Honorary Degree Recipients in the 2000s

2000

Robert Burton, chairman, chief executive officer, president, Walter Industries, Inc. - Doctor of Humane Letters
Rita Colwell, director, National Science Foundation - Doctor of Science
Christopher J. Dodd, U.S. Senator (D-Conn.) - Doctor of Laws
Harold Hongju Koh, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor - Doctor of Laws
Jules LaPidus, president, Council of Graduate Schools - Doctor of Laws
Lionel Olmer, senior partner, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison - Doctor of Laws
Harvey Sadow, retired chief executive officer, Boehringer Pharmaceuticals Inc. - Doctor of Science
Sheila Widnall, professor, MIT, former Secretary, U.S. Air Force - Doctor of Science


2001

Mary Francis Berry, chair, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights - Doctor of Laws
Lester Brown, founder, Chair, Worldwatch Institute - Doctor of Science
Shirley Ann Jackson, president, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - Doctor of Science
Ray Neag, founder, director, Arrow Int., philanthropist, UConn Class of 1956 - Doctor of Laws
Philip Roth, author - Doctor of Humane Letters
Thomas Ritter, former state legislator, UConn Class of '77 (Law) - Doctor of Laws, attorney
Charles H. Thornton, chairman, The Thornton-Tomasetti Group - Doctor of Science


2002

Judah Folkman, M.D., medical researcher, Children's Hospital, Boston - Doctor of Science
Frene Noshir Ginwala, speaker, South African National Assembly - Doctor of Laws
Princess Irene of Greece, humanitarian - Doctor of Humane Letters
Bobbie Ann Mason, novelist, short story writer, writer-in-residence, University of Kentucky - Doctor of Letters
Edmund D. Pellegrino, M.D., medical ethicist, professor emeritus, Georgetown University - Doctor of Science
Joseph Volpe, general manager, Metropolitan Opera - Doctor of Fine Arts
Patricia McGowan, former judge, U.S. Court of Appeals - Wald Doctor of Laws
William A. Wulf, president, National Academy of Engineering - Doctor of Science
Fujia Yang, chancellor, The University of Nottingham - Doctor of Science


2003

Daniel C. Dennett, professor, director, Center for Cognitive Studies, Tufts - Doctor of Humane Letters
Frederick Fennell, conductor - Doctor of Fine Arts
John Kluge, chairman, president, Metromedia Co. - Doctor of Humane Letters
Philip Leder, director, Harvard Institute of Human Genetics - Doctor of Science
Henry C. Lee, forensic scientist and former Connecticut Commissioner of Public Safety - Doctor of Science
Arthur Levitt, former chair, Securities& Exchange Commission - Doctor of Laws
Gordon Parks, photographer, writer, composer, filmmaker Doctor of Fine Arts-
Les Payne, journalist, columnist, UConn Class of 1964 (CLAS) - Doctor of Letters


2004

Iognáid G. Ó Muircheartaigh, president, National University of Ireland - Doctor of Science
Gerhard H. Giebrisch, Sterling Professor, Cellular & Molecular Physiology, Yale - Doctor of Science
Dennis Wayne Archer, mayor, Detroit, Michigan - Doctor of Laws


2005

Eduardo Aguirre, director, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services - Doctor of Humane Letters
Morris Sheppard Arnold, United States Court of Appeals, 8th District - Doctor of Laws
Robert Ballard, director, Mystic Aquarium Institute for Exploration, Mystic, Conn. - Doctor of Science
Dr. Henry B. C. Low, president, MacArthur Foundation - Doctor of Laws
Roger S. Newton, senior vice president, director, Esperion Therapeutics, Pfizer - Doctor of Science
Tim Page, chief music critic, The Washington Post - Doctor of Fine Arts


2006

Arthur Caplan, author and professor of bioethics, University of Pennsylvania - Doctor of Science
David Chase, chairman, chief executive officer, Chase Enterprises - Doctor of Humane Letters
Rhoda Cohen Chase, philanthropist - Doctor of Humane Letters
Francis S. Collins, director, Human Genome Research Institute - Doctor of Science
Rosa DeLauro, House of Representatives, D-3rd District, Connecticut - Doctor of Laws
The Honorable Allyson Duncan, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit - Doctor of Laws
Barbara Ehrenreich, author, contributing editor, Time - Doctor of Humane Letters
Amartya Sen,professor, economics and philosophy, Harvard University - Doctor of Laws


2007

Wolfgang Ketterle, John D. MacArthur Prof. of Physics, MIT - Doctor of Science
John Krenicki, president, chief executive officer, GE Energy, UConn Class of 1984 - Doctor of Science
Mark R. Shenkman, president, chief information officer, Shenkman Capital Management Inc., UConn Class of 1965 - Doctor of Humane Letters
Fay Weldon, British novelist, essayist, screenwriter - Doctor of Letters


2008

Charlotte Bunch, founder & executive director, Center for Women’s Global Leadership, Rutgers - Doctor of Laws
Gary S. Gladstein, philanthropist, retired chief executive officer, Soros Fund Management, UConn Class of 1966 - Doctor of Humane Letters
Garry Wills, scholar, journalist - Doctor of Letters
Denis M. McCarthy, retired chairman, chief executive officer, president, Fidelity Management Trust Co. - Doctor of Humane Letters


2009

Timothy Shriver, chairman, chief executive officer, Special Olympics, UConn 1997 Ph.D. (NEAG) - Doctor of Humane Letters
Robert Sternberg, dean, Tufts University School of Arts and Sciences - Doctor of Science

 

Information on the History of Commencement pages was researched and compiled by Mark J. Roy