UB to Hold Commencement Ceremonies May 12-14

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A University at Buffalo alumnus who was a pioneer in the treatment of kidney disease and a nationally known novelist and playwright will receive honorary degrees during commencement ceremonies to be held May 12-14 at the University at Buffalo.

About 5,500 students will be candidates for degrees from the university during 14 separate commencement ceremonies scheduled during the weekend.

UB President William R. Greiner will speak at the university's 149th general commencement ceremony, to be held at 10 a.m. on Sunday, May 14, in Alumni Arena on the North (Amherst) Campus.

Greiner and Provost Thomas E. Headrick, Ph.D., will confer degrees on graduating seniors from the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, the Faculty of Arts and Letters and the Faculty of Social Sciences.

The university will award honorary degrees to George Widmer Thorn, M.D., one of UB's most distinguished medical alumni who co-developed the first effective treatment for Addison's Disease, and novelist and playwright Ishmael Reed.

A 1929 graduate of the UB medical school, Thorn will be invested with the indicia of the honorary doctorate in science from the State University of New York by SUNY Trustee Miles Lasser at the general commencement ceremony. Lasser will confer the degree on Thorn at the commencement ceremony for the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, to be held at 3 p.m. on May 14 in the Center for the Arts on the North (Amherst) Campus.

Thorn is credited with two "firsts" in the development of treatments for patients with kidney failure -- he was the first physician in the U.S. to use an artificial kidney and the first to utilize a donor kidney.

Thorn was a founding editor of the internationally known medical text "Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine." As a teacher at Harvard University, he trained more than 5,000 medical students. He is also a founder of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

The George W. Thorn Award presented by the UB Alumni Association to graduates under the age of 40 in recognition of their outstanding national or international contributions to their career field or academic area is named in honor of Thorn. The then private University of Buffalo presented him with its highest honor, the Chancellor Charles P. Norton Medal, in 1943.

Reed will receive the honorary doctorate in letters from Greiner and SUNY Trustee Arnold Gardner at the general commencement ceremony.

He has written nine novels, four essay collections, poetry and several plays blending street talk, science, literary allusions, jazz, African and Caribbean legends, and political and social critiques.

A Buffalo native and a former UB student who began his college career taking courses part-time, Reed was encouraged by his English teacher to enroll full-time. However, he had to withdraw from UB during his junior year.

Also at the general commencement ceremony, the university's most prestigious award, the Chancellor Charles P. Norton Medal, will be presented to Eleanor V. Millonzi by UB Council Chairman Philip Wels, M.D., and Greiner.

The Norton medal is presented annually in public recognition of a person who has, in Norton's words, "performed some great thing which is identified with Buffalo€a great civic or political act, a great book, a great work of art, a great scientific achievement, or any other thing which in itself is truly great and ennobling and which dignifies the performer and Buffalo in the eyes of the world."

A leading patron of the arts in the Niagara Region, Millonzi has given unstintingly in behalf of local arts institutions and organizations, including Studio Arena, the Amherst Saxophone Quartet and UB's Center for the Arts.

George C. Lee, Ph.D., a UB faculty member for 35 years who is retiring this year as dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences after almost two decades in the post, will receive the President's Medal.

First presented in 1990, the President's Medal is given in recognition of "signal and extraordinary service to the university. It is presented for outstanding scholarly or artistic achievements, humanitarian acts, contributions of time or treasure, exemplary leadership or any other major contribution to the development of the University at Buffalo and the quality of life in the UB community."

Lee established EngiNet, a distance-learning collaboration among UB and other SUNY engineering programs, and is the founder of the Buffalo Area Engineering Awareness for Minorities program (BEAM) that has encouraged more than a thousand local high school students to pursue degrees in engineering.

The UB-based National Center for Earthquake Engineering Research, which he will continue to head, is a worldwide leader in designing buildings to withstand earthquake damage.

€ School of Architecture and Planning: 2 p.m., May 13, lawn of Hayes Hall, South (Main Street) Campus. Controversial attorney William Kunstler will speak. Greiner will confer degrees.

€ School of Law: 1 p.m., May 13, Center for the Arts. State Attorney General Dennis C. Vacco will speak. Dean Barry B. Boyer will confer degrees.

€ Graduate School: 3:30 p.m., May 12, Center for the Arts. Former SUNY Chancellor D. Bruce Johnstone will speak. Kenneth J. Levy, Ph.D., senior vice provost, will confer degrees.

€ School of Health Related Professions: 9 a.m., May 13, Alumni Arena. Louis J. Goldberg, dean of the UB School of Dental Medicine, will speak. John P. Naughton, M.D., UB vice president for clinical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, will confer degrees.

€ School of Nursing: 9 a.m., May 13, Slee Concert Hall, North (Amherst) Campus. Robert V. Piemonte, executive director for the National Student Nurses Association, will speak. Headrick will confer degrees.

€ School of Information and Library Sciences: 10 a.m., May 13, Student Union Theatre, North (Amherst) Campus. Barbara von Wahlde, associate vice president for University Libraries at UB, will speak. George S. Bobinski, Ph.D., dean of the library school, will confer degrees.

€ School of Engineering and Applied Sciences: 1 p.m., May 13, Alumni Arena. There will be no speaker. Headrick will confer degrees.

€ School of Pharmacy: 1 p.m., May 13, Slee Concert Hall. There will be no speaker. David J. Triggle, Ph.D., dean of the school, will confer degrees.

€ School of Management: 5 p.m., May 13, Alumni Arena. Frederick W. Winter, Ph.D., dean of the school, and faculty, students and alumni will speak. Headrick will confer degrees.

€ Graduate School of Education: 5:30 p.m., May 13, Center for the Arts. Muriel A. Moore, Ph.D., UB vice president for public service and urban affairs, will speak. Dean Hugh G. Petrie, Ph.D., will confer degrees.

€ School of Dental Medicine: 2 p.m., May 14, Slee Concert Hall. Lisa Tedesco, Ph.D., associate dean for academic affairs at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry and a former UB dental faculty member, will speak. Dean Louis J. Goldberg, D.D.S., Ph.D., will confer degrees.

€ School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences: 3 p.m., May 14, Center for the Arts. John P. Naughton, M.D., dean of the UB medical school and vice president for clinical affairs, will speak. Greiner will confer degrees.

€ School of Social Work: 7 p.m., May 14, Slee Concert Hall. Paul H. Gevirtzman, UB clinical assistant professor of social work, will speak. Headrick will confer degrees.