NEW: Brown University Awards 9 Honorary Degrees at Commencement

Sunday, May 27, 2012

GoLocalProv Features Team

Nine people who have distinguished themselves through their efforts in the arts, sciences, letters, scholarship, and public service received honorary degrees from Brown University during the University’s 244th Commencement ceremonies today:

• Carolyn Bertozzi, chemist and immunologist;

• Viola Davis, actress;

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• John Robert Lewis, civil rights leader and U.S. representative;

• Marilynne Summers Robinson, writer and educator;

• Sebastian A. Ruth, musician and educator;

• Diane Sawyer, broadcast journalist;

• Gene Sharp, political theorist, scholar of nonviolent change;

• Ruth J. Simmons, 18th president of Brown University; and

• Wei Yang, engineer.

Honorary degrees are awarded by the University’s Board of Fellows and are conferred by the University president — in English and in Latin — during Commencement exercises on the College Green. Donald C. Hood, secretary of the Brown Corporation and the University’s senior fellow, conferred the degree on Simmons. The honorary doctorate for Simmons was a Commencement surprise, not announced in advance and not included in the printed program.

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