At today’s 353rd Harvard Commencement ceremony, the University will award nine honorary doctoral degrees to some of the world’s most accomplished academics and public figures.

The honorees were treated to a dinner of horseradish-encrusted filet of beef in an at-capacity Annenberg Hall last night and world-renowned violinist Stefan P. Jackiw ’07 entertained the recipients and the crowd with Bach’s Partita No. 3 in E Major.

This year’s honorary degree candidates include four scientists, three humanists and two public servants.

KOFI A. ANNAN

Kofi Annan, who will address the Class of 2004 as Commencement speaker today, currently serves as Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Annan was born in Ghana on April 8, 1938 and studied economics at the University of Science and Technology in his hometown of Kumasi and completed his undergraduate work at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn. before receiving a master’s degree in management at MIT.

Annan began working for the United Nations in 1962 and was promoted to Under Secretary-General in 1993. Annan began his term as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations on Jan. 1, 1997.

He shared the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize with the United Nations for his efforts in revitalizing the global organization and its efforts for peace.

Annan is currently serving his second five-year term as Secretary-General and will receive a Doctor of Laws degree today.

MARGARET E. ATWOOD

Margaret E. Atwood, a celebrated and prolific author and poet, is largely hailed as Canada’s foremost contemporary writer.

She received her B.A. from Victoria College, University of Toronto, and her A.M. from Radcliffe.

Atwood’s work is well-known for skillfully broaching subjects ranging from power, gender politics, feminism, the nature of mass society and the fate of Canada and its literature.

Her most famous novel is The Handmaid’s Tale, which is set in a futuristic American dystopia controlled by religious zealots.

Atwood will receive a Doctor of Letters degree today.

J. MICHAEL BISHOP

J. Michael Bishop has long been considered a leading researcher in biomedical science, having analyzed the various processes by which normal cells become cancer cells. His pivotal contributions to his field have earned him many distinctions, culminating in the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, awarded after Bishop co-discovered the cellular origin of a type of gene that has the potential to turn normal cells cancerous.

Bishop graduated from Gettysburg College and attended Harvard Medical School. In 1968, he began to teach at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where he is now a university professor. In addition to his research, Bishop was won acclaim for his talents as an educator; in 1998, he was made Chancellor of UCSF.

He will receive a Doctor of Science degree.

ROBERT L. CARTER

Robert L. Carter, a prominent lawyer in major civil rights cases, has served as a judge in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York since 1972.

After three years as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Corps, Carter served as a lawyer for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People from 1944 to 1968. Carter prevailed in 21 of the 22 cases he argued before the United States Supreme Court, including Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.

Carter co-founded the National Conference of Black Lawyers and received the Federal Bar Council’s Emory Buckner Medal. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Lincoln University and law degrees from Howard and Columbia. Carter will receive a Doctor of Laws degree today.

SUZANNE FARRELL

Ballet dancer Suzanne Farrell joined the New York Ballet Company in 1961 and quickly rose through its ranks, eventually becoming the company’s lead female dancer.

Farrell—who, as a child, aspired to be a professional clown—gained attention for her unique style of dance, combining technical precision with physical lyricism.

She is presently artistic director of the Suzanne Farrell Ballet Company, répétiteur of the George Balanchine Trust and professor of dance at Florida State University. Last year Farrell received the National Medal of Arts. Today, Harvard will award her the honorary Doctor of Arts degree.

DANIEL KAHNEMAN

Daniel Kahneman has for years been a leading researcher in the field of psychology, studying the way humans judge and make decisions.

Along with his longtime research partner, the late Amos Tversky, he has shaken the founding assumptions of his field. For instance, his research has shown that people do not always act rationally when confronted with economic decisions. When feeling uncertain in a demanding situation, humans may reach the absolute limits of their ability to think, he found.

In 2002, Kahneman won the Nobel Prize in Economics for these discoveries. He will receive a Doctor of Laws degree today.

FRANK KERMODE

Sir Frank Kermode is considered one of the most distinguished critics and academics of English Literature. He is best known for his celebrated studies on D.H. Lawrence and Shakespeare.

Born in 1919, he was educated at the University of Liverpool and also served as a lieutenant in the Royal Navy during World War II. Kermode was knighted in 1991 and is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Royal Society of Literature. Today, he Kermode will receive a Doctor of Letters degree.

SHIRLEY M. TILGHMAN

Tilghman joined the faculty of Princeton University in 1986 and currently serves as the university’s president. An expert in the field of molecular biology, she participated in the first cloning of a mammalian gene.

A Canadian native, Tilghman received a degree in chemistry from Queen’s University, later obtaining her Ph.D. in biochemistry from Temple University.

Tilghman has been recognized not only for her scientific breakthroughs, but also for her national leadership for women in science. She has been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Society for Developmental Biology and the L’Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science. She will receive a Doctor of Laws degree today.

EDWARD O. WILSON

Pellegrino University Professor Emeritus Edward O. Wilson is the world’s top scholar of ants in both molecular and ecological contexts. His research led to the discovery of pheromones as an explanation for animal behavior.

A native of Birmingham, Ala. and graduate of the University of Alabama, Wilson was the head antkeeper at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology until his retirement in 1997. He has written books on topics ranging from ants to the unity of all human knowledge, most notably his controversial Sociobiology and won two Pulitzer Prizes in the process.

Wilson received his Ph.D. in biology from Harvard in 1955 and was appointed assistant professor the next year. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Wilson its Crafoord Prize for his work in ecology in 1990, and Wilson won the National Medal of Science in 1976.

He will be awarded the Doctor of Science degree today.