The University will confer four honorary degrees at the 243rd Commencement, in addition to the honorary Doctor of Laws degree that will be awarded to Commencement speaker Robert E. Rubin.
Isabella Lugoski Karle, Ph.D., will receive an honorary Doctor of Science degree for changing the world of crystallography with her seminal contribution to X-ray crystal structure determinations. Karle is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Billie Jean King, will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. King dominated tennis for two decades, winning 20 Wimbledon titles, 13 U.S. Open titles, the French Open, the Australian Open and 20 Virginia Slims singles titles, and was instrumental in turning women's tennis into a major professional sport.
Gerda Lerner, Ph.D., will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. A founder of the field of women's history and of African-American women's history, she established the country's first graduate program in women's history, at Sarah Lawrence College, and built the premier Ph.D. program in African American women's history at the University of Wisconsin.
Earl R. Stadtman, Ph.D., will receive an honorary Doctor of Science degree for his pioneer work in the field of enzyme regulation, which led to more recent investigations in the basic biology of aging, including studies of the role of oxygen radicals and the mechanisms of repair in damaged cells. He is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Griffin Pitt, right, works with two other student researchers to test the conductivity, total dissolved solids, salinity, and temperature of water below a sand dam in Kenya.
Griffin Pitt’s upbringing made her passionate about water access and pollution, and Penn has given her the opportunity to explore these issues back home in North Carolina and abroad.
Helping robots work together to explore the Moon and Mars
Penn Engineers, NASA, and five other universities tested robotic systems designed to help unmanned explorers cooperate in the dunes of White Sands, New Mexico, paving the way for Moon and Mars exploration.
From framework to actions: Provost John L. Jackson Jr. talks Penn Forward
In a Q&A, Provost John L. Jackson Jr. explains the relationship between the strategic framework In Principle and Practice and Penn Forward—a new University-wide process and action plan that will advance Penn forward for the next decade and beyond.
