Four to receive honorary degrees at summer commencement

COLUMBUS – Four individuals will be honored at The Ohio State University’s summer 2004 commencement for their contributions to society and academics, and their dedication to the university. Ceremonies begin at 2 p.m. Sunday (8/29), at The Jerome Schottenstein Center.
Honorary doctorates will be presented to Ernest M.Henley, one of the most influential theoretical nuclear physicists in our time; and Howard M. Johnson, a three-time Ohio State graduate whose immunology research has played an important role in the use of interferon in the treatment of multiple sclerosis.

Distinguished Service Awards will be presented to Clarence Cole, professor emeritus in veterinary pathobiology in The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine; and Elaine H. Hairston, three-time Ohio State graduate and chancellor emerita of the Ohio Board of Regents.

Ernest M. Henley, Doctor of Science

Ernest M. Henley is professor emeritus in the Department of Physics at the University of
Washington. He is widely respected as one of the most original and influential theoretical nuclear physicists in the scientific community today.

After earning his Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1952, Dr. Henley was a lecturer at Columbia University before joining the faculty at the University of Washington in 1954 as an assistant professor of physics, becoming a full professor in 1961. During his tenure at the University of Washington, he has proven a skilled administrator, serving as chair of the University Faculty Senate, chair of the Department of Physics, and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. In 1990, he played a leading role in founding the university’s Institute for Nuclear Theory, serving as director for its inaugural year and continuing to serve as its associate director.

His research interests have had a profound effect on the field of particle and nuclear physics. His main impact has been in the area of symmetry violations in nuclei, which have led to important tests of the standard model of particle physics and to the measurement of a unique property of atoms called anapole movement.

Dr. Henley is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, having served as chair of its Physics Section; and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Physical Society, where he served as president in 1992, as chair of the Nuclear Physics Division from 1979 to 1980, and serves as co-founder and secretary-treasurer of the society’s Northwest Section. He has been a Distinguished Scholar to the People’s Republic of China and has chaired the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee, which advises the federal government on all major funding issues in nuclear physics.

Dr. Henley is the author or coauthor of some 200 scholarly journal articles, more than 20 book chapters, and six books. He is currently at work on a third edition of Nuclear and Particle Physics, fi rst published in 1975. He continues to do research on the early universe and neutrinos in astrophysics.

Howard M. Johnson, Doctor of Science

Howard M. Johnson is Graduate Research Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Cell
Science at the University of Florida. He has received international recognition for his contributions to understanding the role of interferons and superantigens as modulators of the immune response. The research has played an important role in the use of interferon in the treatment of multiple sclerosis.

A native of Maryland, Dr. Johnson’s elementary education began modestly in a two-room building with no running water or central heating. However, his strong commitment to education ultimately led him to The Ohio State University where he received his bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. degrees and began his research in immunology. After receiving his doctorate, he worked with the Food and Drug Administration in Cincinnati from 1963 to 1975 before receiving an academic appointment as associate professor in the University of Texas Medical Branch’s Department of Microbiology in Galveston. He rose to the rank of full professor in 1978.

In 1984 he joined the University of Florida faculty as professor in the Department of Comparative and Experimental Pathology, and in 1988 he was named Graduate Research Professor, one of the university’s highest academic distinctions. He also served as a University of Florida Research Foundation Professor from 1997 to 2000.

During his academic career, Dr. Johnson has been the recipient of numerous National Institutes of Health grants, has published more than 260 scholarly research papers, and has mentored 14 graduate students and nine postdoctoral researchers. He has served on the Graduate Study Panel of the National Science Foundation and the editorial boards of the Journal of Immunology and Infection and Immunity. He was a member of the National Advisory Council of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1994 to 1998 and the Research Committee of the American Heart Association from 1991 to 1996. In these positions, he was responsible for evaluating and approving research projects nationwide, involving annual expenditures of more than $1 billion.

Dr. Johnson was instrumental in establishing a Center for Inflammatory Host Defense and Tissue Injury at the University of Florida, serving as its first director. And he is the founder and president of a start-up biotechnology company, Superferons Inc.

