Penn's 1998 Honorary Degree Recipients - Almanac, Vol. 44, No. 27, 03/31/98

		Penn's 1998 Honorary Degree Recipients From Notes of the Office of the Secretary Arlin M. Adams Impartial judge, committed citizen-volunteer, inspirational teacher, and the ideal Penn alumnus whom Benjamin Franklin characterized as "distinguished in abilities, serviceable in public stations, and an ornament to the country." From 1969 to 1986, Judge Adams served with distinction on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He continues to be called upon by Presidents, Governors, legislatures, and courts to handle investigations and disputes of the greatest sensitivity and public importance. He served from 1990 to 1995 as Independent Counsel to investigate influence peddling in the Department of Housing and Urban Development. In 1995 he was named permanent trustee in the New Era Foundation bankruptcy. Judge Adams received his undergraduate degree from Temple University in 1941 and his law degree from PennLaw in 1947, after naval service in the North Pacific from 1942 to 1945. After graduation he joined the Philadelphia firm of Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis. On retiring from the bench in 1986, he rejoined the firm, where he is currently of counsel. He is a past chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association, former president of the American Judicature Society, and served with distinction as chairman of the Commission for Supreme Court Fellows. He served as Secretary of Public Welfare for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from 1963-1966. He has also served as trustee of Bryn Mawr College, the Medical College of Pennsylvania, the German Marshall Trust, and the William Penn Foundation; chairman of the Board of Trustees of Albert Einstein Medical Center, Moss Rehabilitation Hospital, and the Fels Institute of State and Local Government; and chairman of the Advisory Board of the Bryn Mawr College School of Social Work. In 1993, he was elected president of the American Philosophical Society. An emeritus trustee of the University, Judge Adams has served as chairman of Penn's Law School Overseers, an adjunct member of the School's faculty, and a member of the Board of Advisors of the Center for Law and Economics, as well as a member of the Trustees' Academic, Honorary Degrees and University Responsibility committees. He also served on the Board of Advisors for the School of Social Work and the Wharton School. Recipient of numerous awards and honors, Judge Adams was awarded the University's Alumni Award of Merit in 1994. Most recently, he received the 1997 ,Philadelphia Award, annually presented to a Philadelphian in recognition of outstanding service to the community. President Jimmy Carter Thirty-ninth president of the United States, known as the Great Peace Maker. Whether negotiating a cease-fire in shell-shocked Sarajevo or building houses for the homeless in Appalachia, can be found at the helm of a vast array of humanitarian efforts. Embodies what the American public most admires in its leaders: integrity, honesty, ethics, and an unswerving commitment to making the world a better place. President Carter attended Georgia Southwestern College and the Georgia Institute of Technology and received a B.S. degree from the United States Naval Academy in 1946, followed by graduate work in nuclear physics at Union College. In 1953, on the death of his father, he resigned his commission and returned to Plains, Georgia, to manage the family business with his wife Rosalynn. He became governor of Georgia in 1970 and was elected president in 1976. Among many noteworthy accomplishments during his tenure, 1977 to 1981, were the Panama Canal treaties; the Camp David Accords; the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel; the SALT II treaty with the Soviet Union; establishment of diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China; major environmental protection legislation; and a comprehensive energy program conducted by a new Department of Energy. After leaving the White House, he and his wife founded The Carter Center in Atlanta Georgia in 1982. The non-partisan, non-profit Center became the institutional base for his continuing role in public life, monitoring democratic elections in Panama, Nicaragua, Haiti, Zambia, and other nations; leading the worldwide effort to eradicate Guinea worm disease which annually cripples more than 2 million Africans yearly; coordinating a multi-agency effort that increased the worldwide immunization rate for children from 20 to 80 percent; reducing famine in Africa by helping farmers increase crop yield fourfold; mediating conflicts in Haiti, North Korea, Bosnia, and the Middle East; and spearheading a grassroots urban revitalization program. President Carter is the author of twelve books, and his hands-on involvement as a volunteer and director for Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit organization that helps build homes for needy families in the U. S. and abroad, has helped bring the organization to national prominence and led thousands to volunteer their services. Rosalynn Carter Committed advocate and tireless activist on behalf of those least served who has worked unsparingly to improve the quality of life for people around the world; repudiates the myth of what it is that women do by the force of her powerful example and accomplishments. Mrs. Carter, who graduated from Georgia Southwestern College in 1946, was a key member of Jimmy Carter's campaigns for governor and for the presidency. As First Lady, Mrs. Carter used her role as honorary chair of the President's Commission on Mental Health as a bully pulpit to make mental health a top national priority. Her efforts were instrumental in the passage of the Mental Health Systems Act of 1980. Like Eleanor Roosevelt, Mrs. Carter redefined the role of First Lady: traveling the world as a special presidential envoy and bringing to the ear of the president first-hand accounts of the concerns of the American people. She continues to break new ground at The Carter Center as an advocate for mental health, issues of concern to woman and children, human rights, conflict resolution, and the empowerment of urban communities. The annual Rosalynn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy brings together leaders of the nation's mental health organizations to address critical issues. In 1991, she co-founded "Every Child by Two" to publicize the need for early childhood