Contact: Kristin K. Anderson, University Relations, (517) 353-8819, ander284@msu.edu
4/27/2004
EAST LANSING. Mich. � Michigan State University�s commencement speakers and honorary degree recipients for 2004 are among the world�s and nation�s foremost leaders in the fields of foreign policy, economics, science and communications.
�We are privileged to have such distinguished leaders and scholars, including two of Time magazine�s 100 most powerful and influential individuals, who have served their nations and citizens of the world with distinction,� said MSU President Peter McPherson. �Their leadership abilities, contributions and service reflect the best traditions of a land-grant institution.�
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice will address approximately 6,000 undergraduate students at the undergraduate convocation ceremony at 1 p.m. Friday, May 7, at the Jack Breslin Student Events Center. She will receive an honorary doctor of humane letters.
Mike Kalis of Plymouth, a senior majoring in marketing in The Eli Broad College of Business, will address his fellow seniors at the convocation.
Hernando de Soto, president of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy in Lima, Peru, will address more than 1,200 candidates for advanced degrees at the 7 p.m. advanced-degree ceremony, also at the Breslin Center on May 7. He will receive an honorary doctor of humanities at the ceremony.
Both de Soto and Rice were featured in Time�s April 26 issue as being among the world�s most influential people � de Soto as being among top scientists and thinkers, and Rice as being among the top leaders and revolutionaries.
Individual colleges will be holding commencement ceremonies throughout the weekend. For more information on the college ceremonies, visit the Web at www.commencement.msu.edu
Three individuals who have made significant contributions to sciences, economics and the field of communications research will receive honorary degrees at the commencement ceremonies.
Karlyn Kohrs Campbell of Minneapolis, chairperson of the Department of Communications Studies at the University of Minnesota, and a distinguished scholar of rhetoric and public address, will receive an honorary doctor of humanities at the 1 p.m. undergraduate convocation.
Gary L. Seevers of Westport, Conn., an accomplished economist and financial market specialist, and a member of the first class of the MSU Honors College, will receive an honorary doctor of business at the advanced degree ceremony.
Ernest J. Moniz, director of energy studies at the Laboratory for Energy and Environment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a distinguished scientist in the field of nuclear physics, will receive an honorary doctor of science at the advanced degree ceremony.
Biographies of the speakers and honorary degree recipients follow:
HERNANDO de SOTO
Hernando de Soto identified the crucial role of property rights as a determinant of poverty in poor countries and established the Institute for Liberty and Democracy to develop ways to encourage formal property ownership as a means of reducing poverty.
He established the institute to develop ways to encourage formal property ownership as a means of reducing poverty. He has researched restrictive laws and regulations and demonstrated how a country�s recognition of the property rights of its poor would spur growth that would precede rapid development in every rich country.
Time magazine recently named him as one of the world�s 100 most influential people, and previously cited him as one of the five leading Latin American innovators of the century.
He was awarded the prestigious Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty in 2004 for innovative research that revolutionized the understanding of the causes of wealth and poverty.
Forbes magazine called him one of 15 innovators who will reinvent the future. The New York Times Magazine identified his economic approach as �one of the most hopeful things� leaders of poor countries could hear. The Economist magazine identified the Institute for Liberty and Democracy as one of the top two think tanks in the world.
Previously de Soto was the personal representative and principal adviser to President Alberto Fujimori of Peru. He has served as an economist for the General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade, president of the Executive Committee on the Copper Exporting Countries Organization and as governor of Peru�s Central Reserve Bank.
De Soto is an active member of many international organizations, including the World Commission of the Global Dimension of Globalization and the United Nations� Taskforce to Examine Private Resources for Development.
KARLYN KOHRS CAMPBELL
Karlyn Kohrs Campbell, a pioneer and champion of women�s writing and speaking, has distinguished herself throughout her career as a scholar and outspoken supporter of the study of rhetoric and rhetorical criticism, as well as an advocate for social and political equality.
In 2002 she initiated the largest and most significant book manuscript award in the field of rhetorical criticism. Housed at MSU, the Kohrs-Campbell Prize in Rhetorical Criticism is one of only a few major national awards that seek to ensure scholarship and rhetorical criticism will continue to meet high standards of original research and scholarship in the field.
She and her late husband, Paul Newell Campbell, a noted scholar of dramatic theory and criticism, established the award. She selected Michigan State University Press to administer the award to enhance the visibility and status of its already renowned Rhetoric and Public Affairs Series.
Editor of The Quarterly Journal of Speech, Kohrs Campbell has received numerous awards for her work as a theorist and scholar of argumentation, genre and social form, and presidential rhetoric.
