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PETER R. ORSZAG, PH.D., a noted economist, the 37th director of the Office of Management and Budget, and a member of President Obama’s Cabinet, will deliver the 2010 Commencement Address. At 41, he is the youngest Cabinet member in the Obama administration. Prior to his Cabinet appointment, Dr. Orszag was director of the Congressional Budget Office. He was the Joseph A. Pechman Senior Fellow and deputy director of economic studies at the Brookings Institution. Under President Clinton, Dr. Orszag served as Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, and as senior economist and senior adviser on the Council of Economic Advisers. |
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ROBERT S. LANGER, SC.D., a renowned biotechnology pioneer, was born in Albany, N.Y. He is the Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His research laboratory at MIT, which has been called the largest biomedical engineering laboratory in the world, is responsible for key advances in the administration of drugs through the skin without needles or other invasive methods, and important tissue engineering breakthroughs. Dr. Langer is a prolific inventor and holds more than 750 patents. Among his many awards and distinctions are the National Medal of Science, the Charles Stark Draper Prize, and election to all three U.S. National Academies. |
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NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON, PH.D., director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, will open the Presidential Commencement Colloquy with a special presentation. Dr. Tyson is a leading voice in astrophysics and a champion of increased science literacy for the general public. He is the host of Nova ScienceNow on PBS, and his most recent books are the New York Times best-seller Death By Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries and The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet. |
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“We are pleased to have the opportunity to honor these four distinguished leaders. They will bring to our graduates and their families at Commencement noteworthy accomplishments in the diverse and critically important fields of economics and finance, biotechnology, astrophysics, and physiology and medicine.”
— President Shirley Ann Jackson
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HAROLD E. VARMUS, M.D., co-recipient of the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his pioneering studies of the genetic basis of cancer, is the president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City and currently serves as co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. He served as the director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, following a long career as a faculty researcher at University of California, San Francisco. A recipient of the National Medal of Science, and a member of the National Academy of Science and the Institute of Medicine, Dr. Varmus is a leading voice in the movement to promote sound science policy in American government. President Obama recently announced the appointment of Dr. Varmus to serve as Director of the National Cancer Institute. |
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SHIRLEY ANN JACKSON, PH.D., moderator, is the 18th president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Since taking office in 1999, she has led an extraordinary transformation of the university under the visionary Rensselaer Plan, including new platforms for education and research such as the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, the Computational Center for Nanotechnology Innovations, and the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center. A theoretical physicist, she chaired the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission from 1995 to 1999, and currently is a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Described as a “national treasure” by the National Science Board, she is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Philosophical Society, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and other professional societies, and a director or trustee on a number of prestigious boards. |
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This event is free and open to the public.
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