UA News

University of Arizona President Robert N. Shelton will confer degrees upon 4,540 undergraduate, 821 master's/specialist and 296 doctoral students during two commencement ceremonies to be held today.

The ceremonies are being held today at McKale Memorial Center.

In addition, Shelton will confer six master’s of law degrees in International Trade Law, six master's of law in Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy, 137 juris doctorate and two scientea juridicae doctor degrees upon students from the James E. Rogers College of Law. From the Arizona Health Sciences Center, 74 doctor of pharmacy degrees will be conferred from the College of Pharmacy and 97 degrees will be conferred from the College of Medicine.

This will be the UA's 138th commencement ceremony. The keynote speaker is U.S. astronaut Frank Borman, the commander who led the first team of American astronauts to circle the moon. Borman will speak at the UA just eight days before the Phoenix Mars Lander is scheduled to land on Mars. The UA is the first public university to lead a mission to Mars.

Borman, a 1946 Tucson High School graduate, oversaw many firsts for NASA. Gemini 7, Borman's first mission, marked the longest space flight achieved by NASA in its early history and also became the first space rendezvous of two manned, maneuverable spacecraft.

As commander of Apollo 8, Borman manned the first spacecraft to leave the Earth's gravitational field and circle the moon. This mission gave the world its first close-up look at the lunar surface and of the back side of the moon and confirmed new technology that ensured the safety of future manned missions to land on the moon.

Commencement Details

The academic procession into McKale for the morning ceremony begins at 9 a.m. and the afternoon ceremony procession begins at 1:30 p.m. Undergraduate students must gather with others from their college or department at Bear Down Gym and graduate students must gather in front of the Main Library within 30 minutes of the beginning of the ceremony. Graduates must wear their cap and gown in order to participate.

Colleges graduating students during the morning ceremony :

• College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture
• College of Education
• College of Engineering
• College of Humanities
• College of Science
• College of Optical Sciences
• Eller College of Management
• Graduate College (advanced degrees associated with the above colleges)

Colleges graduating students during the afternoon ceremony:

• College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
• College of Fine Arts
• College of Medicine and the department of physiology
• College of Nursing
• College of Pharmacy
• Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health
• College of Social and Behavioral Sciences
• University College
• Graduate College (advanced degrees associated with the above colleges and all interdisciplinary master's degrees)

The James E. Rogers College of Law will hold its own ceremony on May 17 at 2 p.m. at Centennial Hall.

In addition, each individual college also hosts a separate celebration for its graduates. For more information on each college ceremony go to http://dos.web.arizona.edu/commencement/collegeconv.html.

Awards

Six students will be honored with achievement medals during the ceremony.

Merril P. Freeman Medals will be awarded to Adeel Yang, a double major in molecular and cellular biology and economics, who will recieve a bachelor of science degree and a bachelor of arts degree, and Laurel Cox, a bachelor of science degree graduate with a major in molecular and cellular biology.

Robie Gold Metals will be awarded to Matthew Hall, a summa cum laude bachelor of science and bachelor of arts graduate with honors in both religious studies and mathematics, and Grace Hsieh, a honors graduate triple-majoring in biochemistry and molecular biophysics, East Asian studies and molecular and cellular biology who will graduate with bachelor of science and bachelor of arts degrees.

Robert Logan Nugent Medals will be awarded to Abbas Tuli, a biochemistry and molecular biophysics bachelor of science graduate, and Ruth Fesahazion, who will graduate with a bachelor of science in health sciences with honors from the Honors College.

For more information on the awards and winning students please visit: http://uanews.org/node/19556

In addition, four UA honorary degrees will be conferred.

The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences will honor Robert Barkley, president and CEO of Barkley Ag Enterprises with a Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws.

The College of Education will honor Alfredo R. Venezuela, Tucson's mariachi icon and a bilingual education champion with a Honorary Degree of Doctor of Music.

The College of Humanities will honor Lin Xu, a global education and cultural exchange leader with a Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humanities.

The College of Optical Sciences will honor Nicolaas Bloembergen, winner of the 1981 Nobel Prize for Physics and member of the National Academy of Science and National Academy for Engineering, with a Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science.

More information on honorary degree winners can be found at: http://uanews.org/node/19570