Her works include �Deeds Done in Words: Presidential Rhetoric and the Genres of Influence,� and as co-author, �Interplay of Influence: News, Advertising, Politics and Mass Media.� Her articles have appeared in numerous publications including Philosophy and Rhetoric, The Quarterly Journal of Speech, Presidential Studies Quarterly, Women�s Studies in Communication and Rhetoric & Public Affairs.
Her awards and honors include the Distinguished Scholar Award for a Distinguished Career in the Study of Human Communication and the Francine Merritt Award for Significant Contributions to Women in Communication from the National Communication Association.
She graduated from Macalester College in St. Paul. She earned her master�s and doctoral degrees from the University of Minnesota. She has taught at various colleges and universities in the United States and Palermo, Sicily.
ERNEST J. MONIZ
Ernest J. Moniz is a distinguished scientist known for his clear and straightforward presentation of complex concepts in the field of nuclear physics.
He has advanced knowledge about the role of quarks in nuclei and was a leader in understanding how to use high-energy electrons to probe nuclei and how to explain the interactions of pions in nuclei. He was named director of the Bates Linear Accelerator Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then chairperson of the physics department.
In addition, he chaired the federal Nuclear Science Advisory Committee charged with planning for the future of nuclear science, with emphasis on identifying new scientific opportunities and setting priorities for new facilities.
This effort produced the long-range plan that highlighted the future of research with rare isotopes and recommended as national priorities the upgrade of MSU�s National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory and further developments that ultimately produced the Rare Isotope Accelerator concept.
He also served as associate director for science at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and as a member of the Science and Technology Advisory Group to the premier of Taiwan.
Moniz is widely regarded as an expert on issues related to energy and science and technology policy. He served as undersecretary of the Department of Energy where he received the Gold Award for Exceptional Service. After returning to MIT he was appointed director of energy studies at the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment, charged to provide the technical basis for an appropriate energy policy.
He received his bachelor of science degree in physics from Boston College and his doctoral degree in theoretical physics from Stanford University.
He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He received the 1998 Seymour Cray HPCC Industry Recognition Award for vision and leadership in advancing scientific simulation.
CONDOLEEZZA RICE
Condoleezza Rice, the first woman to hold the position of assistant to the president for national security affairs, was named national security adviser Jan. 22, 2001.
Rice was director from 1989 through March 1991 and then senior director of Soviet and East European Affairs in the National Security Council. She also served as special assistant to the president for national security affairs in the first Bush Administration.
In 1986, Rice served as special assistant to the director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and was also an international affairs fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations. In 1997, she served on the Federal Advisory Committee on Gender � Integrated Training in the Military.
Rice completed a six-year tenure in 1999 as Stanford University�s provost, the chief budget and academic officer. The youngest provost to serve the institution in its 102-year history, Rice was responsible for a $1.5 billion annual budget and an academic program involving 1,400 faculty and 14,000 students.
She has been a Stanford professor of political science since 1981 and received two of the institution�s highest teaching awards. Rice has been a member of the Center for International Security and Arms Control at Stanford, a Senior Fellow of the Institute for International Studies, and the Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution.
Born in Birmingham, Ala., she earned her bachelor�s degree in political science and graduated Phi Beta Kappa at the age of 19 from the University of Denver. She received her master�s degree from the University of Notre Dame and her doctorate from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Rice�s books include, �Germany Unified and Europe Transformed,� with Phillip Zelikow; �The Gorbachev Era� with Alexander Dallin; and �Uncertain Allegiance: The Soviet Union and the Czechoslovakian Army.� She also has written numerous articles on Soviet and Eastern Europe foreign and defense policy. She has served on numerous boards of directors, including as a founding member of the Center for a New Generation, an educational support fund for schools in East Palo Alto and Menlo Park., Calif.
GARY L. SEEVERS
Gary L. Seevers, who was born and raised in Jonesville, is an accomplished economist and financial market specialist whose career has encompassed academia, government service and private sector financial markets.
Seevers, a 1959 graduate of MSU and member of the first class of the Honors College, was a county 4-H extension agent before returning to MSU where he earned his master�s and doctoral degrees in agricultural economics.
As an assistant professor at Oregon State University, he served on the U.S. President�s Council of Economic Advisers, and President Gerald Ford appointed him to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. He started a new commodities business as a vice president at Goldman, Sachs & Company, subsequently retiring as a partner.
At MSU he has helped to strengthen the management of the MSU Foundation investment portfolio and served as co-chairperson of the President�s Campaign Cabinet, as a member of the Honors College Campaign Advisory Committee and as a member of the Stakeholders Advisory Council for the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
He also has supported numerous scholarships and programs at MSU, including developing and funding the Gordon and Norma Guyer and Gary L. Seevers Chair in Natural Resource Conservation in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Designed to help prepare students to become leaders in natural resource conservation and find answers to the challenges of managing the environment, the chair reflects national concerns.