"Make a difference": Professor Matthew Disney delivers UF's 2026 summer commencement address

Matthew Disney, Ph.D., institute professor and chair of the Department of Chemistry at The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Research & Innovation, delivered the keynote speech at the Summer 2026 Commencement ceremonies held Aug. 7 and 8 at Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center. Here are his remarks as prepared for delivery.

President Bell, members of the Board of Trustees, faculty and staff, families and friends—and, most importantly, graduates: good morning, and congratulations!

President Bell, welcome to your first commencement at the University of Florida—and welcome to our community.

When I was asked to speak today, I asked AI to write my speech.

It gave me a bunch of clichés, delivered with enormous confidence.

I decided to write it myself.

That brings me to my first point.

We live in a rapidly changing world. AI can find information, summarize books, and provide answers. But it cannot decide which questions are worth asking. It cannot add your unique creativity, judgment, or humanity.

Humans are not going away as creators, problem-solvers, and generators of ideas anytime soon.

In my laboratory, AI can help us search enormous numbers of chemical structures. But it cannot look at a patient waiting for a medicine and decide which problem is worth a life's work. That still requires human judgment, creativity, and purpose.

Your willingness to learn—as demonstrated by your presence here today—will serve you well. In an ever-changing world, people who continue learning will adapt, thrive, and make the best use of new technology, just as they always have.

Commencement speakers are also expected to give advice.

I once heard Ada Yonath speak to a group of young scientists. She is the Nobel Prize-winning scientist whose work helped reveal the structure of the ribosome—the machine that makes every protein in your body.

A young scientist asked what advice she would give.

She replied,

"I have one piece of advice: Don't ask for advice."

She was right.

You know yourselves better than I do. You should have confidence in your ability to solve your own problems. You made it here. The best predictor of the future is the past. You have already shown what you are capable of by being here today.

So I am not going to tell you what to do.

Instead, I am simply going to share a few things I have learned as a fellow walker of the Earth.

You may find them useful.

Or not.

At heart, I am simply another person addicted to learning.

I have just been fortunate enough to turn that addiction into a career.

I lead a research laboratory at The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology.

Over the years, I have trained and worked with more than 130 students. Together, we have tried to create medicines for diseases that have no effective treatments.

I have also helped start biotechnology companies to turn discoveries from our laboratory into medicines for patients. Some of those discoveries have gone on to be developed by companies around the world.

Along the way, I learned an important lesson.

You can spend your life worrying about who gets the credit, or you can spend it trying to make a difference.

Make a difference.

Important problems are never solved in a straight line.

They are solved by curious people who refuse to quit.

Through all of this, I have failed far more often than I have succeeded.

That is simply how life works.

Most things you try fail.

Most ideas do not work the first time.

Some do not work the tenth time.

If you ask successful people the secret to their success, most will tell you some version of the same thing:

They learned how to fail.

Dust themselves off.

And try again.

Successful people are not those who never get knocked down.

They are the people who always get back up.

Failure alone does not teach you anything.

You must look at it honestly.

Ask why it happened.

Listen to criticism.

Change your approach.

Then try again.

That is what we call learning.

Some of the best lessons you will ever learn will come from failure.

I grew up in Baltimore, the sixth of seven children.

I attended the Catholic school at the end of my street, and I am grateful my parents made that choice. It gave us structure and helped protect us from some of the chaos around us.

But the most important educational decision I ever made was attending a large public research university—the University of Maryland.

Maryland, like UF, is a big, burly state school.

When I first arrived, I felt anonymous.

Like I was little more than my student ID number.

But that anonymity gave me the freedom to invent myself.

I met people from different socioeconomic, ethnic, religious, and political backgrounds.

They had experiences completely different from mine.

Being surrounded by those people expanded my world.

It helped me discover who I was, what I believed, and what I wanted to become.

I hope the University of Florida has done the same for you.

That is one of the greatest gifts of a public university.

It exposes you to people and ideas you might otherwise never encounter.

It gives you room to test your beliefs, your abilities, and yourself.

It also makes an extraordinary education available to people who otherwise might never have had the opportunity.

Public universities are among the great strengths of our country.

Never forget that.

And never forget your families, your friends, your teachers—or those pesky taxpayers—who helped make today possible.

UF has been your testing ground.

You encountered difficult problems.

You met unfamiliar people.

You succeeded.

You failed.

You adapted.

You kept going.

Today is proof that you succeeded.

The world will continue placing you in rooms with people unlike you and in front of problems without obvious answers.

Your education has prepared you to listen, adapt, and move forward.

What is the most valuable thing you have?

People give many answers.

I believe there is only one.

Time.

Those of us who have struggled with our health, watched someone we love struggle, or lost someone close to us understand this.

The one thing we can never make more of is time.

Once it is spent, it is gone forever.

Do not waste too much of it on worry, regret, or resentment.

Learn from the past.

Then look forward and decide what you will do next.

You may not need advice.

But you do need experience.

Experience teaches you what not to do.

We call those mistakes.

They become lessons only if we learn from them.

Make mistakes.

Just do not waste them.

One final lesson.

The best ability is availability.

Show up.

Be dependable.

Be there when people need you.

It is remarkable how often success belongs to the person who simply keeps showing up.

And remember this:

Ideas matter.

But unfinished ideas help no one.

Starting is exciting.

Finishing is harder.

Finish what you start.

Your degree does not mean you know everything.

It proves something much more valuable.

You know how to learn.

You know how to work.

You know how to persist toward a difficult goal.

That should give you confidence.

Do not fear a changing world.

You have already shown that you can learn, adapt, and thrive in one.

Finally, as America celebrates its 250th birthday, I have been reminded how fortunate we are.

I have traveled throughout the world, and one thing has always stood out to me. This country gives ordinary people extraordinary opportunities. Walk through any American city—or simply look around this audience—and you will see people with different accents, cultures, and backgrounds. Yet we have a remarkable ability to see one another first as fellow Americans.

Your beginning does not have to determine your ending. Education, hard work, and perseverance can change the course of a life. I know they changed mine.

Be grateful to everyone who helped you reach this moment—your families, friends, teachers, mentors, and the faculty and staff of this university.

Be grateful as well to the taxpayers who invested in your education and your future.

The best way to show that gratitude is to pay it forward.

Today, celebrate what you have accomplished.

Tomorrow, keep learning.

Use your time wisely.

Show up.

Finish what you start.

And use your talents to make life better for someone else.

Congratulations, Class of 2026.

Now go pay it forward.

The world needs you.

Disney is internationally recognized for pioneering the field of RNA-targeted small-molecule therapeutics, creating new approaches to drug discovery for diseases previously considered undruggable. His research has led to multiple biotechnology companies and therapeutic programs.