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uring six commencement ceremonies on May 10, 11, and 19, the University
of Miami is conferring honorary degrees to seven distinguished
individuals, representing such diverse disciplines as music, science,
law, mathematics, sociology, and international politics.
John Paul Corigliano
Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters
With his evocative
works written for theater, film, chamber groups, and orchestra,
arguably no other composer has done more to revive contemporary
interest in classical music than John Paul Corigliano.
Corigliano wrote his first symphony, an internationally
acclaimed tribute to his many colleagues and friends who died
of AIDS, during a stint as composer-in-residence at the Chicago
Symphony in the late 1980s. Symphony No. 1 earned him the
prestigious Grawemeyer Award from the University of Louisville
and two Grammy Awards in 1991, plus another Grammy in 1997 for
its CD recording, titled Of Rage and Remembrance.
Corigliano won an Academy Award in 2000 for
his dramatic soundtrack to The Red Violin, and in 2001
he won the Pulitzer Prize in Music for his Symphony No. 2—an
expansion and rewriting of String Quartet, the Cleveland
Quartet’s farewell commission which had earned him another
two Grammys in 1996. Corigliano also is known for The Ghosts
of Versailles, an uncanny love story between the ghosts of
Queen Marie Antoinette and Beaumarchais, author of The Barber
of Seville. He holds the position of Distinguished Professor
of Music at Lehman College of the City University of New York,
and in 1991 he was named to the faculty of the Juilliard School.
Ruth L. Kirschstein
Honorary Doctor of Science
Ruth L. Kirschstein
has dedicated her career to protecting the health of the American
public and to directing and guiding the national medical research
agenda. She recently completed more than a year as acting director
of the National Institutes of Health, after six years as deputy
director, and is known for creating countless opportunities for
women and other groups underrepresented in science.
Kirschstein’s research achievements are
legion. As a researcher in experimental pathology at the Division
of Biologics Standards (now the Center for Biologics Evaluation
and Research of the Food and Drug Administration), she helped
develop and refine tests to assure the safety of viral vaccines
for such diseases as polio, measles, and rubella. Her work on
polio led to selection of the Sabin vaccine for public use and
won her the Superior Service Award from the Department of Health,
Education, and Welfare in 1971.
In 1999 Kirschstein was presented the Alice
C. Evans Award by the American Society of Microbiology. She has
recruited women scientists, recommended them for peer review panels,
and supported their membership in the Institute of Medicine, to
which she was elected in 1982.
Alan S. Rabson
Honorary Doctor of Science
For decades Alan
S. Rabson has been a pioneer in the nation’s fight against
cancer. He has served as deputy director of the National Cancer
Institute at the National Institutes of Health since 1995. His
NIH career dates back to 1955 and includes 20 years as director
of the cancer institute’s Division of Cancer Biology, Diagnosis,
and Centers.
Author of, and contributor to, more than 180
articles in scientific journals, Rabson is renowned for first
demonstrating that latent herpes virus can reside in the trigeminal
ganglion, a collection of cells that innervate the face. This
discovery provided evidence that recurring herpes sores could
be caused by reactivation of latent viral infection, rather than
by reinfection. Rabson also demonstrated that human cells could
be simultaneously infected by two different DNA viruses, laying
the groundwork for other important discoveries in this field.
Rabson, who has received numerous awards and
honors, remains committed to education, holding clinical professorships
in pathology at Georgetown University Medical Center and George
Washington University in Washington, D.C., and at the Uniform-ed
Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland.
Stephen M. Schwebel
Honorary Doctor of Laws
Stephen M. Schwebel
had the world on his shoulders. From 1981 to 2000 he served as
a judge on the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the
Netherlands. As president of the ICJ from 1997 to 2000 immediately
following a three-year vice-presidency, Schwebel oversaw many
landmark cases in one of the most tumultuous eras of intergovernmental
disputes.
