Elder Gerrit W. Gong, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is scheduled to be the speaker during BYU's commencement exercises on Thursday, April 25, at 10 a.m.
Vishwanath Dadarao Karad will be the honorary degree recipient.
BYU President C. Shane Reese will conduct the exercises, which will be held in person and broadcast live on BYUtv from the Marriott Center. All college convocations will be held April 25–26. Individual colleges will communicate their respective details about convocations.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Elder Gerrit W. Gong currently serves as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He previously served as a member of the Asia Area Presidency and member of the Presidency of the Seventy.
During his 20 years in Washington, D.C., he served as special assistant to the undersecretary of state at the U.S. State Department, as special assistant to the U.S. ambassador in Beijing, China, and in several positions at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. He was also assistant to the president for planning and assessment at BYU.
Elder Gong has a doctorate in international relations and a master’s degree in philosophy from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes scholar. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Asian and university studies from BYU.
Elder Gong was born in Redwood City, California. He and his wife, Susan L. Gong, are the parents of four children and four grandchildren.
ABOUT THE HONORARY DOCTORATE
Vishwanath Dadarao Karad is a renowned and visionary educator. He taught courses as a professor of mechanical engineering for 20 years, and for the last 40 years has been at the helm of various educational institutes founded by him. He holds degrees in mechanical engineering and a Ph.D. in engineering and education.
In 1983, he created the Maharashtra Academy of Engineering Education and Research (MAEER), a trust dedicated to fostering private education. Its initial endeavor was the Maharashtra Institute of Technology (MIT) with Dr. Karad acknowledged as its founder. MIT’s early focus was engineering, but it soon expanded into multiple institutes and colleges, paving the way for private education in Maharashtra, the third largest state in India.
MAEER’s MIT Group includes four universities. The MIT Art, Design and Technology University campus is also located in Pune and is the site for the World Peace Dome which was conceived and designed by Dr. Karad.
His growing familiarity with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and BYU has led Dr. Karad to seek greater collaboration between BYU and MIT-WPU and related institutions. In August 2017, he recognized the work of the Church by conferring the Philosopher Saint Shri Dnyaneshwara World Peace Prize on Elder D. Todd Christofferson as Church representative. The World Peace Prize, modeled on the Nobel Peace Prize, was established in 2006 at MIT-World Peace University and has been awarded on nine occasions to date. Dr. Karad hosted Elder D. Todd Christofferson and a Church delegation on November 22, 2022, for an extensive ceremony unveiling a statue of the Prophet Joseph Smith at the World Peace Dome.
