Leading writer, the CEOs of AMD and Adobe, and a tech industry investor to headline Presidential Lecture Series spring lineup

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — An exciting lineup featuring a bestselling science writer, the visionary chief executive officer of computer chipmaker AMD, the CEO of software company Adobe and a tech-industry pioneer will join Purdue University President Mung Chiang this semester as part of the Presidential Lecture Series and the university’s yearlong celebration coinciding with the United States’ 250th birthday.

First up for 2026 PLS events offered as part of Purdue’s marking of the nation’s 250th birthday is award-winning science writer, producer and documentarian Timothy Ferris on Thursday, Feb. 26. Spring semester PLS events also will feature AMD Chair and CEO Lisa Su on Monday, March 2; Adobe Chair and CEO Shantanu Narayen on Wednesday, March 25; and inventor and tech-industry pioneer Bruce Leak, who co-founded venture capital firm Playground Global, on Thursday, April 30.

Specific locations for the four PLS events, which are free and open to the public, will be announced later this semester.

Timothy Ferris

Feb. 26

Ferris is the author of a dozen books including “The Science of Liberty,” “Seeing in the Dark,” “The Whole Shebang” and “Coming of Age in the Milky Way,” which was translated into 15 languages and named by The New York Times as among the leading books published in the 20th century.

In his bestselling “Science of Liberty: Democracy, Reason, and the Laws of Nature,” published in 2010, Ferris highlights the pivotal role that science plays at the core of liberty and free expression and as a precursor to a liberal society while also advancing and promoting economic prosperity. His three documentary films — “The Creation of the Universe,” “Life Beyond Earth” and “Seeing in the Dark” — premiered in prime time on PBS.

A former newspaper reporter and editor of Rolling Stone magazine, Ferris has written over 200 articles and essays for major publications. He also produced the Voyager phonograph record, an artifact of human civilization containing music, sounds of Earth and encoded photographs launched aboard the twin Voyager interstellar spacecraft that’s now exiting the solar system. In addition, Ferris was among the journalists selected as candidates to fly aboard the space shuttle in 1986.

Called “the best popular science writer in the English language” by Christian Science Monitor, Ferris has received the American Institute of Physics’ science-writing prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship, and his works have been nominated for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. A fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Ferris has taught in five disciplines — astronomy, English, history, journalism and philosophy — at four universities. Currently, he is a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Lisa Su

March 2

As chair and CEO of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (known as AMD), Su has led the company’s transformation into the industry’s high-performance and adaptive computing leader. One of the most influential leaders in global technology, Su has helped solve the world’s most important challenges by delivering the next generation of computing and AI solutions.

Prior to serving as chair and CEO, she was AMD’s chief operating officer. Before joining AMD in January 2012 as senior vice president and general manager, global business units, she served as senior vice president and general manager of networking and multimedia at semiconductor manufacturing company Freescale Semiconductor Inc.

Su was Time’s 2024 CEO of the Year and has been recognized as one of Barron’s World’s Best CEOs and Fortune’s Most Powerful People in Business. She received the 2024 Bower Award for Business Leadership and the Distinguished Leadership Award from the Committee for Economic Development. Su is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.

She is a recipient of the Global Semiconductor Alliance’s Dr. Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award, and IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) recognized her with its highest semiconductor honor, the Robert N. Noyce Medal. She also is board chair of the Semiconductor Industry Association.

Born in Taiwan before her family moved to the United States when she was a child, Su earned three degrees in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Shantanu Narayen

March 25

As chair and CEO, Narayen has transformed Adobe into an industry innovator by pioneering a cloud-based subscription model for its creative software, establishing the global standard for digital documents, and creating and leading the explosive digital experience category.

Today, he’s driving the company’s AI agenda, delivering transformative innovations across creativity, productivity and customer experience and democratizing Adobe products to more users. Under Narayen’s leadership, Adobe has achieved record revenue and industry recognition for its inclusive, innovative and award-winning culture.

Narayen joined Adobe in 1998 as vice president and general manager of its engineering technology group. He became president and chief operating officer in 2005, CEO in 2007, and chair of the board in 2017. He has been recognized by several publications as one of the world’s leading executives, including Barron’s World’s Best CEOs and Fortune Businessperson of the Year lists, and named a Top CEO by Glassdoor based on employee feedback.

Before joining Adobe, Narayen held product development roles at Apple and Silicon Graphics. He also cofounded the early photo-sharing startup Pictra.

Narayen, who holds five patents, has a bachelor’s degree in electronics engineering from Osmania University in Hyderabad, India; a master’s degree in computer science from Bowling Green State University; and a master’s degree in business administration from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

Bruce Leak

April 30

A multimedia pioneer, engineer, founder and investor, Leak is a co-founder of Playground Global, a deep tech venture capital firm backing the most technically ambitious founders of our generation — those working at the edge of engineering and sciences.

With a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University, Leak spent two summer internships at Microsoft, where he tested an early prototype of Microsoft Word for the original IBM PC and later worked on initial versions of Microsoft’s Macintosh applications. His first full-time role was with Apple Computer, where he led the company’s efforts on 32-bit Color QuickDraw, which became the foundation of true color display on Mac screens and sparked the birth of QuickTime.

He later was recruited by Steve Perlman to General Magic, where he focused on building a color version of the operating system platform for gaming. In 1993, he joined forces with Peter Barrett and Steve Blank to form Rocket Science Games, where he led a team of developers to build the gaming platform.

His next venture was WebTV, which he founded with two General Magic alumni, Perlman and Phil Goldman. WebTV was acquired by Microsoft and the company went on to ship the first DVR products for EchoStar and DirecTV. After launching several startups selling technology and services to mobile phone operators and automotive original equipment manufacturers and traveling the world, he co-founded Playground Global in 2015.

About the Presidential Lecture Series

Launched in 2014 by then-Purdue President Mitch Daniels and continued by President Mung Chiang, the Presidential Lecture Series exposes Purdue students and the broader community to inspiring ideas, courageous leadership, and models of civic engagement and civil discourse. The Presidential Lecture Series has had dozens of guests of many viewpoints and perspectives and hosted some of the great intellectual, business and civic leaders of our time. As one of the world’s premier centers of scholarly leadership, Purdue is — appropriately and necessarily — a regular venue for great thinkers across a wide variety of disciplines.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a public research university leading with excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities in the United States, Purdue discovers, disseminates and deploys knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 106,000 students study at Purdue across multiple campuses, locations and modalities, including more than 57,000 at our main campus locations in West Lafayette and Indianapolis. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue’s main campus has frozen tuition 14 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap — including its integrated, comprehensive Indianapolis urban expansion; the Mitch Daniels School of Business; Purdue Computes; and the One Health initiative — at https://www.purdue.edu/president/strategic-initiatives.