You have probed the foundation of life as a chemist asking molecular questions about biological systems. Your seminal work on electron transport in DNA opened new understandings of how cells retain their stability, what causes them to be damaged and how they might be repaired. Your work excites and stimulates your scientific colleagues and holds great promise for progress in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. With a formidable combination of creativity and scientific expertise, you are a powerful role model for all who aspire to scientific study. We are proud that you started your career at Yale as a postdoctoral fellow, and we welcome you back, this time as Doctor of Science.

From a beach in Southeast Asia, where you pulled a boatload of Vietnamese refugees to safety, to the International Rescue Committee boardroom in New York City, your most important life's work has been the task of alleviating the suffering of the world's refugees. With compassion, business sense, brilliance and leadership, you built the International Rescue Committee from a small organization into a global agency of caring and concern. Undaunted by the vast enterprise of assisting those displaced by war, famine, and flood, you have retained an optimism of the possible. Your alma mater is proud to recognize your devotion to humanitarian ventures by bestowing on you a second Yale degree, Doctor of Humane Letters.

You have been a visionary leader in expanding the scope of public health policy and practice in this country and throughout the world. As an epidemiologist, you have redefined the standard approach to disease prevention, enhancing science with the perspective of an historian and a deep understanding of social and cultural influences on health. You were instrumental in the global eradication of smallpox. From AIDS to river blindness to the impact of violence and injury, you have applied your scientific and medical knowledge to promote the public good, improving the health and saving the lives of millions around the world. For the inspirational and moral medicine that you practice, we honor you as Doctor of Medical Sciences.

Your creativity extends to a wide array of materials, methods, and subject matter. You portray the human form and its environment through painting, photography, engraving, graphic design, stage design, and collage, creating compelling visual narratives of modern life. Your art invites us to add our own story, and thus our own meaning and interpretation, to those you present. Your narrative gift extends to your own writing, in books that explore your life and work and that of others, including the artistic techniques of the Old Masters. Among the most important and influential artists of our time, you have changed the way we see and understand. We are pleased to name you Doctor of Fine Arts.

Throughout your career, in South Africa and in world affairs, you have been a force for change. As the first woman and the first black to head the University of Cape Town, you understood knowledge as key to sustainable development and demanded the best -- not only from students and faculty but from your government as well. As one of four managing directors at the World Bank, you confirmed your advocacy for excellence in education and extended your work to other dimensions of human development. Now in the world of venture capital, you continue to work for the empowerment of women and men of color around the globe. Activist, advocate for human rights, and educator: we are proud to name you Doctor of Humane Letters.

Scholar, economist, Nobel laureate: Your work has shaped a generation of theorists and practitioners. By demonstrating the utility of mathematics in understanding economic theory, you brought clarity and logic to complex matters of choice. As a trusted presidential adviser, you applied your knowledge to practical problems of the day, contributing to the "Great Society" of the 1960s and to an era of stable economic growth. The scope of your expertise is truly astounding, ranging from consumer theory and welfare economics to international trade, capital theory, dynamics, general equilibrium, and macroeconomics. You have been in the forefront of the revolutions that have changed economics forever. For a lifetime of achievement, we are honored to name you Doctor of Social Sciences.

In founding and leading the Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama, you have brought hope to the hopeless, legal representation to the poor, and inspiration to your students and colleagues in the legal profession. Your commitment to fairness is formed from legal, ethical, and faith perspectives. Viewing your work as a call to justice, you have been tireless in defending the rights of prisoners, speaking out against inequality, training young lawyers, and protecting the innocent. You embody the principle of in pro bono publico -- service for the public good -- valuing the dignity and worth of all persons above your own personal gain. In recognition of your dedication, we are honored to name you Doctor of Laws.

With a combination of intelligence, imagination, and incredible persistence, you solved the "beautiful problem" of Fermat's Last Theorem. With single-minded focus, undeterred by dead ends and disappointments, you pursued the work that first captured your attention when you were ten. After confounding scholars and amateurs alike for 350 years, the Theorem yielded finally to your proof, a work at once elegantly simple and intricately complex. As a mathematician, you demonstrate the joy of confronting a challenge, the excitement of intellectual pursuit, and the satisfaction of solving the unsolvable. You are a scholar, a teacher, an inspiration, and we are pleased to name you Doctor of Science.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Yale committed to offering overseas opportunities to all undergraduates

Project funded by Class of 1957 is adding music education . . .

International festival marks 10th year of arts & ideas

Student writer's works cast light on injustices

COMMENCEMENT 2005

• Yale celebrates its newest graduates with pomp
  
  
• Baccalaureate Address
  
  
• Honorary Degrees
  
  
• Commencement 2005 Photo Gallery
  

ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIPS

• Outgoing SOM dean named to Trippe chair
  
  
• Andrews to hold Koopmans post
  
  
• Glazer appointed to Hunter chair
  
  
• Hayes designated as Weis Professor
  
  
• Morris to assume Fisher chair
  
  

Study: More students expelled in preschool than in later years

Team sheds light on RNA quality-control system

Music linked to decreased need for sedation

Biologists successfully extract and analyze DNA from extinct lemurs

Law deanship endowed with Goldman family gift

Harvey Goldblatt is reappointed as Pierson master

Radio interview leads Ruff to a 'magical' discovery

Head coach post endowed in honor of late Yale tennis star

Swimmer donates Olympic gold to alma mater

Tsunami-causing earthquake yields new data about Earth's core

Children develop cynicism at an early age, says study

'Lost' papers of journalist noted for her stories on Russian Revolution . . .

All hail Hale!

New risk assessment program will provide early genetic screening

Works by young playwrights to be staged as part of Drama School project

Internationally renowned tenor joins the faculty as voice teacher

Workshop explores chronic disease prevention

MacMicking named a Searle Scholar for infection research

Elimelech garners Clarke Prize for water research

Congresswoman to speak at benefit gala for cancer research

Student Awards and Fellowships

Search committee named for School of Music dean

Memorial to honor Dr. Alvin Novick

Campus Notes

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