Princeton’s newest Ph.D. and master’s degree recipients were honored Monday, May 26, at the 2025 Hooding and Recognition Ceremony for completing their advanced degrees during this past academic year.

The Graduate School’s Class of 2025 gathered under sunny skies on Cannon Green, surrounded by family, friends and the many supporters of their years of effort.

“This hooding ceremony is a wonderful opportunity for all of us — your family and friends, your teachers, your mentors — to recognize your accomplishments and express our excitement about your futures,” said Princeton University Provost Jennifer Rexford, the Gordon Y.S. Wu Professor in Engineering. “In your time here, you have become experts in your chosen fields, and the world needs your expertise, now more than ever.”

“This is a pinnacle moment of your life. A moment that you have been working toward for years. A moment that will be part of your life story forever,” said Graduate School Dean Rodney Priestley.

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Matthew Raspanti, Office of Communications

In his remarks, Graduate School Dean Rodney Priestley urged the graduates to draw on what they have gained from Princeton as they face challenges in their lives and careers.

“As you leave this campus, we recognize that the world faces many complex challenges,” said Priestley, who is also Princeton’s Pomeroy and Betty Perry Smith Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering.

“I know that your years of preparation here at Princeton — your hard work, your vast scholarship, the depth of your research, your skillful teaching, the relationships you’ve made, and your bold leadership across a breathtaking array of disciplines — will contribute to solutions,” Priestley said. “During moments of uncertainty, I encourage you to continue to think expansively about your goals and not let the current headwinds reduce your ambitions, but rather expand them.”

At the ceremony, master’s degree recipients and Ph.D. honorees were recognized by name as they walked across the stage. The Ph.D. recipients were hooded either by their faculty advisers or by Sandra Bermann, chief marshal for University Convocations and the Cotsen Professor in the Humanities and professor of comparative literature. 

The 663 graduate degrees granted during this academic year include:

• 463 Doctor of Philosophy
• 34 Master of Architecture
• 11 Master of Engineering
• 37 Master in Finance
• 26 Master of Science in Engineering
• 68 Master in Public Affairs
• 24 Master in Public Policy

The colorful gowns and hoods of their academic regalia trace their history to medieval Europe, where heavy woolen robes were necessary in the cold stone halls of universities. Modern hoods distinguish the wearer both by rank and academic discipline. The silk lining inside the hood shows the colors of the university granting the Ph.D. — at Princeton, orange with a black chevron. The velvet band indicates the discipline.

“This is a very full-circle moment,” said Tavis Reed, a newly minted Ph.D. in quantitative and computational biology through Princeton's Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics (LSI). “I graduated college during COVID, so I didn’t have a graduation ceremony then. It’s very meaningful to be able to celebrate not only my Ph.D. but the closure to my academic career.” Reed was hooded by his adviser Olga Troyanskaya, a professor of computer science and LSI who directs the Princeton Precision Health Initiative.

Members of the faculty process to the platform, showing their colorful gowns and hoods. The silk lining inside the hood shows the colors of the university granting the Ph.D. — at Princeton, orange with a black chevron. The velvet band around the neck indicates the discipline.

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Matthew Raspanti, Office of Communications

At Princeton, every Ph.D. candidate works closely with one or more advisers. Priestley acknowledged the many faculty members who were there to hood their advisees and mentees. “Their presence reminds us that the journey to an advanced degree is only possible with the encouragement and guidance of a supportive faculty,” he said.

Gabriel Vecchi, Princeton’s Knox Taylor Professor of Geosciences and Professor in the High Meadows Environmental Institute, was there to hood two students in the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Program: Chenggong Wang and Benjamin Johnson.

Vecchi said that he enjoyed seeing students and colleagues in their colorful regalia. “The pomp and circumstance, in the rainbow of robes and hoods, helps make it magical,” said Vecchi, who is also the director of the High Meadows Environmental Institute. “Especially at a time like this, where we’ve been so focused on budgets and prosaic matters, it’s so important to take a moment that is a little poetic to really celebrate this amazing achievement, representing five years of effort.”

“Universities are magical places, places that enable transformative experiences and the generation of new and exciting ideas,” said Princeton University Provost Jennifer Rexford.

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Matthew Raspanti, Office of Communications

After being honored at Hooding, the Graduate School Class of 2025 formally received their degrees at Princeton’s 278th Commencement on Tuesday, May 27.

The Hooding and Recognition Ceremony also recognized the 2025 recipients of the Graduate Mentoring Awards, presented by Dean of the Faculty Gene Jarrett and Hendrik Lorenz, Professor of Philosophy and Vice Dean of the Graduate School. These awards annually recognize faculty members for their exceptional contributions as mentors to Princeton graduate students. 

This year’s winners are Elizabeth Margulis, professor of music; Arvind Narayanan, professor of computer science; Kristina Olson, professor of psychology; and Serguei Oushakine, professor of anthropology and Slavic languages and literatures. Narayanan and Olson received their awards in absentia.

“Universities are magical places, places that enable transformative experiences and the generation of new and exciting ideas,” Rexford said in her remarks. “We all have a responsibility to help the broader society appreciate how special these places are, and how much they contribute to making the world a better place — through the research we do and the students we mentor.”

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Matthew Raspanti, Office of Communications