Johns Hopkins University, Maryland, United States has announced a
list of eight distinguished achievers who will receive honorary
degrees this year. The honorary degree will be conferred at the
universitywide commencement ceremony on May 18 at Royal Farms Arena.
The list includes award-winning novelist Chimamanda Ngozi
Adichie, who earned a prestigious creative writing master's from the
university, filmmaker Spike Lee, Nobel Prize winner Richard Axel and
Ellen M Heller, Maryland’s first woman to become an administrative
Circuit Court judge.
"The men and women in this group are visionaries who have
challenged the status quo and changed the
world for the better," Said John Hopkins University President Ronald J.
Daniels. "They have made a lasting impact on the arts, public health,
the law,
neuroscience, and the resilience of communities here in Baltimore and
across the globe. At Johns Hopkins, we share their
commitment to innovate and to work for the benefit of humankind, and I’m
so pleased that these honorary degrees will celebrate all they have
accomplished."
The 2016 Johns Hopkins honorary degree recipients are:
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie:
The author of acclaimed novels including Americanah, which won
the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction in 2013, Adichie
writes stories inspired by her own life in Nigeria and the United
States. She earned a master's degree from Johns Hopkins' Writing
Seminars in 2003 and won a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" in 2008.
Richard Axel: Axel was awarded the Nobel Prize in
Physiology or Medicine in 2004 for work on how the brain deciphers the
world of smell—research he did with his colleague, Linda Buck. He
continues to study olfactory perception as a University Professor and as
an investigator at the Columbia University Howard Hughes Medical
Institute.
Susan Baker: Founder of the Johns Hopkins Center for
Injury Research and Policy, Baker is the author of the Injury Fact Book
and is known for developing the Injury Severity Score, a system used to
assess patients with multiple injuries. She has tirelessly advocated
for life-saving tools that, thanks to her efforts, are now common,
including airbags and child-safety caps.
Ellen M Heller: The first woman appointed to be
Maryland’s Administrative Circuit Court judge, Heller introduced
court-ordered mediation for some civil cases, allowing them to be
resolved faster and more affordably than through a trial. She recently
concluded her term as trustee and chair of the Harry and Jeanette
Weinberg Foundation. She graduated with honors from Johns Hopkins in
1972.
Shelton Jackson (Spike) Lee: The filmmaker whose
acclaimed works include Do The Right Thing and Jungle Fever is also a
writer, director, actor, producer, author, educator, and entrepreneur.
The founder of 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, Lee’s work is known for
challenging assumptions about race and prejudice. He is also this year’s
commencement speaker at Johns Hopkins.
Judith Rodin: Rodin is the president of The
Rockefeller Foundation, an organization focused on building greater
resilience and more inclusive economies. A former psychology professor,
she served as provost of Yale and as the first woman president in the
Ivy League at the University of Pennsylvania, her alma mater.
Shale Stiller: An eminent trial attorney and a
partner at DLA Piper, Stiller was a leader in the comprehensive revision
of the Code of Maryland (Statutes). He has been at the forefront of
recent high-profile successful litigation against Iran, and has been
named in every edition of The Best Lawyers in America since it was first
published in 1987. An adjunct professor at the University of Maryland
Law School for 53 years, Stiller earned a master of liberal arts degree
with honors at Johns Hopkins in 1977.
Laurie Zabin: The founding director of the Bill and
Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health, Zabin
has led public health initiatives in developing nations. A former
Planned Parenthood director, Zabin, who has a PhD from the Bloomberg
School of Public Health, is also an expert on teen pregnancy and
reproductive rights.
Source: John Hopkins University's The Hub
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