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Honorary Degree Recipients

Drexel celebrated Commencement 2005 with four ceremonies honoring graduates of our eight colleges and schools on the University City Main Campus.

     
 

Dr. Joseph Stiglitz
Founder of one of the leading economics journals, The Journal of Economic Perspectives

Dr. Joseph Stiglitz helped create “The Economics of Information,” and his work has transformed the way
economists think about the working of markets. He has
made vital contributions to every subfield of economic
theory—microeconomics, macroeconomics, industrial
organization, international economics, labor economics,
financial economics and development economics. Dr.
Stiglitz has published more than 300 papers as well as a dozen books in his 35-year career and is the founder of one of the leading economics journals, The Journal of Economic Perspectives.

In 2001, Dr. Stiglitz won the Nobel Prize in economics, with George Akerlof of the University of California, Berkeley and A. Michael Spence of Stanford University, for “their analyses of markets with asymmetric information,” according to the Nobel Academy. As founders of modern development economics, Dr. Stiglitz and his coauthors have time and again substantiated that economic models may be quite misleading if they isregard informational asymmetries. Several of his essays have become important stepping-stones for further research.

After doing graduate work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dr. Stiglitz received a Fulbright fellowship to Cambridge for 1965-1966. He joined the faculty at Yale University and was named a tenured professor at the age of 27, and he has been a faculty member at Princeton, Oxford and Stanford. At 29, he became a fellow of the Econometric Society, and he is a member of the National Academy of Science. Dr. Stiglitz received the prestigious John Bates Clark Medal, awarded every two years to
the American economist under the age of 40 who has made the most significant contributions to the subject.

Dr. Stiglitz was a member and later chairman of President
Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers. He also served as chief economist of the World Bank. Currently, he is University Professor at the Columbia University Business School, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and School of International and Public Affairs.

In recognition of his extensive contributions to the world of economics and education, Drexel University is proud to confer upon Joseph Stiglitz the degree of Doctor of Business Administration, honoris causa.

     

John Roberts '67
Director for Vonage

John J. Roberts served for more than a decade as a
Drexel University trustee. Before stepping down from the
Board in 2004, he helped guide the University through a period of remarkable growth and progress. He retired in 2002 after a 35-year career with Coopers & Lybrand and later PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Mr. Roberts rose from audit manager to general managing partner of PwC, ultimately overseeing the company’s $7 billion global consulting division specializing in management consulting, human resource consulting and business process outsourcing. He was a member of PwC’s Leadership Team, the most senior management group, with
responsibility for strategy and operations of the $21 billion revenue, 150,000-employee firm.

A loyal Drexel alumnus, Mr. Roberts graduated from the University in 1967 and went to work in Coopers & Lybrand’s Philadelphia,Washington and London offices. He became responsible for the firm’s transportation industry practice in 1974 and was made managing partner of the Philadelphia office in 1983. He relocated to Los Angeles after being named vice chairman and West Region managing partner in 1988. By 1994 he was chief operating officer, and he also served as a member of the
Board of Partners and Management Committee. Coopers & Lybrand merged with PwC in 1998.

Mr. Roberts is a member of the American Institute of CPAs and serves on the boards of Armstrong Holdings, the Pennsylvania Real Estate Trust, Safeguard Scientifics and Vonage Holdings. At various times in his career he also held board memberships at the Philadelphia First Corporation, the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, the Urban Affairs Partnership and the University City Science Center and served on the advisory boards of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and the University of Southern California School of Accounting.

For his long service to Drexel and his remarkable professional accomplishments, Drexel University confers with pride upon John J. Roberts the degree of Doctor of Business Administration, honoris causa.

     
 

Dr. Alan G. MacDiarmid
Recipient of the 2000 Nobel Prize in chemistry

A discoverer of the field of conducting polymers, or
“synthetic metals,”Alan G. MacDiarmid was the chemist
responsible in 1977 for the chemical and electrochemical
doping of polyacetylene, the “prototype” conducting polymer, and the “rediscovery” of polyaniline, the foremost industrial conducting polymer. He lives by the motto on a sign in his study: “I am a very lucky person and the harder I work the luckier I seem to be.”

In 2000 Dr.MacDiarmid shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Alan Heeger and Hideki Shirakawa for the discovery of metallic conductivity in organic polymers. He helped establish the Jilin MacDiarmid Institute of organic nanomaterials at Jilin University, Changchun, China, and the new MacDiarmid Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Dr.MacDiarmid holds the Blanchard Chair in Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania and the James Von Ehr Distinguished Chair in Science and Technology at the University of Texas at Dallas, where he is professor of chemistry and physics. He is a professor of chemistry at Jilin University. He earned his master’s degree from the University of New Zealand and doctoral degrees from the University ofWisconsin and Cambridge University. He joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania in 1955.

Dr. MacDiarmid has written more than 600 research papers and holds approximately 25 patents. In 2001, Victoria University created the Alan MacDiarmid Chair in Physical Chemistry. In 2000, the Royal Society of New Zealand awarded him its top honor, the Rutherford Medal. In 2002, he became a Member of the Order of New Zealand, the nation’s highest honor.

Dr. MacDiarmid gives credit for his success to his colleagues and students, saying, “You can be the most brilliant scientist in all the world; put you on a desert island with the very best scientific equipment and the very best library and you’ll do uninteresting research. You must have interaction. You must have discussion.”

For shaping the future through chemistry and teaching young minds, Drexel University is proud to confer upon Alan G. MacDiarmid the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa.

