD earlier in the academic year, working with my colleagues at Children’s Hospital, especially Ken Mandl, and me; and Joaquin Blaya, who also completed an HST PhD working with my colleague Hamish Fraser at Partners in Health (I had served on Joaquin’s committee). Sitting on stage did not give me either good lighting or a good angle, hence my need to apologize for some of the photos. EECS also held a reception for the new doctors after the ceremony.

At Commencement, I was able to photograph many of my undergraduate advisees as they approached the podium to receive their hoods and diplomas. I didn’t get everyone, and did “shoot” a few students I recognized from other encounters such as classes or projects.  Because the doctoral students walked on the other side of the podium, I had no chance to photograph them on this occasion. I did get Pennie Cuevas and Chris Hinske, both MD’s who received Master’s degrees in the HST Biomedical Informatics program.