Berkeley Physics 2026 Commencement took place on Monday, May 18
Berkeley Physics held the 2026 Commencement at the UC Theater on Monday, May 18 at 7:00 pm. the following graduating classes were welcomed to celebrate: Summer 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026, Summer 2026 & Fall 2026.
Principal Speaker
This year's principal speaker was Saul Perlmutter. Saul Perlmutter shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe. He is a professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, a senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, leader of the Supernova Cosmology Project, and co-director of the Berkeley Center for Cosmological Physics. He also founded the Berkeley Institute for Data Science and has long championed the teaching of scientific reasoning through interdisciplinary courses, inspiring his book Third Millennium Thinking: Creating Sense in a World of Nonsense. An internationally recognized cosmologist and author of hundreds of scientific publications, Perlmutter is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has served on the U.S. President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). He earned his A.B. from Harvard University and his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley.
Student Speakers
Joseph Slivka (graduate) and Nadia Sun (undergraduate)
The 2025 Student Awards
Department Citation
Nadia Sun
Jackson C. Koo Award in Condensed Matter
Ruishi Qi
The Alex Zettl Graduate Student Award in Physics
Ruishi Qi
The Lars Commins Award in Experimental Physics
Ashwin Singh
Student Services Awards
Andrés Antonio Franco Valiente
Abby Schleigh
2025-2026 Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Awards
Jiechao Feng
Chad Harper
Denali Alexander Jah
Alex Liebman-Pelaez
Bianca Julia Pol
Shreya Venkatanaga Puranam
Harry Qian
Dylan Joseph Raphael
Valeria Rosa Rocha
Roshni Singh
Samara Steinfeld
Spencer Tamagni Tamagni
Siddharth Tiwary
Jianjie Xu
Auden Young
The Berkeley Physics Commencement Program
CLICK HERE to view the 2026 Commencement Program
Recording of the 2026 Physics Commencement
A video recording of the 2026 Berkeley Physics Commencement can be viewed here.