Past commencement speakers
compiled by Michael McGraw-Herdeg
| Year | Date announced by The Tech | Commencement speaker and affiliation |
| 2010 | Mar. 16 | Raymond S. Stata, founder of Analog Devices |
| 2009 | Feb. 10 | Deval Patrick, Massachusetts Governor |
| 2008 | Dec. 7 | Muhammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner |
| 2007 | Mar. 13 | Charles M. Vest, professor of Mechanial Engineering (at the time) and former president of MIT |
| 2006 | Dec. 13 | Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of Federal Reserve Board |
| 2005 | Apr. 12 | Irwin Jacobs, co-founder/chairman/CEO of Qualcomm |
| 2004 | Mar. 9 | Elias Zerhouni, Director of NIH |
| 2003 | Apr. 1 | George Mitchell, former US Senator |
| 2002 | Feb. 26 | James Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank |
| 2001 | Mar. 23 | Daniel Goldin, NASA Administrator |
| 2000 | Mar. 14 | Carly Fiorina, President & CEO, Hewlett-Packard |
| 1999 | Apr. 2 | Tom & Ray Magliozzi, MIT alums and hosts of NPR’s “Car Talk” |
| 1998 | Feb. 24 | William Jefferson Clinton, US President, and David Ho, AIDS |
| 1997 | Jan. 29 | Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary-General |
| 1996 | Mar. 1 | Albert Gore, Vice President of the United States |
| 1995 | Apr. 21 | Hanna H. Gray, President Emeritus of the University of Chicago |
| 1994 | Feb. 15 | Karim Aga Khan IV, spiritual leader of the Shia Ismaili Muslims |
| 1993 | Jan. 13 | Carlos Salinas de Gortari, President of the United Mexican States |
| 1992 | Mar. 31 | Leslie Aspin, Congressman from Wisconsin; chairman of the House Armed Services Committee |
| 1991 | Mar. 13 | Walter E. Massey, director of the National Science Foundation |
| 1990 | Dec. 5 | Virgilio Barco, President of the Republic of Colombia |
| 1989 | Feb. 14 | Paul E. Tsongas, chairman of the Board of Regents of Higher Education of Massachusetts; former US Senator from Massachusetts |
| 1988 | Feb. 12 | A. Bartlett Giamatti, president of the National League of Professional Baseball Clubs; former president of Yale University |
| 1987 | Feb. 3 | Kenneth H. Olsen, founder and president of Digital Equipment Corp. |
| 1986 | Feb. 4 | William R. Hewlett, vice chairman of the board of directors, Hewlett-Packard. |
| 1985 | Jan. 23 | Lee A. Iacocca, chairman of the board and CEO, Chrysler Corp. |
| 1984 | Feb. 7 | Shirley Chisholm, former Congresswoman of Brooklyn, NY |
| 1983 | Feb. 8 | Helmut Schmidt, former Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany |
| 1982 | Mar. 5 | Katharine Graham, chairman of the board and CEO, Washington Post Co. |
| 1981 | Mar. 20 | Paul E. Gray, MIT president elected that academic year |
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