At today's commencement ceremony, Harvard University will award 11 honorary degrees.
Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, designer of the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial Maya Ying Lin and medical researcher and humanitarian Harold Amos are three of this year's honorands.
Degrees will also be bestowed upon philanthropist and diplomat Walter H. Annenberg, presidential policy advisor William T. Coleman Jr., social and feminist historian Natalie Zemon Davis, French historian Francois Furet, dancer Judith A. Jamison, philanthropist Oseola McCarty, physicist Charles P. Slichter '45 and National Institutes of Health director Harold E. Varmus.
The 11 honorands were entertained at an invitation-only dinner at Annenberg Hall last night.
Chinua Achebe
Born in East Nigeria in 1930, Achebe's first novel, Things Fall Apart, has sold more then 8 million copies. He has authored or edited more than 18 books.
His writing has earned him Nigeria's highest prize for intellectual achievement, the Nigerian National Order of Merit. He will be given a Doctorate of Letters today.
Harold Amos
In 1995, Amos's work mentoring minority students and scientists in medicine and research earned him the National Academy of Science highest award, the Public Welfare Medal.
For 35 years, Amos was the Presley Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at Harvard Medical School. A distinguished scholar of microbiology, Amos did important research in sugar metabolism.
Amos has been committed to volunteer work since 1967 when he began work with the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation.
He will be given a Doctorate of Science today.
Walter H. Annenberg
Annenberg's donations to Harvard are reflected in the first-year dining hall named in his family's honor.
Annenberg is chair and president of the Annenberg Foundation. Annenberg graduated from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He will receive an LL.D. Read more in NewsRecommended Articles
