More than 3,800 students will graduate from Wayne State University during two commencement ceremonies on Thursday, May 7, 2015. The ceremonies, which conclude the university's 147th academic year, will take place at Detroit's Ford Field.
Honorary degrees will be bestowed upon Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and Gerald Ellis Rosen, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. Both will receive the honorary doctor of laws, honoris causa, for their years of service and dedication to the metro Detroit community and beyond.
As director of the NIAID, Fauci oversees an expansive research portfolio with a recent annual budget of $4.5 billion. He has added greatly to the understanding of how HIV impacts the body and has been instrumental in developing highly effective therapy strategies for HIV/AIDS patients, as well as for a vaccine to prevent HIV infection. Fauci was one of the principal architects of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which has been responsible for saving millions of lives throughout the developing world. He serves as one of the key advisors to the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services on global AIDS issues and on initiatives to bolster medical and public health preparedness against emerging infectious disease threats.
Author, co-author or editor of more than 1,200 scientific publications, Fauci is one of the most cited scientists of the late 20th century. He has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of Science, the Robert Koch Gold Medal and the George M. Kober Medal of the Association of American Physicians, among others. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Institute of Medicine and the American Philosophical Society.
Rosen, recognized for his unprecedented work brokering "the grand bargain" during Detroit's bankruptcy, was nominated by President George H.W. Bush to the U.S. District court for the Eastern District of Michigan in 1989 and was invested in 1990. During his tenure on the federal bench, Rosen has had wide experience in facilitating settlements between parties in many cases, most recently as the chief judicial mediator for the Detroit bankruptcy case, the largest municipal bankruptcy in the nation's history.
He is a member of the Sixth Circuit Judicial Council, and served on the U.S. Judicial Conference's Committee on Criminal Law, where he was involved in developing sentencing and criminal law and procedure policy for the U.S. government's judicial branch. For more than 20 years, Rosen has taught at prestigious institutions, including the Wayne State University Law School and the University of Michigan Law School, and at continuing education law seminars for both lawyers and state and federal judges. He has represented the U.S. government abroad as part of the U.S. State Department's Rule of Law program and also lectured and consulted with local governments from countries around the world. He has published many articles on a range of issues, including civil procedure, evidence, due process, criminal law, labor law and legal advertising.
*Media planning to attend the ceremonies should RSVP by emailing Tom Reynolds at treynolds@wayne.edu.
May 2015 Commencement Ceremony schedule:
Thursday, May 7
10 a.m.
College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
School of Library and Information Science
School of Medicine (Ph.D./Master's)
College of Nursing
Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
4 p.m.
School of Business Administration
College of Education
College of Engineering
School of Social Work
Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution offering more than 380 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 28,000 students.