A leading physics and engineering educator,Mildred Spiewak Dresselhaus was born in Brooklynin 1930. After graduating from Hunter College inNew York City in 1951, she studied in England as aFulbright Fellow.

She received a master's degree from radcliffein 1953 and a PH.D. in physics from the universityof Chicago in 1958. Dresselhaus has served asprofessor of electrical engineering since 1968 andprofessor of physics since 1983.

She has served as Institute professor at MITsince 1985.

"This is my 13th honorary degree, but this oneis really special, because, firstly, I was astudent there and [because] the pomp andcircumstance is certainly different from any ofthe degrees I have," she said Tuesday .

Hanna H. Gray

President emerita of the University of chicago,Hanna Holborn Gray will speak at the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology's commencement tomorrow.Gray, who has focused on the intellectual historyof the Renaissance and Reformation, Served aspresident at the University of Chicago from 1978to 1993.

Born in Heidelberg. Germany in 1930, Graygraduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1950 and was aFulbrighrt Scholar at Oxford University. Shereceived her Ph. D. From Harvard in 1957.

she taught at Harvard from 1955 to 1960 andreturned as a visiting lecturer from 1963 to 1964.She taught at the University of Chicago from 1961to 1971.

Gray served as Yale's acting president from1977 to 1978.

since 1978, Gray has been a history professorat Chicago.

Vaclav Havel

A renowned dissident who became president ofthe Czech Republic in 1989, Havel's writingshelped spark the democratic uprisings thatproduced Communism's collapse in Czechoslavakia.

An activist during the 1960s and 1970s, Havelwas a chief signatory and spokesperson for theCharter-77 movement, which attacked the Communistautocratic government. Havel's works--includingThe Garden Party(1963) and TheConspiratorswere banned but had world Wideinfluence.

For his role in the revolution, Havel was namedto the largely honorary post of president ofCzechoslovakia.

Havel is the recipient of the Indira GandhiPrize(1993).