An expected 1,788 undergraduates will receive their degrees Sunday, including more than 320 from North Carolina.

Commencement tickets are free but mandatory, and available here. Graduates will be required to present a student ID and must be dressed in academic apparel to enter the stadium.

The ceremony will also serve as the culmination of Duke’s Centennial celebration, and will mark the 100th anniversary of Duke’s first graduating class. 

While Duke’s Sunday commencement ceremony is the signature event of graduation weekend, it follows several days of smaller events celebrating graduates of individual schools, programs and campus groups.

Duke will stream the event live on the university’s YouTube channel. Follow Duke’s social media platforms to keep up with commencement and contribute to the conversation.

Two students will give remarks as well. The undergraduate speaker will be Danica Bajaj, a Robertson Scholar majoring in computer science and minoring in philosophy. Her graduate student counterpart will be Lucas Vaughan, who will receive a master of international development policy as well as a certificate in Middle East Studies. He will also be commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army.

Duke will also award three honorary degrees Sunday. The recipients are:

• Rebecca Buckley, a professor of pediatrics.  In a career at Duke spanning six decades, Buckley helped transform pediatric medicine. Among her chief contributions, Buckley developed a successful treatment for babies with severe combined immunodeficiency, which is also known as “bubble boy disease.”

Buckley, of Hamlet, N.C., earned a bachelor’s degree from Duke in 1954. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, Buckley was a Duke faculty member for 64 years before retiring in 2022. She will receive an honorary doctor of science degree Sunday.

• David Robinson II, who in 1961 became one of the first three Black students to attend Duke University. He joined fellow law student Walter T. Johnson Jr., and divinity student R.L. Speaks; two years later, Duke’s undergraduate program was integrated.

After graduation from Duke, Robinson because the first African American attorney to join the legal division in the Federal Reserve before accepting a position at Xerox Corporation in Rochester, N.Y., where he was the first Black attorney hired in the Office of the General Counsel. He later served as the first general counsel to the Eleventh Judicial Court of Florida. He will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree Sunday.

• Feng Zhang, a biochemist, has been at the forefront of two breakthroughs in using technology to improve medical research – optogenetics and CRISPR-Cas9-based gene editing. Zhang is a core member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, an investigator at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, the James and Patricia Poitras Professor of Neuroscience at MIT, and a Howard Hughes Medical Investigator.

His gene editing work has helped researchers make precise changes to DNA in living cells. Another of his advances led to a treatment of sickle cell disease. He will receive an honorary doctor of science degree.

There is ample general parking available in close proximity to Wallace Wade Stadium. The majority of parking will be available in the Science Drive Parking Garage located at 3100 Cameron Blvd, Durham, 27708.  Graduates should park and drop-off in Blue-Zone, located at 2300 Duke University Rd, Durham, 27705, as this will be closer to the Football Practice Field.  Additional guest parking will be available in Blue Zone, PGIV & Chemistry Lot. 

The Grounds Lot will be reserved for guests with mobility impairments. Overflow parking will be located in the Science Drive Garage on Level 2. Both of these lots may be accessed via NC 751. ADA vans will be available to transport guests with mobility issues from these areas to the respective entrances to Wallace Wade Stadium.

Individual professional schools and programs will hold their own graduation ceremonies all weekend as well. More information on those celebrations is available on Duke’s commencement website.

DEGREES TO BE CONFERRED

Duke will award degrees to about 1,788 undergraduates and 5,111 graduate and professional students who finished their course work in September or December 2024 or this spring.

Among undergraduates receiving their degrees Sunday, 328 are from North Carolina.

The estimated degree breakdowns for the graduates are as follows:

UNDERGRADUATE DEGREES:

• Trinity College of Arts & Sciences -- B.A. 651; B.S. 798.
• Pratt School of Engineering -- B.S.E. 339.

GRADUATE AND PROFESSIONAL DEGREES:

• School of Nursing -- M.S.N. 252; D.N.P. 72; B.S.N: 138.
• Duke Divinity School -- M.Div. 119; Th.M. 14; M.T.S. 29; M.A.C.P. 17; Th.D. 6; D.Min. 26.
• Fuqua School of Business -- MBA 639; MSQM 361; M.M.S. – 259.
• Graduate School -- M.A. 205; M.S. 426; M.F.A. 17; M.A.T. 9; Ph.D. 419.
• School of Law -- J.D. 232; LL.M. 121.
• Nicholas School of the Environment -- M.E.M. 150; M.F. 10.
• Pratt School of Engineering -- M.Eng.M. 228; M.Eng. 213.
• Sanford School of Public Policy -- M.I.D.P. 26; M.P.P. 102; M.N.S.P. 20.
• School of Medicine -- M.D. 124; M.H.S. 99; M.H.S.-R 17; D.P.T. 99; M.B.S. 49; M.M.C.I. 37; M.S.B.S. 38.