News Release

Johns Hopkins University Commencement on
May 22

Note: There will be a press section near the front of the tent, to the left of the stage.

About the Speakers

William R. Brody took office Aug. 26, 1996, as Hopkins' 13th president. He returned to Hopkins from the University of Minnesota, where he had been provost of the Academic Medical Center since 1994. Previously, he chaired a university-wide task force, the Committee for the 21st Century, that spent nearly two years examining how Johns Hopkins should refocus its efforts in light of new and foreseeable challenges.

G. Timothy Johnson is medical editor for ABC News and Entertainment. He also is founding editor of The Harvard Medical School Health Letter, co-author of The Harvard Medical School Health Letter Book and co-author--with former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop) of Let's Talk.

About the Graduating Class

The total number of earned degrees, certificates and diplomas awarded is expected to be 4,900, as follows:

About the Ceremonies

The university--and each of the eight academic divisions--holds a commencement event at which students receive their diplomas:

University-wide Commencement Ceremony
May 22, 1997
9:30 a.m., Upper Quad (between Library and Gilman Hall)
Speaker: Hopkins President William R. Brody
This is the ceremony at which all 1997 university degrees are conferred by the president of the university. The students who receive their diplomas on stage, however, are primarily doctoral recipients from the university's Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, the G.W.C Whiting School of Engineering, the School of Continuing Studies, the School of Public Health, the School of Nursing, Peabody Institute and the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. This ceremony also recognizes the new members of the Society of Scholars and is the occasion at which the university confers honorary degrees of doctor of humane letters.

This year's honorary degree recipients include:

The Right Honorable Lord Butterfield of Stechford: Former chairman of the Council of Governors of the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St. Thomas's Hospitals in England and well-known for his contributions to the understanding and treatment of diabetes.

Saul Aaron Kripke: Currently McCosh Professor of Philosophy at Princeton; his "Kripke models" for modal logic became part of the standard vocabulary of mathematical logicians after his first article appeared in 1963, when he was just 23 years old.

Johnnetta B. Cole: The first female African-American president of Spelman College, credited with creating a special environment on campus and for reaching out into the world Spelman graduates will meet.

William Fastie: A Baltimore native associated with Hopkins since 1934. For a man who has taught and conducted world-class research for dozens of years at Hopkins, this will be his first degree of any sort. Known as the father of the Hopkins space program, his legacy includes the invention, made public in 1952, of a spectrometer design small enough and rugged enough to withstand a rocket launch. This instrument, in turn, launched Hopkins' involvement with space exploration.

Pasqual Maragall: The mayor of Barcelona, Spain, widely, credited for reviving the city and then putting it on display for the world to see during the 1992 Summer Olympic Games.

Andre Watts: This Peabody alumnus is one of the best-known concert pianists of this century, bursting upon the scene in 1963 when Leonard Bernstein chose him--a 16-year-old unknown--to replace the ailing Glen Gould in performances of Liszt's E-flat Concerto with the New York Philharmonic. He has built one of the most successful concert careers in recent memory. He also has remained committed to a generous public life, which includes involvement in the organization Classical Action: Performing Arts Against AIDS; the organization has brought new funds to AIDS services in communities around the country.

Undergraduate Diploma Award Ceremony
May 22, 1997
2:30 p.m., Gilman Quadrangle (between Library and Gilman Hall)
Speaker: G. Timothy Johnson, M.D.
This is the ceremony at which the seniors from the schools of Arts and Sciences (621) and Engineering (220), who officially graduated when degrees were conferred in the morning ceremony, cross the stage to receive their diplomas.

G.W.C. Whiting School of Engineering Master's Diploma Award Ceremony
May 21, 1997
7 p.m., Gilman Quadrangle
Speaker: Frank L. Hubbard, executive director, American Society for Engineering Education.

Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences Master's Diploma Award Ceremony
May 22, 1997
6:30 p.m., Shriver Hall
Speaker: Joel Achenbach, editor, writer, syndicated columnist for the Washington Post

School of Continuing Studies Graduate Diploma Award Ceremony
May 22, 1997
7:30 p.m., Gilman Quadrangle
Speaker: Christian Poindexter, CEO of Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.

School of Hygiene and Public Health Diploma Award Ceremony
May 21, 1997
2 p.m., Shriver Hall
Speaker: Charles Clements, M.D., president, Physicians for Human Rights.

School of Medicine Diploma Award Ceremony
May 21, 1997
1 p.m., Kraushaar Auditorium, Goucher College, Baltimore
Speaker: Mary Ellen Avery, Thomas Morgan Rotch Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and physician-in-chief emeritus of Children's Hospital, Boston, Mass.

Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies Diploma Award Ceremony
May 22, 1997
3 p.m., Lincoln Theater,Washington, D.C.
Speaker: Hillary Rodham Clinton, first lady of the United States.

Peabody Diploma Award Cremony
May 22, 1997
8 p.m., Miriam A. Friedberg Concert Hall, Peabody Conservatory
Speaker: Barry Tuckwell, French horn virtuoso; Tuckwell, along with Jacques Schlenger, outgoing chairman of the Peabody Advisory Council, will receive the George Peabody Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Music in America.

School of Nursing Diploma Award Ceremony
May 22, 1997
4 p.m., Turner Auditorium, School of Medicine
Speaker: Diane Carlson Evans, R.N., founder of the Vietnam Women's Memorial Project, Washington, D.C.