Fall 2024 Commencement Speakers
Graduate Ceremony
Robert C. Brown
Dr. Brown is Anson Marston Distinguished Professor in Engineering and Gary and Donna Hoover Chair in Mechanical Engineering at Iowa State University (ISU). He is the founding director and currently co-director of ISU’s Bioeconomy Institute. He holds courtesy appointments in Chemical and Biological Engineering, Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, and Food Science and Nutrition.
His research interests include advanced biofuels, plastics upcycling, and carbon negative energy. Dr. Brown has written over 300 scientific papers and has been awarded 26 U.S. patents. He wrote Biorenewable Resources: Engineering New Products from Agriculture, widely used as a textbook around the world.
Dr. Brown received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan State University in 1980. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering and a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. He received the Don Klass Award for Excellence in Thermochemical Conversion Science in 2015 and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Andrew Chase Division Award in 2020. He has developed twenty-six patented inventions, one of which received a R&D 100 Award from Research and Development Magazine in 1997.
Most recently, Dr. Brown established a brewing science program and brewing laboratory in the Food Science Dept. at ISU in 2021. The program offers course work to ISU students, outreach to Iowa breweries, and research and innovation in brewing science. Dr. Brown secured a native brewery license for the program, and has started wholesaling beer produced in a two-barrel brewhouse in the laboratory.
Undergraduate Ceremony
Kimberly K. Ryan
Kim Ryan is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Hillenbrand, Inc. (NYSE: HI), a global provider of highly engineered, mission-critical, processing equipment and systems to customers in over 100 countries. Since becoming CEO in 2021, she has overseen the Company’s business transformation and portfolio, which today includes leading brands in the durable plastics, food, and recycling industries. She has also served on the Board of Directors of various public and private organizations.
As CEO, Kim champions Hillenbrand’s Purpose to Shape What Matters For Tomorrow, uniting more than 10,000 global employees who are driven to innovate to meet the future needs of a world that’s continually changing.
Before becoming CEO, Kim served as President of Hillenbrand’s Coperion business headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, and its legacy business, Batesville Casket (divested in 2023), where she started her career.
Kim was raised in Ottumwa, Iowa, and received her Bachelor’s, Business Administration in accounting from Iowa State University in 1989. While at Iowa State, she served as president and treasurer of Alpha Phi, was active in business clubs, and worked as an auditor for a local hotel chain. Kim is a proud supporter of the Ivy College of Business and has served on the Dean’s Advisory Council since 2022.
Kim has been named to Cincinnati Magazine’s list of 300 Most Influential Business Leaders and the Indianapolis Business Journal’s Indiana 250 - Most Influential and Impactful Leaders for the past three years. Kim received the 2014 Women in Manufacturing STEP Award for excellence in manufacturing from the Manufacturing Institute and serves on the Board of Directors of the National Manufacturers Association. She received the Outstanding Alumni Award from Iowa State University in 2005.
She has been involved in community and not-for-profit organizations, including the Southeastern Indiana YMCA, Margaret Mary Hospital in Batesville, Indiana, the C.R.E.A.T.E. Technology Foundation, and advocates for the advancement of STEM educational programs and career opportunities for young women. Kim lives in Batesville, Indiana, with her husband. She has two grown children and is a proud grandmother.