immunizations, and in 1988, she convened with three other former first ladies the "Women and the Constitution" conference. In addition to her work at The Carter Center and with Habitat for Humanity, Mrs. Carter has written three book; is currently a distinguished fellow at the Emory University Institute for Women's Studies' and is activewith the Rosalynn Carter Institute of Georgia Southwestern College, whose mission is to help family and professional caregivers. Among her many awards are Volunteer of the Decade Award from the National Mental Health Association; the Award of Merit for Support of the Equal Rights Amendment; and the Notre Dame Award for International Service. Francis S. Collins Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at NIH; the major contributor to the development of positional cloning (identifying the gene causing a human disease by its position in the human genome); has contributed at every step to the revolution in human genetics, from development of the novel technique of chromosome jumping to the specific identification of the cystic fibrosis gene, and later the neurofibromatosis gene. Dr. Collins received his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia, his doctorate from Yale University, and his medical degree from the University of North Carolina. From 1981 to 1984, he was a fellow in human genetics at Yale's School of Medicine. In 1984, he was recruited by the University of Michigan as an assistant professor of internal medicine and human genetics, and rose quickly to professor in 1991. Named Assistant Investigator to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Michigan in 1987, Dr. Collins was promoted to Investigator in 1991. In 1993 he accepted the position of Director of the National Center for Human Genome Research at the National Institutes of Health, where he directs a 15-year project to map and sequence all of the human DNA by the year 2005. Under Dr. Collins' leadership, the project is running ahead of schedule and under budget, and the Center became an Institute in 1977. Among his honors and awards are the Paul di Sant'Agnese Award of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (1989), the prestigious Gairdner Foundation Award (1990), and the Young Investigator Award of the American Federation for Clinical Research (1991). He was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 1991 and the National Academy of Sciences in 1993. His seminal research has resulted in numerous articles in the best journals, book chapters, monographs and the important textbook, Principles of Medical Genetics. In addition to his role as advocate for the significance of human genetics and genomics as it relates to human disease and ultimately to medical care, he has extensively concerned himself with the ethical, legal, and social implications of issues such as presymptomatic diagnostic genetic testing and genetic discrimination. Frank Moore Cross Hancock Professor of Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages, Emeritus; retired director of the Harvard Semitic Museum; world's foremost authority on the paleography, dating and textual criticism of the Dead Sea Scrolls; as interpreter of some of the most important scrolls, has revolutionized the understanding of Jewish history and the background of Christianity in late antiquity; teacher and mentor who has trained most of the current generation of authorities on the Scrolls. A graduate of Maryville College (A.B., 1942) and McCormick Theological Seminary (B.D., 1946), Dr. Cross received his doctoral degree in Semitic languages in 1950 from Johns Hopkins University. After teaching several years at his alma mater, McCormick Theological Seminary, he was appointed in 1957 to one of the most prestigious posts in his field: the Hancock Professorship of Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages at Harvard. He was also curator of the Harvard Semitic Museum, 1958 to 1961, and director from 1974 until his retirement. Long interested in archaeology, he served as archaeological director of Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem from 1963 to 1964; and from 1975 to 1979, he was principal investigator for the Harvard-Michigan expedition to Carthage. Author of more than 200 publications including the classic The Ancient Library of Qumran Modern Biblical Studies, one of the most informative and readable introductions to the Scrolls, Dr. Cross has been a Fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Institute for Advanced Study at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He is a member of the American Philosophical Society and has been president of the American Schools of Oriental Research and the Society of Biblical Literature. Alan Greenspan Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, America's "economic pacemaker,"dubbed the second most powerful person in the nation: "When Greenspan speaks, the whole world, especially money managers, listens." Determined to become a professional musician, Dr. Greenspan attended the Juilliard School in New York. After a year as clarinet and saxophone player in a swing band, he entered New York University, graduated summa cum laude in 1948, and went to work for the National Industrial Conference Board. On leave, he took an M.A. in economics from NYU in 1950 and entered a doctoral program at Columbia University. He withdrew from the program, owing to the imperatives of his newly organized consulting business. He eventually earned a Ph.D. in economics from NYU in 1977. From 1954 to 1974 and again from 1977 to 1987, he was chairman and president of Townsend-Greenspan & Co., Inc., an economic consulting firm in New York City. From 1974 to 1977, under President Ford, he was chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, and from 1981 to 1983 chairman of the National Commission on Social Security Reform. He first took office as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board in 1987 and has served in that post under three presidents. His third four-year term as Chairman will end June 2000. His previous Presidential appointments include the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, the Commission on Financial Structure and Regulation, the Commission on an All-Volunteer Armed Force, and the Task Force on Economic Growth. He also was a member of President Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board, and a consultant to the Congressional Budget Office. Dr. Greenspan has served as Chairman of the Conference