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In Review

COMMENCEMENT 2019Nobel Laureate Donna Strickland ’89 (PhD) Set to Address Graduates The University celebrates the 169th commencement season with ceremonies and special guests. By Sara Miller
commencementHONOREE: Donna Strickland ’89 (PhD), who received a 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics in recognition of work she conducted at Rochester, will receive two of the University’s highest awards during spring ceremonies. (Photo: University of Waterloo)

2019 honorees

G. Graydon Curtis ’58 and Jane W. Curtis Award for Nontenured Faculty Teaching Excellence

Vincent Hope, clinical assistant professor, Simon Business School

Heidi Tribunella, clinical professor of accounting and director of the master’s degree program in accountancy

Ignacio Franco, assistant professor of chemistry

Andrew White, assistant professor of chemical engineering

Edward Peck Curtis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching

Chris Muir, professor of mechanical engineering

Stella Wang, associate professor in the Writing, Speaking, and Argument Program

William H. Riker University Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching

William Jones, the Charles F. Houghton Professor of Chemistry

George Eastman Medal

Barbara Iglewski, professor and chair emeritus of microbiology and immunology

Donna Strickland ’89 (PhD), professor of physics and astronomy, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Charles Force Hutchison and Marjorie Smith Hutchison Medal

Ruth Lawrence ’49M (MD), the Northumberland Trust Professor in Pediatrics

Donna Strickland ’89 (PhD), who became only the third woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics when she and her Rochester doctoral advisor Gérard Mourou were named laureates last winter, has been selected to address the graduating College Class of 2019.

Strickland, who is now a professor of physics at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, will also receive the University’s George Eastman Medal during the ceremony for undergraduates in Arts, Sciences & Engineering on May 19.

In addition, she will address graduates receiving doctoral degrees during a May 18 ceremony, when she will receive the University’s Distinguished Scholar Medal, which recognizes doctoral alumni who have led distinguished careers in academia, private enterprise, public service, and the arts.

Strickland is one of several Rochester alumni and faculty members who are set to be recognized during this spring’s ceremonies. At the Eastman School of Music ceremony on May 19, noted soprano Julia Bullock ’09E will address the graduates. In 2018–19, Bullock was artist-in- residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she curated a yearlong series to explore ideas about identity, objectification, and history in music and other arts.


Across all the University’s academic units and programs about 2,500 degrees will be awarded during commencement season. For more about the ceremonies, visit Rochester.edu/commencement.