Honorary degree recipients named
Two Nobel laureates, a leader in the development of magnetic resonance imaging, an innovator in patient care, an expert on global immigration and an influential agricultural economist will receive honorary degrees from UW–Madison this spring.
The university will bestow the degrees May 15, at the first of five commencement ceremonies. Recipients will be:
Paul D. Boyer, emeritus professor of molecular biology and chemistry at the University of California-Los Angeles. A graduate of the UW Department of Biochemistry, Boyer received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry last year. As a graduate student, Boyer discovered the first known function for the element potassium. While working on a defense project at Stanford University in 1943-45, he found that blood plasma could be stabilized without refrigeration by adding fatty acids. This finding was put into immediate use on the battlefields of World War II. Subsequent work has increased significantly our understanding of photosynthesis and the role of vitamins A and C in dairy cow reproduction.
In addition to the Nobel, Boyer’s list of awards includes the American Chemical Society Lewis Award for Enzyme Chemistry, the McCoy Award for Chemical Research, and the American Society of Biological Chemists’ William Rose Award.
Nobel laureate Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of the Tibetan people. Following the 1959 takeover of Tibet by China, he fled to India, where he established a Tibetan government in exile. The ensuing decades have seen him work tirelessly to preserve Tibetan culture, not only within the international Tibetan community but to broader audiences as well. For example, filmmaker Martin Scorsece currently is in Morocco filming the Dalai Lama’s 1962 book, My Land, My People.
The Dalai Lama has been recognized internationally for his scholarship and leadership; in addition to his 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, he has received the highest honors from the Philippines, Mongolia, Germany and Switzerland, as well as the United States.
The Dalai Lama already has made two trips (1981 and 1989) to UW–Madison, a world center for scholarly study of Tibetan Buddhism. A number of UW–Madison alumni have founded highly regarded Tibetan studies programs at other universities.
Raymond Damadian, inventor of magnetic resonance imagining (MRI), standard practice in hospitals and clinics across the country. Founder, president and chair of the board of directors of the FONAR Corp., Damadian has distinguished himself as a business leader as well as a medical researcher. After receiving his undergraduate degree from the UW in 1956, he earned a medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Damadian has received the Presidential Medal of Technology and has been inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame. According to David D. Stark, professor of radiology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Damadian’s contributions to medicine are “as important and fundamental as Roentgen’s 1896 adaptation of the X-ray.”
Jean E. Johnson, professor emerita, University of Rochester School of Nursing. Johnson’s theoretical and practical advances are said to have changed the way care is delivered to patients facing stressful procedures. Her use of accurate sensory information as the basis of patient education have become standard procedure throughout the medical world. In addition, Johnson was instrumental in shaping the discipline of social psychology. Comments Vivian Littlefield, dean of UW–Madison’s School of Nursing, Johnson has contributed theoretical advances in the understanding of stress and coping, and has called attention to the importance of applied research in her field.
Johnson received her bachelor’s degree from Kansas State University, a master’s from Yale University, and her M.S. and Ph.D. in social psychology from UW.
Alejandro Portes, professor of sociology, Princeton University. The causes and consequences of global immigration patterns are Portes’ research specialty. Concentrating on the impact of immigrants on the national economy, he has contributed substantially to the body of theory in his home discipline of sociology as well as other fields including politics, economics, social psychology, anthropology and urban planning. Currently, he is exploring the relevance of cities to the understanding of global interaction, ethnicity and social mobility.
A UW alumnus who earned his Ph.D. and M.A. here, Portes received a B.A. cum laude from Creighton University.
Walter F. Renk, former CEO of William Renk and Sons Co., Renk Enterprises and the Wisconsin Rural Rehabilitation Corp., Renk has served the university as a regent (1967-76), and was a driving force behind the creation of the UW School of Veterinary Medicine in 1983. A lifelong resident of Sun Prairie, Renk has made pioneering contributions to farm business management through creation of the first American family farm corporation in 1936. The Renk model has inspired thousands of similar ventures across the country. In collaboration with UW–Madison plant breeders and agronomists, Renk advanced agricultural technology through the development of hybrid seed corn able to withstand Wisconsin’s brief growing season. Hybrid corn was instrumental in developing the state’s cash grain industry as well as providing the feed source needed to expand hog, dairy and beef cattle trade. Between 1935-95, Wisconsin experienced a nine-fold increase in corn for grain production, thanks in large part to Renk’s support of UW research.
Two years ago the Renk family entered an innovative venture with the UW–Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and School of Business. The UW–Madison Agribusiness Institute offers an MBA degree in agribusiness; the first students were admitted to the program last fall.
Renk continued the family tradition of receiving his education at the UW, earning a B.S. in agricultural economics and animal husbandry. In all, 13 Renk family members have earned degrees from the university.
UW–Madison will award its 1998 honorary degrees during commencement exercises for graduate and professional students at 5 p.m. in the Kohl Center. Attendance at commencement ceremonies is limited to graduating students and their families and friends. For more information, contact Paula Gray in the Office of the UW–Madison Secretary of the Faculty, (608) 262-3956.