Six receive honorary degrees from Harvard – Harvard – Harvard Gazette

Harvard presented six honorary degrees at Thursday’s launch ceremony at the Tercentenary Theater.

Doctor of Science

Jennifer Doudna has dedicated her career to understanding the molecular structure of RNA and thereby improving the human condition. Together with Emmanuelle Charpentier, she received the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her pioneering work on CRISPR-Cas9, a high-precision technology that enables targeted genome modifications, with widespread applications in biology and medicine. Raised in Hawaii, she earned her BA from Pomona College and her Ph.D. from Harvard. She served on the Yale faculty until 2002, when she moved to the University of California, Berkeley, where she is Chancellor Li Ka Shing’s professor of biomedical and health sciences; professor of biochemistry, biophysics and structural biology; and a researcher from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She is one of the founders of the Innovative Genomics Institute, which deploys genome engineering to solve problems in health, climate and agriculture. His many accolades include the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, the Gruber Genetics Prize, the Canada Gairdner International Award, the Japan Prize, the Kavli Prize in Nanoscience, and the Wolf Prize in Medicine. She is co-author of “A Crack in Creation”, a personal account of her research and the social and ethical implications of gene editing.

Doctor of Arts

Tom Hanks is a renowned actor, producer, screenwriter, director and humanitarian, affectionately known as “America’s Father”. A Hollywood icon, he’s appeared in numerous films over more than four decades, including romantic comedies, gripping dramas and everything in between. His credits include Oscar-winning roles in consecutive years in “Philadelphia” and “Forrest Gump,” as well as award-winning performances in “Apollo 13,” “Cast Away,” “Saving Private Ryan,” “Sully,” and ” La Poste”, among many others. He is also an acclaimed producer of films and television series, including the Emmy-winning miniseries “From the Earth to the Moon”, “Band of Brothers” and “The Pacific A dedicated philanthropist, he has helped raise funds for AIDS and cancer research, space exploration, and the National World War II Memorial, among other causes. He is campaign chairman of Hidden Heroes, which supports the work of military caregivers to veterans.His honors include the Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute, the Cecil B. DeMille Award from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a Kennedy Center Honor, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. is the author of a collection of short stories, “Uncommon Type”, and a new novel, “The Making of Another Motion Picture Masterpiece”.

Doctor of Science

An intrepid biochemist fascinated by the therapeutic potential of messenger RNA, Katalin Karikó is a professor at the University of Szeged and an assistant professor of neurosurgery at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Originally from Hungary, she obtained her baccalaureate and her doctorate. from the University of Szeged. She worked at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences before immigrating to the United States, where she later joined the Perelman School of Medicine to study how RNA could activate the immune system. With Drew Weissman, she discovered how to engineer mRNA so that it could be used to produce desired proteins after being introduced into mammalian cells. This innovation propelled the COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna and holds promise for the treatment of many other diseases. One of Time’s 2021 “Heroines of the Year” and Carnegie Corporation of New York’s “Great Immigrants” of 2021, she received the Japan Prize, Canada Gairdner International Award, Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, and the Kovalenko Medal from the National Academy of Sciences. She was senior vice president of BioNTech from 2013 to 2022.

doctor of law

Distinguished historian and biographer, David Levering Lewis is a professor at Julius Silver University Skilled at New York University. He is best known for his masterful two-volume biography of sociologist, author, and civil rights activist WEB Du Bois. Each of the volumes won a Pulitzer Prize; the former also received the Bancroft Prize and the Francis Parkman Prize. His broad expertise encompasses the social history of the 20th century United States, 19th century Africa, 20th century France, and the Muslim Iberian Peninsula. His books include biographies of Martin Luther King Jr. and Wendell Willkie, as well as works on the Dreyfus affair, the Harlem Renaissance, European colonialism and African resistance, Islam and the construction of Europe. A graduate of Fisk University (BA), Columbia University (MA), and the London School of Economics (Ph.D.), he became Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of History at the University Rutgers, where he served for nearly two decades before moving to NYU. A former president of the Society of American Historians and a former MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellow, he has received the International Organization of Biographers’ highest honor and the National Medal of Humanities.

Doctor of Human Letters

Hugo Morales is a pioneering figure in public broadcasting and a longtime advocate for uplifting marginalized voices. He is executive director of Radio Bilingüe, which he founded in 1976 in Fresno, California, with farm workers, community activists and others. Radio Bilingüe, the National Latino Public Radio Network, includes many public radio stations in California and the Southwestern United States, as well as many affiliate stations in the United States and Mexico. It produces and offers news and debate programs as well as musical and cultural programs intended in particular for traditionally underserved audiences. An indigenous Mixtec immigrant from Oaxaca, Mexico who grew up working in the agricultural fields of California, he earned his AB and JD degrees from Harvard. As a student, he was one of the founders of Harvard-Radcliffe RAZA and started an innovative bilingual Chicano-Boricua radio show on WHRB. Co-founder of the Central California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, former trustee of California State University, and former MacArthur Scholar, recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Arts’ Bess Lomax Hawes National Heritage Fellowship and the Lannan Prize for Cultural Freedom.

doctor of law

Adm. Michael Mullen, US Navy (Retired), is a decorated military leader who served for 43 years, ultimately as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. As the country’s highest-ranking military officer from 2007 to 2011, serving under the presidents of both parties, he guided the armed forces through a critical period of transition. Among other things, he sought to mitigate a range of global security risks, advocated for international partnerships, advanced counterterrorism methods, and oversaw the end of the policy barring openly gay people from military service. lesbians and bisexuals. A graduate of the US Naval Academy and the Naval Postgraduate School, he held numerous leadership positions before becoming Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, including Vice Chief of Naval Operations, Commander US Naval Forces Europe, Commander of Allied Joint Force Command Naples and Chief of Naval Operations. Since retiring from the Navy, he has been a faculty member at the Naval Academy and Princeton University, president of MGM Consulting, and a member of the boards of organizations supporting veterans. and their families. His honors include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal and the Navy Distinguished Service Medal.