Graduate College Commencement Ceremony Speaker

Patrick Schnable

Image shows Patrick Schnable, the Graduate College Commencement Ceremony speaker. He is wearing a black suit jacket with a white shirt and red tie.

Patrick Schnable is a distinguished professor at Iowa State University, where he is the Iowa Corn Endowed Chair and directs the Plant Sciences Institute that is fostering collaborations among plant scientists, engineers, and data scientists. He is also the Baker Scholar of Agricultural Entrepreneurship and the lead of Iowa’s Digital and Precision Agriculture economic development platform.

Schnable received a Bachelor of Science in Agronomy from Cornell University and a Doctor of Philosophy in Plant Breeding and Cytogenetics from Iowa State University before conducting post-doctoral research in Molecular Genetics at the Max Planck Institute in Köln, Germany. Schnable’s wide-ranging investigations of the genetics, genomics, and phenomics of maize have resulted in over 200 peer-reviewed publications, an h-index of 90, and over 32,000 citations.

He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, co-lead of the Genomes to Fields Initiative, the Principal Investigator of the Agricultural Genomes to Phenomes Initiative (AG2PI), a past chair of the American Society of Plant Biology’s Science Policy Committee, and a past chair of the Maize Genetics Executive Committee. Schnable is also a serial ag-tech entrepreneur. For example, he is CEO and co-founder of Dryland Genetics Inc., a proso millet breeding company. He also serves on the scientific advisory boards of several ag-tech companies and consults widely.

College of Veterinary Medicine Commencement Speaker

Karen Shaw Becker

Image shows Karen Shaw Becker, the College of Veterinary Medicine commencement speaker. She has curly hair and is wearing a white shirt.

Karen Shaw Becker, DVM, CVH, CVA, CCRT, is a veterinarian, animal advocate, educator, and multiple New York Times best-selling author. Her career has spanned private practice, establishing the first functional medicine hospital in the U.S. and developing two non-profit organizations to fund veterinary nutrition and longevity research.

Dr. Becker is the world’s most-followed veterinarian on Facebook. Her platform provides practical health information for millions of pet parents, industry professionals, and veterinarians. She is the co-author of The Forever Dog, the first dog health book to reach #1 on the New York Times best-seller list and be published in over 21 languages. Becker cares deeply about protecting the earth’s wild animals and those whose populations are in peril. She celebrates her 37th year as a federally licensed wildlife rehabilitator this year. Her career has been guided by the mission to help all living beings enjoy vibrant lives by maximizing their health potential. She embraces proactivity and harnesses the foundation of nutrition and a healthy lifestyle to prevent disease. 

Morning Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony Speaker

Roger Underwood

Image shows Roger Underwood, the morning Undergraduate Ceremony speaker. He is wearing a dark grey suit jack with a blue shirt and orange bow tie.

Roger Underwood is a lifelong entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. A native of Atlantic, Iowa, Roger earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Business from Iowa State University in November of 1980.

After college, Roger and high school classmate Jeff Becker, co-founded Becker Underwood in Ames in 1982 to develop a specialty colorant to mark herbicide application, resulting in more efficient farming practices. Company sales in its first year were $45,666.88. The company grew steadily in its early years, developing new products and focusing on the customer. Organic growth and targeted acquisitions diversified the business into new strategic global ag markets. The company expanded to seed colorants, seed coatings, yield-enhancing biological inoculants, and multiple biological crop protection products. The company developed colored mulch, which became popular all over the country. Becker Underwood joined with private equity in 2000 to accelerate growth. Becker Underwood grew to $265 million in sales by 2012, from its ten offices spread between seven countries on five continents, with 420 employees. In 2012, Becker Underwood was sold to BASF Chemical Company of Germany for $1.02 billion.

Roger is currently an investor and Chair of Pivot Bio, a Berkley, California, ag bio-tech company and a board member of KENT® Corporation of Muscatine, Iowa. Roger is a founding limited partner in The Rural American Fund in Chicago. He is a past board member of The Waldinger Corp of Des Moines and Albaugh Chemical of Ankeny. He is a past chair of Ames Seed Capital and a founding investor of Dryland Genetics. Roger also has served on the boards of Rural American Fund companies, Seeds 2000, and LaCrosse Seeds. Roger has served on numerous Ames area civic and community organizations.

Statewide, Roger quietly, and in many cases, anonymously works to make life better for all Iowans. Examples of this include his participation from 20112014 in the Capitol Corridor Steering Committee; and effort to Coordinate Iowa’s Government, Educational and Financial resources for the purpose of attracting innovation related to Iowa’s leadership in Global Agriculture. One outcome of this has been the establishment of America’s Cultivation Corridor, and their work over the last ten years. Roger was inducted into the Iowa Business Hall of Fame in 2024.

