More than 3,200 Wayne State University students will have a new academic credential to place beside their name following winter commencement ceremonies that begin at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 17, in Cobo Arena.
WSU President Irvin D. Reid will confer 1,556 bachelor's, 1,526 masters and140 doctoral degrees during ceremonies that will mark the special occasion for graduates.
Seniors Samir S. Shah and Juliette M. Slomka will receive David D. Henry Awards for exceptional scholastic achievement, leadership and service.
Joel S. Miller, chemistry professor and research scientist at the University of Utah, will receive the Distinguished Alumni Award.
Shah will receive a Bachelor of Arts degree, summa cum laude, with a major in honors philosophy. He is a member-at-large of the WSU Student Council and vice president of chapter development for the WSU chapter of the Golden Key National Honors Society.
He has been active in the biology department RNA Club, the Asian American Professional Network and the Indian Student Association. He also has served as a volunteer at Children's Hospital of Michigan, Gleaners Community Food Bank and the Canton Hindu Temple.
Following graduation, Shah will travel to Bombay, India, where he will perform volunteer work in medical facilities for six months before returning to Wayne State to pursue a medical degree.
Slomka will receive a Bachelor of Science degree in honors biological sciences. She is president of the WSU chapter of the American Chemical Society Student Affiliates, treasurer of the WSU chapter of the Phi Eta Sigma National Honors Society, and has served as public relations chairperson and newsletter editor for the Association of Pre-Medical Students.
She is a member of the WSU marching and concert bands and has been active in the Alumni Society mentoring program, the Women's Studies Association and the Polish Jagiellonian Society. An active researcher, she has presented papers at several conferences, including the Argonne National Laboratory Undergraduate Research Symposium and the American Chemical Society National Meeting.
Slomka has worked as a volunteer at Harper Hospital, Children's Hospital of Michigan and Big Brothers-Big Sisters, among other organizations.
Miller received a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Wayne State in 1967. He has a doctoral degree from UCLA . Following post-doctoral work at Stanford, he worked for a number of major corporations, including Xerox, Occidental Research and the Advanced Material's Science Laboratory at Du Pont.
A leading authority on molecular-based magnets and conducting polymers, Miller has developed a super-strong magnet made of molecules based on polymers rather than metals.
Before joining the full-time faculty at the University of Utah in 1993, he was visiting professor at the University of California-Irvine, University of Pennsylvania and Universite de Paris-Sud.
He also held the prestigious William Manchot research professorship at the Technical University of Munich and was visiting scientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.