Release date: April 26, 2002
Contact: Deb Hammacher, Associate Director, Media Relations,
at 404-727-0644 or dhammac@emory.edu

Emory to Grant Honorary Degrees at May 13 Commencement

A world-renowned mathematician, two Vietnam War heroes and the managing director of the World Bank are Emory University’s honorary degree recipients for 2002. They will receive their degrees during Emory’s 157th commencement May 13. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Alfred Uhry, the keynote speaker, also will receive an honorary degree.

• Benoit B. Mandelbrot will receive a doctor of science degree. Called "the Einstein of mathematics," Mandelbrot’s work on geometric "fractal sets" (any pattern that reveals greater complexity as it is enlarged) has impacted architecture, ecology, economics, music, linguistics, engineering, cardiology, neuroscience, cinema techniques and more. The international prize-winning scholar is a Yale University professor of mathematical sciences and an IBM Fellow.

His book, "The Fractal Geometry of Nature," has been published in 50 languages (he speaks seven), and he has published four other books, more than 166 articles and abstracts, and delivers lectures worldwide. Mandelbrot’s fractal work is broadly and repeatedly cited by academics in the areas of applied mathematics and physics. Mandelbrot received his doctorate from the University of Paris in 1952.

Mandelbrot also will give a free public slide lecture on "The Saga of Fractals, From Art to Art, Through Mathematics, Finance, and the Sciences" at 4 p.m. Saturday, May 11 in 208 White Hall, 480 Kilgo Circle, on the Emory campus.

• Mamphela Ramphele will receive a doctor of laws degree. The medical doctor, anthropologist and higher education administrator is currently managing director of the World Bank.

Ramphele previously was vice chancellor (president) of the University of Cape Town for four years, the first black woman to hold such a post at a South African university. While other universities experienced post-apartheid upheaval, she managed a peaceful transition at her institution. Her commitment to an integrated, inclusive future resulted in a partnership between UCT and Emory for a comprehensive exchange program. She was a major force in the struggle against apartheid, and from 1977 to 1984 was banished by the South African government to the remote township of Lenyenye near Tzaneen.

Ramphele also holds a doctorate in social anthropology from the University of Cape Town, and she has a degree in administration from the University of South Africa. Ramphele wrote about her diverse experiences in her 1995 book "Across Boundaries: The Journey of a South African Woman Leader."

• Hugh Thompson and Larry Colburn will receive doctor of humane letters degrees. Thompson and Colburn were heroes during the My Lai massacre in 1968, but were only awarded the Soldier’s Medal 30 years later after successfully defending their moral and responsible actions, now part of military ethics instruction around the world.

Thompson and Colburn, together with the late Glenn Andreotta, risked their lives on March 16, 1968, at My Lai to save Vietnamese civilians from U.S. Army forces that had already massacred 504 Vietnamese women, children and old men. They not only air-lifted the few villagers still alive out of My Lai, but they radioed a report of the scene that resulted in a halt to the military action that had been ordered to continue for three days, thus saving thousands of civilian lives.

Thompson and Colburn have visited the Emory campus several times since 1999, always drawing a large crowd of interested students. Thompson grew up in Stone Mountain, Ga., and Colburn has lived in the Atlanta area for several years.

For more information on the honorary degree recipients, go to: www.emory.edu/COMMENCEMENT/honorary_degrees.html. For more information on Emory’s commencement, go to: www.emory.edu/COMMENCEMENT/.

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