of Business Economists, President and Fellow of the National Association of Business Economists, and Director of the National Economists Club. He holds honorary degrees from the Notre Dame, Wake Forest, Colgate, Hofstra, and Pace Universities. Other awards include the Thomas Jefferson Award, presented by the American Institute for Public Service, and election as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association. Jessye Norman Renowned artist, one of the world's reigning opera and concert singers; whether portraying operatic heroines, interpreting lieder, or appearing with the world's premier orchestras and conductors, she enthralls capacity audiences with an exquisite soprano called "a catalogue of all that is virtuous in singing." Born into a musical family in Augusta, Georgia, Miss Norman was a frequent performer at church, school, and community events. She began formal voice studies on full scholarship to Howard University. Graduating with honors in 1967, she completed a master's degree at the University of Michigan. In 1969, she won the prestigious Bavarian Radio's International Music Competition in Munich, Germany. Miss Norman's acclaimed operatic debut in 1970 as Elisabeth in Richard Wagner's Tannhauser for the Deutsche Opera Berlin marked the beginning of a brilliant operatic and concert career. She has performed to ovations in the great opera houses, concert halls and music festivals of the world, from La Scala, The Metropolitan Opera, and Covent Garden to the Salzburg Music Festival, the Tanglewood Festival, and the Hollywood Bowl. Miss Norman , a 1997 Kennedy Center honoree for lifetime achievement has a prolific recording catalog with more than fifty albums and several Grammy awards to her credit. President Mitterand awarded her the Legion of Honor. Also, in France, she was invested as Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. She has been named an honorary Ambassador to the United Nations. A member of London's Royal Academy of Music, Miss Norman holds honorary degrees from 29 colleges, universities and conservatories around the world including Howard, Michigan, Harvard, Yale, Edinburgh, Cambridge, and the Juilliard School of Music. Stanley B. Prusiner Professor of neurology and biochemistry and biophysics at the U.C. San Francisco; solo winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his discovery of an entirely new class of proteins called prions that are generally accepted as the infectious agent in "mad cow disease"and in human neuro-degenerative diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Elegant work on prions, once considered highly controversial, is now viewed as one of the major biomedical discoveries of recent years; pathbreaking research includes studies with a distinguished group of international collaborators that elucidate the biochemical and genetic basis for the prion diseases--diseases unique in being simultaneously transmissible and inheritable. Dr. Prusiner is a dual-degree graduate of Penn, with the B.A. cum laude from the College in 1964 and the M.D. in 1968. He spent his entire postgraduate career at UC San Francisco, starting as an intern in 1968-69 and as a neurology resident in 1972-74. Joining the faculty as assistant professor of neurology in 1974. he served variously in biochemistry and biophysics and in neurology; He became associate professor in 1980 and full professor in 1984. The Nobel Prize is the latest of many honors the world's scientific community has bestowed upon Dr. Prusiner for his innovative and brilliant research. Penn's School of Medicine was among the first to honor his work, presenting him with its Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1991. His later U.S. awards include the Potamkin Prize of the American Academy of Neurology (1991), the NIH's Christopher Columbus Quincentennial Discovery Award (1992), the Gairdner Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement in Medical Science (1993), and the Albert and Mary Lasker Award (1994). Awards in other nations include Germany's Paul Ehrlich Prize (1995), the Israel-based Wolf Prize (1996), and Japan's Keio International Award for Medical Science (1996). Dr. Prusiner was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1992 and to the Royal Society of London in 1996. Maurice Sendak Author and illustrator who has elevated children's literature to a high art form by creating a wild, delightful, and sometimes frightening, universe peopled by realistic child characters like Max and Ida. By taking children seriously and speaking even to their deepest fears and unlovely emotions, he has revolutionized the field and challenged long-held notions regarding the kind of content appropriate for children's literature. Maurice Sendak attended the Art Students' League in New York from 1949-1951 while working as a display artist for the famous toy store F.A.O. Schwartz. In 1952, the popular and critical success of A Hole Is To Dig written by Ruth Krauss quickly established him as an important illustrator. His decision to write and illustrate his own books has resulted in more than 80 books translated into more than a dozen languages for millions of delighted readers worldwide. The City and the University are equally delighted by his decision to make the Museum of the Rosenbach Foundation in Philadelphia the repository for his personal archives. The most-honored author-illustrator in the annals of children's literature, Mr. Sendak was the first American to receive the Hans Christian Andersen International Medal (1970). A short list of his other honors includes 19 New York Times Best Illustrated Book awards (1952-1984); three Art Books for Children awards (1973-1975); a Caldecott Medal (1964) and Lewis Carroll Shelf award (1964); New York Times Outstanding Book (1981); American Book Award (1982); Laura Ingalls Wilder Award (1983); and honorary degrees from Boston University (1977), the University of Southern Mississippi (1981) and Keene State College (1986). In 1997, he was awarded a National Medal of the Arts by President Clinton. He is a member of the Authors Guild and the Authors League of America, Since 1980, Mr. Sendak has been set and costume designer for numerous opera productions in the U.S. and Great Britain, and he is now artistic director of The Night Kitchen, a national children's theater which he co-founded in 1991. Almanac, Vol. 44, No. 27, March 31, 1998 FRONT PAGE \| CONTENTS \| JOB-OPS \| CRIMESTATS \| BETWEEN ISSUES \| BENCHMARKS \| APRIL at PENN \|