Schwebel worked tirelessly to build confidence
in the court and to position it as a resource for nations at odds.
In addition to mediating disputes, the ICJ under Schwebel underscored
the importance of conquering barbarism. Bosnia and Herzegovina
versus the former Yugoslavia, the explosion of Pan Am Flight 103
over Lockerbie, Scotland, and Chile versus Augusto Pinochet were
some of the “crimes against humanity” cases on the docket
during Schwebel’s term.
After retiring from the ICJ, Schwebel went to
Johns Hopkins as a jurist-in-residence. He also serves as the
first president of the Administrative Tribunal of the International
Monetary Fund.
I. M. Singer
Honorary Doctor of Science
Not since Newton
has there been so much progress toward understanding the laws
of nature and the origins of the universe. I. M. Singer has triggered
a revolution in modern science by redefining conventional wisdom
in mathematics and by forging new connections between mathematics
and theoretical physics.
Singer has spent most of his professional career
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he is currently
an esteemed Institute Professor. He is perhaps best known for
the Index Theorem, which he developed with Michael Atiyah in the
1960s. A veritable landmark in 20th-century mathematics, the Atiyah-Singer
Index Theorem gave birth to the field of global analysis, an interdisciplinary
approach that unifies important topics in mathematics such as
analysis, topology, geometry, and algebra. It also serves as a
bridge between mathematics and many areas of science and engineering.
William Julius Wilson
Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters
It often has been
observed that racial discrimination is the basis for African-American
inner-city communities fraught with poverty and crime. But sociologist
William Julius Wilson stunned the nation by claiming that class
and economics play a greater role than race in shaping the ghettos
of America. First introduced in 1978 in his controversial book,
The Declining Significance of Race: Blacks and Changing American
Institutions, this postulate has since brought Wilson under
critical fire from liberals and conservatives alike. Yet, his
commitment to understanding the true roots of urban social ills
remains unfazed.
After receiving a Ph.D. in sociology and anthropology
from Washington State University, Wilson taught for six years
at the University of Massachusetts and spent the next 26 years
at the University of Chicago. There, he held the Lucy Flower Chair
in Urban Sociology and launched the Center for the Study of Urban
Inequality.
In 1996, the year Time magazine named
him one of the 25 most influential Americans, Wilson joined Harvard
University’s renowned John F. Kennedy School of Government
as the Malcolm Wiener Professor of Social Policy. In 1998 he received
the National Medal of Science and was named the Lewis P. and Linda
L. Geyser University Professor, a position that is the highest
professional distinction for a Harvard faculty member.
Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León
Honorary Doctor of Laws
Extraordinary
times call for extraordinary leaders, and there’s no better
example than former Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de
León. Campaign director for presidential candidate Luis
Donaldo Colosio, Zedillo triumphed over daunting challenges even
before taking office. After Colosio was assassinated in 1994,
Zedillo became his party’s candidate, winning the presidency
by a slim margin that year. During his six-year administration,
Zedillo boosted the country’s fledgling economy, fortified
relations with the United States, and gave Mexico its final push
toward democracy.
Zedillo earned his bachelor’s degree in
economics from Instituto Politécnico Nacional while working
at the National Army, the Navy Bank, and the President’s
Economic Policy Office. He continued his education abroad, ultimately
earning his Ph.D. in economics from Yale University. He entered
politics after spending ten years as an economist, deputy manager
of economic research, and deputy director at Banco de Mexico.
He served as secretary of economic programming and the budget
from 1988 until 1992 and secretary of education until 1993.
Much like his presidential election, Zedillo’s
exit from political office was monumental. Instead of selecting
the next PRI presidential candidate, he prompted the party to
hold its first presidential primary. Vicente Fox of the opposing
National Action Party ended PRI rule, signaling a healthy distribution
of power among different parties.
For more information on commencement
ceremonies, please call the Commencement Infoline at 305-284-5798,
or visit www.miami.edu/commencement2002.
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