U.S. Secretary of Energy Dr. Ernest Moniz Is BC’s 2016 Commencement Speaker

The former MIT professor recently traded jabs with Donald Trump.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Dr. Ernest Moniz on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Tuesday Sept. 22, 2015 on the CBS Television Network. Photo: Jeffrey R. Staab/CBS ©2015 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved

U.S. Secretary of Energy Dr. Ernest Moniz on the ‘Late Show with Stephen Colbert’ Photo by Jeffrey R. Staab / CBS 

Boston College has named U.S. Secretary of Energy Dr. Ernest J. Moniz as its 2016 commencement speaker.

The ceremony is scheduled to take place at Alumni Stadium Chestnut Hill on Monday, May 23. Over 4,000 students will be in attendance, according to the Boston Globe.

Dr. Moniz, who graduated from BC with a bachelor’s degree in physics way back in 1966, joined President Barack Obama’s administration in 2013. The nuclear physicist and Fall River native was an integral part of the team which negotiated the recent Iran deal.

Prior to working with the White House, Dr. Moniz was a decorated faculty member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Recently, the former MIT professor traded jabs over the Iran deal with Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Trump, who’s been an outspoken critic of the agreement, offered to give Dr. Moniz a signed copy of his book, The Art of the Deal, while they were both guests on the late night show.

The Massachusetts-bred physicist had a pretty awesome response when he read Trump’s inscription on the air.

“To Ernest, better luck next time,” Dr. Moniz said as he read the note to Colbert and the audience. “Do you happen to have a copy of the Iran deal that I could sign?”

Joining Dr. Moniz at the commencement ceremony will be founding president of St. Boniface Haiti Foundation Nannette Canniff, managing director of Deutsche Asset and Wealth Management and chairman of the Boston College Club John Joyce, principal of St. Matthew Catholic School in Phoenix María Eugenia McGowan, and Uganda’s Our Lady of Fatima parish priest Rev. Emmanuel Mwerekande.