Clarence R. Cole, Distinguished Service Award

Clarence R. Cole is Regents Professor Emeritus in veterinary pathobiology in The Ohio State
University College of Veterinary Medicine. During his long tenure at Ohio State, he was a leading proponent of veterinary research for the benefi t of both animals and humans, bringing national attention to his college and to his alma mater.

Dr. Cole earned his doctor of veterinary medicine degree in 1943, a master’s degree in veterinary pathology in 1944, and a Ph.D. in pathobiology in 1947, all from Ohio State, before joining the university’s faculty in 1947. After rising through the academic ranks to professor of veterinary pathology in the College of Veterinary Medicine and professor of comparative pathology in the College of Medicine and Public Health, he was named Regents Professor by the Ohio Board of Regents in 1971. He retired from the university in 1985.

During his years as assistant dean for research development from 1960 to 1967 and then dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine from 1967 to 1971, Dr. Cole was responsible for a number of innovative changes. He planned and secured extramural funding from the National Institutes of Health and the State of Ohio for two major buildings —the Veterinary Teaching Hospital and Goss Laboratories. He designed and initiated the college’s precedent-setting integrated body systems-oriented, core-elective curriculum, still in place today. He began admission procedures for students based on merit without regard to gender and expanded graduate education, and he established interdisciplinary programs between the Colleges of Veterinary Medicine and Medicine. During this time, he obtained grants and gifts to the college totaling more than $16.5 billion.

A stimulating teacher, Dr. Cole has published extensively, lectured throughout the world on pathobiology and veterinary education, and serves as an advisor to the World Health Organization. He is a founder of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists, serving as its president in 1957.

He received the College of Veterinary Medicine’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1986, and his many contributions are acknowledged by a plaque on the Clarence R. Cole Deans’ Suite in the new Veterinary Medicine Academic Building.

Elaine H. Hairston, Distinguished Service Award

Elaine H. Hairston is chancellor emerita of the Ohio Board of Regents and senior consultant
with the Academic Search Consultation Service in Washington, D.C., where she assists boards of trustees with university presidential searches.

Dr. Hairston completed all her academic degrees at The Ohio State University, receiving a bachelor of arts in English in 1966, master’s in speech in 1967, and Ph.D. in communication in 1970. In 1971, she was named the university’s fi rst associate director of affi rmative action programs, playing a leading role in establishing the first childcare center on any Ohio public university campus and in gaining admission for women into graduate and professional schools and into the Ohio State Marching Band. In 1976, as assistant vice president for the offi ces of admissions and registration services for Ohio State’s 55,000 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students, Dr. Hairston helped ease student enrollment processes.

In 1979, she was named vice chancellor for academic programs at the Ohio Board of Regents and was chief architect of the board’s innovative Selective Excellence Program, which included the Ohio Eminent Scholars Program, a $60 million state strategy designed to improve quality on Ohio campuses. As Ohio’s youngest and first female chancellor of the Board of Regents (1990-97), Dr. Hairston led one of the nation’s largest and most complex systems of higher education through a period of significant change, positioning it for a healthy future. She was responsible for the planning, budgeting, and coordination of Ohio’s 65 public college and university campuses with a combined enrollment of 400,000 and an annual operating budget of more than $2 billion. While chancellor, she encouraged research consortia, expanded Ohio’s community college system, led the development of OhioLINK (a cutting edge online statewide academic library system), facilitated the full transfer of academic course credits among the state’s colleges and universities, supported the establishment of childcare centers on all campuses, and pressed campuses to cut costs and improve efficiency.

Since retiring as chancellor in 1998, Dr. Hairston has continued her service to Ohio State in a variety of capacities. She was a member of the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard M. Solove Research Center Foundation Board and an Ohio State Distinguished Visiting Scholar. She served as chair of the Alumni Advisory Council of Ohio State’s Alumni Association from 2001 to 2003, and currently serves on the Advisory Committee to the University Honors Program. Dr. Hairston is the recipient of the 1984 Professional Excellence Award of the Department of Communication. In 1987, she was honored at the university’s 300th commencement for her achievements. She received the 1998 College of Humanities Alumni Award of Distinction and, in 1999, The Ohio State University Alumni Association Professional Achievement Award.