Nine Awarded Honorary Degrees

A potential candidate for the Harvard presidency was among nine recipients of honorary doctoral degrees awarded by the University at yesterday’s 355th Commencement ceremony.

Shirley Ann Jackson, who received a Doctor of Laws degree, is touted as a possible successor to outgoing University President Lawrence H. Summers, who departs Harvard after only five years in office. Joining her in the ceremony was famed broadcast journalist Jim Lehrer, who also delivered the keynote Commencement address.

Also recognized for their achievements were seven other prominent public figures, including a biologist and an art collector.

Sir Michael Atiyah

Sir Michael Atiyah is a British mathematician who made field-changing discoveries in string theory and superspace beginning over four decades ago. After winning the Fields Medal in 1966 for his work on topological K-Theory, Atiyah continued to revolutionize mathematical subfields, including geometry and theoretical physics. The Atiyah-Singer Index Theorem, which he developed with MIT’s Isadore M. Singer, earned the duo the 2004 Abel Prize, given by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

Prior to his many teaching and research accomplishments, Atiyah received a bachelor’s and a doctoral degree from Trinity College at Cambridge University. He later returned to Trinity to teach. He also spent three years as a professor of mathematics at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study until 1972.

In 1983, Atiyah, the son of a Lebanese father and Scottish mother, was knighted and continued teaching until his retirement in 1997.

Atiyah received a Doctor of Science degree.

Elizabeth H. Blackburn

Though she’s already been the recipient of honorary degrees from five other universities, molecular biologist Elizabeth H. Blackburn can now add another from Harvard.

A leader in the research of telomeres, part of the DNA in chromosomes which keep genetic information consistent, Blackburn has been recognized numerous times for her work. Her honors include the National Academy of Science’s Molecular Biology Award (1990), the California Scientist of the Year award (1999), the American Cancer Society Medal of Honor (2000), and the Dr. A.H. Heineken Prize for Medicine (2004)

Born in Hobart, Tasmania on Nov. 26, 1948, Blackburn studied biochemistry at the University of Melbourne where she received both a bachelor’s and master’s of science degree. After completing post-doctoral work at Yale in the mid-1970s, she became a professor at University of California, Berkeley for 12 years and then assumed a professorship at University of California, San Francisco.

She received a Doctor of Science degree.

Philip E. Converse

Sociologist and political scientist Philip E. Converse, a former professor at the University of Michigan, has spent half a century studying voting behavior in the U.S.

Converse is known for co-authoring many papers on election studies with other noted scholars including Angus Campbell, Warren E. Miller, Willard L. Rodgers, and Donald E. Stokes. His studies are not limited to the U.S.—he has spent time researching in Brazil, Canada, and France.

In 1989 he became the director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, an independent research institution in Stanford, Calif. After five years, he retired and has spent time writing and traveling.

Converse received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.

Philippe de Montebello

The first of yesterday’s two honorary Doctor of Arts degrees was awarded to Philippe de Montebello ’61 for his work as the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Working at the Met since 1963, de Montebello has been critical in keeping the museum’s resources up-to-date and in overseeing the extensive collections. Most notably, he is credited with working to showcase a variety of collections.

De Montebello’s formal preparation for curating one of the world’s most prominent museums can be traced back to Harvard, where he majored in art history and focused on the artist Delacroix.

Shirley Ann Jackson

MIT graduate Shirley Ann Jackson has always been a trailblazer: she co-founded the Black Student Union at the university, became the first black woman at MIT to earn a doctoral degree, and also made history as the first black woman in the country to earn a doctorate in physics.

Jackson’s ability to break new ground continued both in her research in physics at many prominent research centers and as a public leader. Four years after being named a professor at Rutgers University, Jackson became the first woman and first black person to chair the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 1995.

Renowned for her research, Jackson was selected to lead the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1999. She made history as the first black woman in U.S. history to take the helm of a major research university.

Jackson’s name has been floated as a possible candidate for Harvard’s next president, which could give her another claim to firsts—she would be the first woman and the first black person to lead the school.

Jackson received a Doctor of Laws degree.

Jim Lehrer

No stranger to speaking in front of large audiences, Lehrer speaks to millions of Americans nightly on PBS’s “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.” Lehrer was yesterday’s keynote speaker.

Lehrer honed his reporting skills in Washington, D.C., where his relationship with PBS began. Teaming up with Robert MacNeil, later his cohost on a PBS program, Lehrer covered the Senate Watergate hearings.

The Television Hall of Fame inducted two-time Emmy winner Lehrer in 1999. Lehrer’s public profile is largely defined by his role as moderator of 10 presidential debates.

Lehrer received a Doctor of Laws degree.

Robert P. Moses

Sixty years after he became a renowned figure in the American Civil Rights movement, Robert P. Moses returned to Harvard, where he received a master’s in philosophy in 1957, to receive an honorary degree

In the 1960s, Harlem-born Moses worked as the field secretary of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and as director of its Mississippi Project to increase the African American electorate in the state.

In 1982, Moses left his work on the philosophy of mathematics in order to develop a different way to teach algebra. He is responsible for influencing teaching methods that changed the way students learn higher math. In 2002 he received the James Bryant Conant Award of the Education Commission of the States and two years later won the McGraw-Hill Prize in Education.

Yesterday Moses received a Doctor of Science degree.

Norman F. Ramsey

Two decades after he officially retired from Harvard, the University felt it was the right time for Higgins Professor of Physics emeritus Norman F. Ramsey, the man who co-developed cesium and atomic clocks, to be honored at yesterday’s Commencement exercises with an honorary degree.

Ramsey won a physics Nobel Prize for his other research and is best known for his work in nuclear forces and thermodynamics. He has been consulted by high-profile organizations including the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, the U.S. Air Force, and NATO.

Ramsey’s Harvard career began in the physics department just under 60 years ago and despite his retirement, continues to add to research in the field. The 300-plus scientific papers he has written continue to be vital to the field.

Leo Steinberg

Born in Moscow and raised in Berlin, Leo Steinberg has been a leader in the art world as an artist, collector, critic, and professor of art history. His critiques of contemporary art have earned him recognition among fellow art historians, though he is an authority on a wide span of history.

As the author of books such as “Michelangelo’s Last Paintings” (1975) and “The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion” (1983), Steinberg became the first art historian to receive the Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.

Yesterday he received an honorary Doctor of Arts.

—Gabriel M. Velez contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Bari M. Schwartz can be reached at bschwart@fas.harvard.edu.