U.S. Secretary of Energy and Nobel laureate Steven Chu will be the headline speaker at Harvard's June 4 Commencement exercises, University officials announced Thursday morning.

The announcement highlighted Chu's role in pushing renewable energy and reducing carbon emissions, both as Energy Secretary and as an academic, and referenced Harvard's own recent efforts to promote sustainability and research to address environmental questions.

“Steven Chu is a brilliant scientist and an eloquent exponent of thoughtful, creative approaches to meeting the challenge of global climate change,” said University President Drew G. Faust in the press release. “His own career combines leadership at the forefront of both disciplinary and interdisciplinary science with a passionate devotion to education and to the public good. It will be a pleasure to welcome and hear from him on Commencement day.”

Chu graduated from the University of Rochester in 1970 before going on to receive a Ph.D from the University of California, Berkeley. He won a Nobel prize in 1997 for his work cooling atoms with laser lights.

He was confirmed for his cabinet post by the U.S. Senate in January. Chu had previously served as a head of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and as a professor at Stanford and Berkeley

The Harvard Alumni Association chooses the speaker.

—Check TheCrimson.com for updates throughout the day.