MU to Award More than 5,000 Degrees at May 2008 Commencement Ceremonies
May 12, 2008
Story Contact: Christian Basi, (573) 882-4430, BasiC@missouri.edu
COLUMBIA, Mo. -- All across the University of Missouri campus, thousands of students are finishing tests, turning in final papers and preparing to leave Mizzou. During the 166th annual Spring Commencement ceremonies Friday, May 16, through Sunday, May 18, the University of Missouri will confer 5,194 degrees to 4,774 graduates.
MU will recognize 964 top graduates at the 14th annual Honors Convocation at 9 a.m., Saturday, May 17, at Francis Quadrangle. An honorary degree will be presented to Larry Smarr, founder and first director of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications.
MU’s schools and colleges will hold individual commencements, some with guest speakers. Speakers highlighting this year’s commencement are:
• Ken Paulson, editor and senior vice president/news of USA TODAY and USATODAY.com, will speak at the School of Journalism commencement ceremony at 2 p.m. Friday, May 16, at the Mizzou Arena.
• Jordan J. Cohen, president emeritus of the Association of American Medical Colleges, will speak at the School of Medicine commencement ceremony at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, May 17, at Jesse Auditorium. Cohen is a member of the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine and chair of the Arnold P. Gold Foundation.
• U.S. Congressman Kenny Hulshof, will speak at the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources commencement ceremony at 6 p.m. Saturday, May 17, at the Hearnes Center.
“We are delighted that all these well-educated graduates whom we admitted to MU a few years ago will now be joining 244,140 other Mizzou alumni throughout the world.” said Ann Korschgen, vice provost for enrollment at MU.
At the 15 ceremonies, 3,724 students will receive bachelor’s degrees, 897 students will receive master’s degrees, 558 students will receive doctoral degrees and 15 students will receive educational specialist’s degrees.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: A detailed schedule of events, lists of speakers, and biographical information on Smarr is attached.
Schedule of 166th Annual Spring Commencement Ceremonies
University of Missouri
May 16-18
Friday, May 16
1 p.m.
College of Veterinary Medicine
Location: Jesse Auditorium
Speaker: Gary A. Vroegindewey, colonel, United States Army – Veterinary Corps
2 p.m.
School of Journalism
Location: Mizzou Arena
Speaker: Ken Paulson, editor and senior vice president/news of USA TODAY and USATODAY.com
4 p.m.
Sinclair School of Nursing
Location: Jesse Auditorium
Speaker: Robyn Swoboda, bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) candidate; Sarah Roffler, BSN accelerated candidate; Sarah Muegge, registered nurse, BSN, master of science candidate
5 p.m.
Trulaske College of Business and Public Administration
Location: Hearnes Center
Speaker: William Little, president of Quam-Nichols Company in Chicago, Ill.
6:30 p.m.
College of Engineering
Location: Jesse Auditorium
Speaker: David Haffner, president and CEO of Leggett and Platt in Carthage, Mo.
7:30 p.m.
Graduate School
Location: Mizzou Arena
Speaker: Charles J. McClain, former president of Truman State University
Saturday, May 17
9 a.m.
Honors Convocation
Location: Francis Quadrangle (Rain Site- Mizzou Arena)
Speakers: Larry Smarr, honorary degree recipient and founder and first director of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications
12 p.m.
School of Natural Resources
Location: Jesse Auditorium
Speaker: David Murphy, executive director, Conservation Federation of Missouri
1 p.m.
College of Arts and Science
Location: Hearnes Center
Speaker: Claire McCaskill, U.S. Senator
2:30 p.m.
School of Medicine
Location: Jesse Auditorium
Speaker: Jordan J. Cohen, president emeritus of the Association of American Medical Colleges, member of the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine, and chair of the Arnold P. Gold Foundation
3:30 p.m.
College of Education
Location: Mizzou Arena
Speakers: Jim Hinson, superintendent of the Independence School District and chair-elect of the MU Partnership for Educational Renewal Governing Board; John DeArman, president of the College of Education’s Mizzou Alumni Association Board; Whitney Schloss, president of the College of Education’s Student Council
6 p.m.
College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources
Location: Hearnes Center
Speaker: Kenny Hulshof, U.S. Congressman, 9th District of Missouri
7 p.m.
School of Heath Professions
Location: Jesse Auditorium
Speaker: Gordon Lamb, executive vice president, University of Missouri System
8 p.m.
College of Human Environmental Sciences
Location: Mizzou Arena
Speaker: Jane Bierdeman-Fike, master of social work
Sunday, May 18
1:30 p.m.
School of Law
Location: Jesse Auditorium
Speaker: Patricia A. Breckinridge, judge, Supreme Court of Missouri
1:30 p.m.
ROTC Commissioning Ceremony
Department of Military Science/Aerospace
Location: Mizzou Arena
Speaker: Garrett Harencak, brigadier general and wing commander at Whiteman Air Force Base
Honorary Degree Recipient
Biography
Larry Smarr
Larry Smarr is the founder and first director of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).
Smarr prompted a technological revolution in 1983 when he proposed the development of a national supercomputer center to the National Science Foundation (NSF). The NSF granted $50 million to pursue this system in an effort to increase academic research and global competitiveness.
Two years later, Smarr launched NCSA. As director, he analyzed numerous future products of technological industry leaders such as Microsoft, IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Intel. As NCSA evolved, a five-computer supercomputing center named NSFnet, which was a precursor to what is known as the internet today, was developed. Smarr’s leadership and vision flourished with the development of Mosaic and NCSA’s Web server software in 1993 and 1994. It is with these technological advancements that the internet was transformed into the world wide web directly leading to the commercial browsing used today.
Comprised of more than 50 universities, NCSA linked corporations and government laboratories, Smarr became the director of the National Computational Science Alliance in October 1997.
Later, Smarr partnered with the federal government to induce change of the distributed and parallel computing system. Because of this, he has contributed to various federal committees. Smarr served as a chair on the National Institute of Health (NIH) Working Group on Biomedical Computing and the NASA Science Advisory Council. Additionally, Smarr has contributed to the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee.
Born in Columbia, Mo., Smarr received his bachelor’s degree and first master’s degree both in physics, from the University of Missouri. After earning a second master’s degree in physics from Stanford University and a doctorate in physics from the University of Texas at Austin, Smarr worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton followed by a position as a junior fellow at Harvard. In 1979, Smarr joined the faculty at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. Currently, Smarr is the founding director of the California Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technology and a professor at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) Department of Computer Science and Engineering. In 2002, he was named the Harry E. Gruber Professor of Computer Science and Information Technologies at UCSD.
Smarr is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a co-author of Supercomputing and the Transformation of Science.