| | 31 May, 2007
| | Leading journalists, authors, scientists among eight to receive honorary doctorates at Hebrew University | |
 | | Prof. Kanan Maikya |
|
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, Iraqi born academic, commentator and veteran opponent of the Saddam regime, Kanan Makiya, and American feminist scholar and writer Linda Nochlin will be among 8 distinguished figures to receive honorary doctor of philosophy degrees on Sunday June 3, at 5.30 p.m., at the opening session of the 70th meeting of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Board of Governors.
Thomas L. Friedman, world renowned author and journalist, joined The New York Times in 1981 and has served in several positions including chief diplomatic, chief White House and international correspondent. During the course of his career, he has covered major international events and issues, ranging from the Middle East conflict and the end of the Cold War to U.S. foreign policy and the threat of terrorism worldwide. He was Beirut bureau chief during the first war in Lebanon in 1982 and covered the first Intifada while serving as Israel bureau chief from 1984 to 1988. A three-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Friedman was elected as a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board in 2005. He also was appointed an OBE in 2004.
Prof. Kanan Makiya, Iraqi-born academic, commentator and outspoken advocate of democracy, is a valiant leader of the Iraqi diaspora in the United States who has devoted much of his life to exposing the atrocities of Saddam Hussein’s regime and to the endeavors to rebuild and transform Iraq. Professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at Brandeis University and a fellow of Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Makiya wrote Republic of Fear: The Politics of Modern Iraq under the pseudonym Samir al-Khalil, which brought the realities of life in Iraq to a wide public. He founded the Iraqi Memory Fund research center, which produced vital reports on the Saddam Hussein regime for policymakers and founded the Human Rights Committee of the Iraqi National Congress in 1992. He is the author of numerous books on the importance of democracy in Iraq.
Prof. Linda Nochlin is a scholar and writer of international renown, and is a pioneer of feminist cultural criticism whose research has opened new avenues of discourse in art history. Professor of Modern Art at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts, she spearheaded a new branch of art history and feminist scholarship with the 1971 publication of her now-classic essay ‘Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?’ Her profound interest in her Jewish heritage has found expression in her exploration of attitudes, both positive and negative, towards Jewish stereotypes in nineteenth-century art. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
An honorary doctorate degree was also awarded to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, which she received at a separate ceremony in March.
Others who will be receiving honorary degrees on June 3 are:
Prof. Aaron Ciechanover, one of the world's leading biochemists, is the initiator of a revolution in the understanding of the regulatory mechanisms of intracellular processes whose groundbreaking work in the field of cell protein breakdown led to the discovery and elucidation of the ubiquitin system. In 2004, he attained the highest recognition for his lifetime endeavors with the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, together with his colleagues professors Avram Hershko and Irwin Rose, becoming the first Israelis to win the Nobel Award in the Natural Sciences.
Prof. Ann M. Graybiel, a leading expert of the large forebrain, is an eminent neuroscientist whose innovative and broad research approach has revolutionized understanding of the functional anatomy and physiology of the brain, of human behavior and of illnesses associated with the basal ganglia region. Professor of Neuroscience at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she has been at the forefront of studies of the large forebrain region known as the basal ganglia for over thirty years. Her findings have been of major significance in understanding neurological diseases and neuropsychiatric disorders. Graybiel is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a recipient of the National Medal of Science, the 2004 Woman Leader of Parkinson’s Science and the Prix Plasticité Neuronale from the IPSEN Foundation.
Prof. Sir Alan R. Fersht is an eminent scientist and a pioneer of protein engineering whose radical multidisciplinary approach has led to numerous breakthroughs in the elucidation of protein structure, function and folding and paved the way for the development of novel medical therapies for a variety of diseases. Professor of Organic Chemistry at Cambridge University and director of the Medical Research Council’s Centre for Protein Engineering, Fersht's elucidation of protein folding at atomic resolution is the basis for innovative treatments for diseases involving protein misfolding and instability, in particular cancer. A prolific author and editor of academic journals, Sir Alan Fersht is a fellow of the Royal Society and an honorary foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was knighted in 2003 and is the recipient of countless awards. His laboratory was among the first in Britain to oppose attempted boycotts of Israeli academia.
Prof. Jules Janick is a horticultural scientist and a leading researcher in the exploration and development of new food crops whose pioneering insights and discoveries have had a significant impact on biotechnology, breeding and genetics, and medicinal drug development. Director of the Center for New Crops and Plant Products at Purdue University, Janick is renowned for his extraordinarily wide-ranging activities in horticultural science, encompassing basic and applied scientific research in areas such as orchard and forest trees, fruits, vegetables and ornamental plants. He developed the plant-based anti-malarial drug artemisinin, was among the first to employ biotechnological propagation techniques, and pioneered the field of somatic embryogenesis. He also developed numerous new cultivars of apples, with his scab-resistant cultivar utilized by breeders throughout the world. Janick has served as editor-in-chief of the journals of The American Society for Horticultural Science and is founding editor of Horticultural Reviews and Plant Breeding Reviews.
Michael Dunkel, a highly successful solicitor and prominent leader of the Sydney Jewish community, is a longstanding friend of the Hebrew University, a devoted leader of its Australian Friends and a fervent proponent of Jewish education in Australia. He is a governor of the Hebrew University, a trustee of the Sir Zelman Cowen Universities Fund, and a founder of the Orion Foundation.
|
Downloadable File: Hondocs2007.doc |
|