Roger is a lifetime member of the ISU Foundation Board of Governors and chaired Campaign Iowa State, which raised $867 million. He has received honors including Iowa State University awards for Order of the Knoll Young Alumnus in 2000, College of Ag and Life Sciences Floyd Andre Award in 2008, for outstanding contributions to Agriculture, and the Cardinal and Gold Award in 2011.

Roger enjoys raising money for Iowa State University, Boy Scouts, the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity, and other groups. He makes regular presentations to university classes about entrepreneurship and the importance of business owners caring for stakeholders, employees, customers, and the community when making business decisions. Roger has mentored uncountable entrepreneurs across Iowa over the years.

Roger and Connie have been married for 39 years and live in Ames, Iowa. Connie is a 1984 graduate of Iowa State in Political Science and International Studies. Her interests are Bible Study Fellowship, working with children in several Christian programs, and hiking. They have two sons, Andrew and girlfriend Dr. Nina Whitney and William and wife Chloe Underwood. All are Iowa Staters.

Afternoon Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony Speaker

Thomas Bluth

Image shows Thomas Bluth, the afternoon undergraduate commencement speaker. He is wearing a suit jacket, black shirt, and glasses.

Thomas Bluth is a retired global business executive with extensive P&L leadership experience that includes serving as a Caterpillar Senior Vice President and Corporate Officer for 13 years. Tom’s scope of experience includes managing Caterpillar businesses (Earthmoving & Mining) ranging from $5B to $20B in revenue, overseeing manufacturing across Europe and Asia, and serving as Caterpillar’s corporate Chief Technology Officer.

Tom graduated from Iowa State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering with honors. He received a Juris Doctor degree from Northwestern University, where he graduated cum laude. Tom earned his Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Chicago with honors.

During his time at Iowa State, Tom served as Senior Class President and was a recipient of the Wallace E Barron All-University Senior Award. Although, upon reflection, Tom’s most challenging role was being a 3-term social chair for the TKE fraternity.

Tom currently serves as a Board Member and advisor for various companies, teaches as an Adjunct Professor at Northwestern University, and stays actively involved with Iowa State, serving on the ISU Research Foundation Board.

Evening Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony Speaker

Thomas Smith

Thomas Smith, Evening Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony Speaker, stands with his wife, Evonne. He is wearing a black suit jacket, white shirt, and a red and gold striped tie. She is wearing a red suit jacket, white shirt, and a necklace.

Thomas Smith is a distinguished alumnus of Iowa State University, with a career dedicated to contributions to the academic and geoscience communities. He met the love of his life, Evonne, during their senior year at ISU in 1967. They celebrated their 55th Anniversary and couldn’t be happier. After earning Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Geology from ISU, he joined Chevron Geophysical (1971) as a processing geophysicist. He left Chevron to complete his Doctor of Philosophy in Geophysics at the University of Houston (1981), where his research focused on 3D modeling, wavefield migration, and subsurface imaging.

Dr. Smith’s passion for innovation in geoscience began early in his career. He and Evonne founded Seismic MicroTechnology (1984), which was then yet another mom & pop company, but which had a tall vision to develop and produce one of the first PC-based software platforms for integrated geoscience interpretation. It became the world’s leading PC geoscience application. Quietly, it was given away to over 200 universities. Company staff grew to 150 in 4 international offices when it was sold to two venture capital firms (2007). More recently, Tom founded Geophysical Insights, where he leads a multidisciplinary team of geoscientists and computer scientists in advanced machine learning and deep artificial learning (AI) in geological subsurface analysis. They are conducting fundamental research, bringing new practical technologies forward on an AI platform to a new set of clients around the world. Tom’s current research focuses on unsupervised learning methods for geobody characterization. He is deeply engaged in developing advanced continuing education courses for geoscientists, with an emphasis on practical workflows for AI-based subsurface imaging.

Tom and Evonne received Iowa State University’s highest recognition, the Distinguished Alumni Award (2015). Throughout his career, Tom has received numerous accolades for his contributions to geophysics and innovation. He received the Distinguished Alumnus Lecturer Award (1996) and Citation of Merit for National and International Recognition (2002). He and Evonne are ISU Foundation Governors and proudly served on the Campaign Committee for Forever True, For Iowa State (2016-2024). The University of Houston awarded him the Distinguished Alumni Award (2017). Numerous professional recognitions include the Entrepreneur Award (2000) by the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) and Honorary Membership from the Geophysical Society of Houston (2010). He was Chairman of the SEG Foundation (2010-2013), SEG President-Elect's Strategy and Planning Committee, and several SEG Future Strategy committees.

Residing in Austin, Texas, Tom and Evonne enjoy spending time with family. His deep commitment to both family and science continues to inspire those around him.