Hamilton to speak at Mississippi College’s May 2026 Bicentennial Commencement

During MC's Bicentennial Commencement, faculty and graduates will wear this commemorative medallion marking the University's 200th year.

Dr. Joseph H. Hamilton, a 1954 Mississippi College graduate and renowned nuclear physicist who was part of an international scientific team that discovered element 117 on the Periodic Table of the Elements, will serve as the speaker at MC’s Commencement on Friday, May 8, in the A.E. Wood Coliseum on the Clinton campus.

The degree ceremony for the School of Business; School of Christian Studies, Humanities and the Arts; School of Nursing; and Interdisciplinary Studies Program is scheduled for 10 a.m., while the degree ceremony for the School of Education and Human Sciences and the School of Science and Mathematics is scheduled for 2 p.m.

More than 500 students are expected to cross the stage and receive their degrees during the ceremonies.

Commencement will be a Bicentennial Celebration event for Mississippi College, which was established in 1826 by the Mississippi Legislature as Hampstead Academy and is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state.

Perhaps no one is more qualified to deliver the Commencement address in the University’s bicentennial year than Hamilton, who recently donated to MC’s archives a historic photo of his father and his classmates standing in front of Provine Chapel on the day of their graduation from MC in 1914. On Feb. 12, Hamilton participated in a modern recreation of the snapshot.

“I’m especially honored to give the graduation talk in the University’s bicentennial year. There are many people deserving of this honor, and I’m delighted to do that,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton is the coauthor of “Modern Atomic and Nuclear Physics,” a textbook used in college physics classes nationwide. As a distinguished physicist at Vanderbilt University, Hamilton and colleagues from Russia, Vanderbill, and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory discovered the super-heavy element 117 in 2010. Hamilton named the element “Tennessine,” which became the 26th addition to the Periodic Table since 1940.

Hamilton’s wife, Janelle, a 1959 MC graduate, will conduct the “Commencement call to order” by ringing the Hillman Bell seven times – six for the schools at Mississippi College and once for the University itself. Ellis Liddell, a 1980 MC graduate and co-chair of the Bicentennial Celebration Committee, will deliver the invocation at both ceremonies.

“It is an extreme honor to be a small part of such an historic event as celebrating one’s bicentennial year,” Liddell said. “To get the opportunity some 50 years after my first day on campus in 1976 to speak at the graduation ceremony is truly God in motion. My invocation prayer will center around the resilience of Mississippi College’s administration and its student community to pivot when the winds of change dictated over the past two centuries. This bicentennial serves as a shout-out to the world that we are ‘Stronger Together’ at MC.”

Thompson will highlight the University’s bicentennial during his remarks. As part of their regalia, all participating faculty and graduates will wear a commemorative medallion marking the University’s 200th year.

Grey Thompson, a graduating senior and MC Student Government Association president, will deliver the Benediction at the 10 a.m. ceremony. Martha D’Amico, MC associate professor of Teacher Education and Leadership and outgoing Faculty Senate president, will give the Benediction at the 2 p.m. ceremony.

To livestream MC’s Commencement, visit mc.edu/commencement/livestream. For more information about the ceremony, visit mc.edu/commencement/.