J. Craig Venter has an insatiable thirst for knowledge.

‘I’m 64 now, and I’m learning just as much, if not more, each year than when I was in college,’ he said.

Venter said he hopes to share some of his knowledge and love of learning with this year’s graduating class.

As the 2011 commencement speaker, he will address graduates from Syracuse University, the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry and the SU College of Law on Sunday in the Carrier Dome. This year will be SU’s 157th Commencement, but the first time College of Law graduates will be joining SU and ESF graduates in one commencement ceremony.

Venter, a world-renowned scientist in the field of genetics, said he learned how important getting an education was during his time as a Navy corpsman in Vietnam. He realized the more knowledge he had the more lives he could save and, in turn, the more beneficial he would be to his country.

After his tour of duty was completed in 1968, Venter began his formal higher education at the University of California San Diego where he was introduced to some famous scientists and made a few early breakthroughs, he said.

Since earning a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry, and a doctorate in physiology and pharmacology, Venter has become the founder, chairman and president of the J. Craig Venter Institute, a nonprofit, research-based organization with more than 400 scientists dedicated to microbial, human, plant and environmental genomic research. Last year, Venter announced the creation of the first, self-replicating synthetic bacterial cell.

Venter said his job is one of the best in the world because he gets to satisfy his intense curiosity by asking questions about life — doing studies to figure out what it is, how to define it, and even how to create it, like he and his team did in May 2010.

‘I’ve been able to sail around the world sampling the diversity of life, making discoveries that will hopefully benefit humanity in lots of different ways — and I get paid for that,’ he said.

In 1992, Venter founded The Institute for Genomic Research, a nonprofit research institute. He and his team decoded the genome of the first free-living organism at the institute in 1995, according to the commencement website.

In 2006, several organizations, including The Institute for Genomic Research, merged into the J. Craig Venter Institute, according to the its website.

Venter has published more than 250 research articles and has received many awards and honors for his work. Venter won the 2008 United States National Medal of Science and the 2002 Gairdner Foundation International Award, according to the website.

And in 2007, Venter was the first person to have his complete genome decoded — all 6 billion letters of it. This led his team to a better understanding of human variation and how to predict and prevent diseases, he said. Venter wrote the book ‘A Life Decoded’ about the genetic findings.

Venter said he predicts everyone in this generation and in future generations will have their genome decoded to try and predict which diseases they might be susceptible to, to take preventative measures against them.

Venter said he hopes to leave the graduates thinking about what their generation can do to develop new technologies through science so people are fed but the planet isn’t permanently destroyed.

‘We are in a world that’s 100 percent dependent on science for our future,’ Venter said. ‘The challenges for the students graduating are some of the biggest challenges ever faced by people, starting with a new education.’

Venter has been recognized by Time magazine as one of the most influential people in the world, but he said he can’t attribute all his success to one specific quality. He wants graduates to know that it’s fine to take risks and be curious because that has helped him along the way.

‘I’ve taken a lot of risks that probably a lot of people wouldn’t have taken,’ Venter said. ‘But have been successful because of that.’

Ramesh Raina, associate professor of biology at SU, said Venter is an exceptional choice for this year’s commencement speaker because his research is relevant, even to non-science majors. Raina said he expects Venter to discuss some of his work in energy efficiency and the creation of life because those topics affect everyone.

The selection process for a commencement speaker begins more than a year in advance and allows students, staff, faculty, alumni and Syracuse community members to offer suggestions. The official speaker selection committee, which is made of students, then takes the submitted names and creates a shorter list of speakers to present to the chancellor. The chancellor makes the final decision based on the candidate’s relevance to SU, availability and cost, according to the commencement website.

Kevin Hirst, class marshal from the Martin J. Whitman School of Management and senior marketing management and television, radio and film major, said the committee presented a list of 14 candidates to Chancellor Nancy Cantor last spring. She then chose Venter to speak at commencement.

‘When choosing a speaker you can never please everyone, but I think the chancellor did a great job in finding someone that really transcends beyond just the science field into a variety of academic disciplines,’ Hirst said.

While Venter wasn’t Hirst’s first choice as a commencement speaker, he said Venter is an extremely versatile person in that he acts as an entrepreneur and a humanitarian.

‘If you look at him as more than just a scientist, you can discover that he has a wealth of knowledge he can offer to our graduating class,’ he said.

Matt Butler, a senior information management and technology major, said there is no one he would have been happier with as the commencement speaker than Venter.

‘I understand the appeal of a celebrity, but I’m glad that it’s someone so well-respected in academia and that we have someone that can teach us something new,’ he said.

Venter has spoken previously with standing room only at SU in November 2008 at the dedication of the Life Sciences Complex, according to a Nov. 10, 2008 article in The Daily Orange. Venter said he gives one or two commencement addresses each year and turned down other universities to speak at SU.

‘Your education doesn’t end in college,’ Venter said. ‘You learn how to learn in college, and that’s the beginning of the future.’

egsawyer@syr.edu

Published on May 10, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Liz: egsawyer@syr.edu | @3sawyer