2025 College of Arts & Sciences Graduation Speakers

Michael Platt, James S. Riepe University Professor, will speak at this year’s graduation ceremony for the University of Pennsylvania College of Arts & Sciences. Joining him will be student speaker Anthony Wong, C’25. The event will take place on Sunday, May 18, at 6:30 p.m. on Franklin Field.

Platt, who has appointments in the School of Arts & Sciences, the School of Medicine, and Wharton, is known for asking some of the most challenging questions in neuroscience and conceiving innovative ways to find the answers. Working at the intersection of economics, psychology, and neuroscience, his principal research focuses on the biological mechanisms that underlie decision-making in social environments.

Platt earned his PhD from Penn in biological anthropology, returning to the University two decades later following positions at top-tier institutions including Duke University, where he ran the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences and the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. At Penn, where he directs the Platt Labs and the Wharton Neuroscience Initiative, he aims to create pathways to new knowledge and apply it in ways that influence health and business outcomes for individuals and populations around the world.

Wong is an urban studies major and Hispanic studies minor from the San Francisco Bay Area. With a passion for law and public speaking, he serves as the president of Penn Mock Trial, a 40-person trial advocacy team. In 2024, he represented Penn at the highest level of collegiate mock trial, competing at the American Mock Trial Association’s National Championship Tournament in Chicago. He mentors students as a Peer Writing Fellow and tutor at the Marks Family Center for Excellence in Writing, for which he presented research at the National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing in 2023.

With a deep commitment to the Penn community, Wong serves as a tour guide and former Engagement & Access Chair of the Kite and Key Society. Through weekly tours over the past four years, he personally welcomed to campus thousands of prospective Quakers and their families. Wong is passionate about urban issues, transportation, and improving city life through law and policy—having interned at SEPTA, Verizon, and the California State Assembly. After graduation, he intends to take a gap year before pursuing a Juris Doctor and a career in law.