     
 

John A. Nyheim
Investment counsel for Nyheim & Associates

John A. Nyheim is among the longest-serving members
of the Drexel University Board of Trustees. He has
been a University trustee continuously since his 1989
appointment, and for more than 15 years he has worked
tirelessly on the University’s behalf. He has made a special impact as chair of the Board’s Investment Committee. During his decade-long tenure as investment chair, Drexel’s endowment has grown by more than 350 percent, to $424 million.

In 1999 he established the Nyheim Endowed Chair of Engineering at Drexel, currently held by Dr. Alexander Fridman in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics. Mr. Nyheim’s chair support has enabled the College of Engineering to establish the Drexel Plasma Institute, which coordinates research projects related to plasma and other high-energy engineering technologies. The Drexel Plasma Institute has received several million dollars in research grants from government agencies including the Department of Energy and NASA.

Mr. Nyheim also serves on several Philadelphia boards, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Curtis Institute of Music and the Academy of Vocal Arts, where the John A. Nyheim Fellowship is named in his honor. He is a member of the board of the Society of Four Arts in Palm Beach, Fla.

Born in Oakland, Calif., Mr. Nyheim graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1958 with an undergraduate degree in economics. He received his master of arts degree in economics from Yale in 1960 and embarked on a career as a highly successful investment management professional with Wellington Management and now with his own firm, Nyheim & Associates.

He and his wife Chris have two sons, Thomas and Peter, and four grandchildren. The Nyheims maintain residences in Villanova, Pa., Palm Beach, Fla. (where they have hosted a number of Drexel alumni events) and Jackson Hole,Wyo. Among their many interests are hiking, horseback riding and world travel.

Recognizing his many years of concerned stewardship of Drexel University, the University proudly confers upon John A. Nyheim the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa.

     
 

Manuel Stamatakis
PHEC chairman

Manuel N. Stamatakis is a leading citizen of Greater Philadelphia and one of Drexel University’s most
dedicated stewards. He is president and chief executive
officer of Capital Management Enterprises, a financial services and employee benefit consulting company in Valley Forge, Pa.He also serves as chairman of the Greater Philadelphia Tourism and Marketing Corporation, the Philadelphia Shipyard Development Corporation and the World Trade Center of Greater Philadelphia.

Mr. Stamatakis was a lead negotiator in crafting the agreement that allowed Drexel to make the nation’s largest private medical school the Drexel University College of Medicine, saving more than 13,000 jobs for Greater Philadelphia. As chairman of the College, he has worked to preserve its outstanding academic tradition
and rebuild its fiscal strength. He has also served on the
Board of Trustees of the University since 1996.

Mr. Stamatakis has led joint public and private efforts to
strengthen the local economy and improve Pennsylvania’s role in world trade. At the request of Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, Mr. Stamatakis chaired the Pennsylvania Improve Management Performance and Cost Control Task Force Commission, which identified potential savings for the Commonwealth of $7.6 billion over five years.

Governor Ridge also appointed Mr. Stamatakis to the Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA) and the PATCO Transit Authority. In 1998, the Governor appointed him chairman of the Team Pennsylvania Ambassador Program, a network of business, cultural and academic leaders working to expand domestic and international business in Pennsylvania.

Mr. Stamatakis received a bachelor of science degree in industrial engineering from Pennsylvania State University. He serves on numerous boards and committees for Pennsylvania organizations, including the World Affairs Council, the Health Care Resources Foundation, The Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation and Philadelphia Orchestra Association. His charitable activities include the Boy Scouts of America, the American Cancer Society, the American Jewish Committee and the United Negro College Fund.

In honor of his contributions to Drexel University and his extensive public service, Drexel University is proud to confer upon Manuel N. Stamatakis the degree of Doctor of Business Administration, honoris causa.

     
 

James Lipton
Archivist for the Craft of Acting

James Lipton, host of Bravo’s Inside the Actors Studio, has interviewed more than 80 of contemporary film and theater’s most noteworthy contributors. He has created
what he calls “a unique archive” of in-depth looks at the craft of acting.

An ccomplished director, choreographer, producer, writer of stage and screen and author, Mr. Lipton has brought more than 25 variety specials, movies and performing arts programs to network and cable television. He has also written screenplays for a number of television movies including Mirrors, which was produced by Mr. Lipton and based on his novel. He is president of Jim Lipton Productions. He also authored the best-selling book An Exaltation of Larks, in print since 1968.

Mr. Lipton’s Broadway shows as a playwright and lyricist include Nowhere to Go but Up, directed by Sidney Lumet. He directed The New York Shakespeare Festival’s A Night of Shakespeare’s Women, directed and choreographed The Doctor In Spite of Himself and choreographed Charlot, a ballet based on Charlie Chaplin’s characters. He produced The Mighty Gents, Monteith and Rand and Ain’t Misbehavin’, which won the 1978 Tony Award for Best Musical.

He is a life member and vice president of the Actors Studio, serves on its board of directors and executive committee and has been a moderator of its Playwrights and Directors Unit. He helped create the Actors Studio Drama School at New School University, of which he served as dean for 10 years and is now dean emeritus. Mr. Lipton is a member of the Authors’ League, the Dramatists’ Guild, ASCAP, AFTRA and SAG, and is a lifetime member of the Writers’Guild of America. He has been a national trustee of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and a governor of the academy’s New York chapter.He is a licensed pilot and has competed in horse shows, showing hunters and jumpers. In 1995 he represented the United States Equestrian team in Grand Prix jumping at the Challenge of Champions.

In recognition of his many accomplishments and talents, Drexel University takes pride in conferring upon James Lipton the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa.

 


 Modified: Friday June 17 2005