UB commencement ceremonies begin, will continue throughout May

Note: News media who plan to cover graduation ceremonies must be credentialed. To receive a credential, please contact Cory Nealon, director of media relations, at cmnealon@buffalo.edu.

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Some 6,066 students are candidates to receive 7,407 degrees and certificates during University at Buffalo’s 2026 commencement ceremonies being held today through May 17.

Commencement season begins this afternoon with the ceremony for students graduating from the MD program in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and from the School of Dental Medicine.

The Jacobs School’s ceremony, its 180th annual commencement ceremony, will take place at 1 p.m. in the Center for the Arts. Delivering remarks will be Monica Bertagnolli, former director of the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute, and president-elect of the National Academy of Medicine. President Satish K. Tripathi will confer degrees.

Tripathi will present the UB President’s Medal to Allison Brashear, vice president for health sciences and dean of the Jacobs School; Mary McLean Wilson, board chair and a life trustee of the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation, will receive a SUNY honorary degree.

Later today, the School of Dental Medicine’s commencement ceremony will take place at 5 p.m. in the Center for the Arts. Lisa A. Tedesco, vice provost emerita, dean emerita and professor emerita at Emory University, will be the featured speaker. Tripathi will confer degrees.

All told, UB will have conferred more than 9,600 degrees and certificates during the 2025-26 academic year, including more than 3,600 degrees and certificates awarded to students during the summer and fall of 2025. 

The remainder of the spring commencement schedule:

• School of Public Health and Health Professions: 5 p.m., May 14, Broadview Arena. The speaker will be James McDonald, New York State health commissioner. Tripathi will confer degrees. Washington University epidemiologist Graham A. Colditz will receive a SUNY honorary degree.
• Graduate School of Education: 9 a.m., May 15, Broadview Arena. No speaker is planned. Provost A. Scott Weber will confer degrees.
• School of Nursing: 9 a.m., May 15, Center for the Arts. The featured speaker will be Kimberly Ennis, MS ’07, BS ’05, vice president for nursing and patient care services, NYU Langone Health. Tripathi will confer degrees.
• School of Management (undergraduate): 1 p.m., May 15, Broadview Arena. The UB President’s Medal will be presented to Gregory M. Bauer, chairman of the UB Foundation Board of Trustees. Tripathi will confer degrees.
• College of Arts and Sciences (graduate): 1 p.m., May 15, Center for the Arts. No speaker is planned. Weber will confer degrees.
• School of Management (graduate): 5 p.m., May 15, Broadview Arena. No speaker is planned. Weber will confer degrees.
• School of Architecture and Planning: 5 p.m., May 15, Center for the Arts. Ann Forsyth, Ruth and Frank Stanton Professor of Urban Planning, Harvard Graduate School of Design, will speak; Tripathi will confer degrees.
• School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (graduate 1): 9 a.m., May 16, Broadview Arena. No speaker is planned. Weber will confer degrees.
• School of Social Work: 9 a.m., May 16, Center for the Arts. The speaker will be Jillian Hanesworth, social justice spoken word artist and the first poet laureate of Buffalo. Tripathi will confer degrees.
• School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (graduate 2): 1 p.m., May 16, Broadview Arena. Tripathi will confer degrees and present the President’s Medal to Andrew Whittaker, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering.
• School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences: 1 p.m., May 16, Center for the Arts. Curtis Haas, chief pharmacy officer, University of Rochester Medical Center, will speak; Weber will confer degrees.
• School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (undergraduate): 5 p.m., May 16, Broadview Arena. Tripathi will confer degrees and present the President’s Medal to Provost A. Scott Weber. Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Marcus Yam will receive a SUNY honorary degree.
• College of Arts and Sciences (undergraduate arts, natural sciences and mathematics): 9 a.m., May 17, Broadview Arena. Tripathi will confer degree and receive the Chancellor Charles P. Norton Medal, UB’s highest honor.
• Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (undergraduate and graduate): 9 a.m., May 17, Center for the Arts. Delivering remarks will be Zhijian “James” Chen, professor, Department of Molecular Biology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and director, Center for Inflammation Research, UTS. Brashear will confer degrees.
• College of Arts and Sciences (undergraduate humanities and social sciences): 1 p.m., May 17, Broadview Arena. Weber will confer degrees.
• School of Law: 1 p.m., May 17, Center for the Arts. Gerald Whalen, presiding justice, Appellate Division, Fourth Department, will deliver remarks. Tripathi will confer degrees and present a SUNY honorary degree to Jonathan S. Beane, senior vice president for league leadership and inclusion, National Football League.

The university also is holding several university-wide celebrations honoring graduating students.

The Veterans and Military Cord Celebration, a special honor cord celebration recognizing veteran and military-connected graduates, took place April 29.

Other celebrations:

• Lavender Celebration, a university-wide celebration, open to all, centered around UB's LBGTQ+ community from all majors, levels of education, programs and backgrounds: 3 p.m., May 8, Drama Theatre, Center for the Arts.
• ALANA Celebration, a university-wide celebration, open to all, centering around the shared experiences of historically racially underrepresented cultures: 2 p.m., May 14, Center for the Arts.
• University Honors College, 7:30 p.m., May 14, Center for the Arts.
• Educational Opportunity Center, 5 p.m., May 20, Center for the Arts.