Naîve revelation

The head of my Ph.D. program is this spring's Distinguished Lecturer for my research institute, it turns out. Reading over the email announcement, I can't imagine what brought him to visit.

On April X the Y Institute presents Dr. Snafu Fubar of Shrdlu University as our Spring Distinguished Lecturer. Please help us welcome him.

9:00 – 10:30 AM
Room 666, [My building]
Dr. Fubar will be available for questions and informal conversations. He is excited to meet investigators and students and to learn about their research projects and plans. A light breakfast will be served.

11:00 – Noon
Auditorium,
Dr. Fubar presents our Distinguished Lecture, “(Title of His Recent Popular-audience Book.)”

There's no way that "he is excited to meet investigators and students and to learn about their research projects and plans." I doubt he even knows where I am. He walked away from me when I approached him and a group of people at our graduation party last June, looking at me without greeting. That must have been accidental, but it was eerie. Again, it's all inattention, not maliciousness.

Do they pay Distinguished Lecturers?