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University Will Bestow Nine Honorary Degrees

Mary Robinson

Today's Commencement speaker, Robinson was thefirst woman elected president of Ireland. She wasalso the first candidate to be elected presidentfrom small, underdog Labor Party.

Robinson popularized the Irish presidency byworld travels and constant interactions with theIrish people.

Robinson received a masters of law from HarvardLaw School in 1968 and a year later became theyoungest professor of law in the history ofTrinity College in Dublin.

A stalwart champion of human rights and women'sequality, Robinson currently serves as UnitedNations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

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She will receive a doctorate of laws.

Henry Rosovsky

A former member of the Corporation, dean of theFaculty and professor at Harvard, Rosovsky willadd one more title to his list of Harvard honorstoday when he receives a doctorate of laws.

During his tenure as dean of the Faculty,Rosovsky spearheaded reform of Harvard'sundergraduate requirements, resulting in thedevelopment of the Core Curriculum. Rosovsky waswidely believed to be a candidate to replace DerekC. Bok as president of Harvard--a positionultimately filled by Rudenstine.

Rosovsky turned down an offer to becomepresident of Yale University while dean of theFaculty. He has served as chair of the Board ofTrustees of the American Jewish Congress.

Rosovsky's work in economics and Japanesestudies earned him the Order of the SacredTreasure, conferred by the Emperor of Japan in1988.

Jean-Pierre Serre

All who have seen the movie Good WillHunting are familiar with the Fields Medal,the highest honor available to academics in thefield of mathematics.

But Serre is no fictional genius. He receivedthe medal in 1954 for his work on spectralsequences and complex variable theory involvingsheaves. Since then, he has taught at Harvard andthe College de France.

His three-volume collected papers, published in1986, earned him praise and admiration frommathematicians across the world. Today he receivesa doctorate of science.

--Rosalind S. Helderman, Rachel P. Kovnerand Scott A. Resnick contributed to the reportingof this story.

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