Ohio State honors four at winter 2007 commencement

COLUMBUS – Four individuals will be honored at Ohio State University's winter 2007 commencement for their contributions to society and academics, and their dedication to the university. Ceremonies begin at 1 p.m. Sunday (3/18), in St. John Arena.

Honorary doctorates will be presented to Shirley M. Malcom, head of Education and Human Resources at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS); and Archibald O. Haller, Jr., a pioneer in modern scientific sociology.

Distinguished Service Awards will be presented to Arthur L. Hecker, retired president of research and development and scientific affairs at the Ross Products Division of Abbott Laboratories; and Richard G. Smith, III, executive vice president of NetJets Aviation, Inc.

Archibald O. Haller, Jr., Doctor of Social Science

A pioneer in modern scientific sociology, Archibald O. Haller, Jr., is professor emeritus of rural sociology and sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Born in southern California, he completed his undergraduate degree at Hamline University, his master's degree at the University of Minnesota, and his doctorate in sociology at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison. Upon completion of a postdoctoral assignment at Wisconsin in 1956, he joined the sociology faculty at Michigan State University, where be began his lifelong research
on social stratification structures and processes. In 1965, he returned to the University of Wisconsin, where he remained until his 1994 retirement.

Professor Haller's groundbreaking contributions to scientific sociological theories on the nature and distribution of individual authority and power and the processes by which young persons are selected onto their lifetime trajectories helped take American sociology from an underdeveloped discipline to a mature and predictive science. His publications include seven books, 10 monographs, and more than 100 research articles in technical journals and chapters in books. He continues his research into stratification by power in orderly and disorderly phases of society.

In 1982, Professor Haller was a Distinguished Visiting Professor at The Ohio State University, where he contributed greatly to the sociology program. He emphasized the need to focus more
on social stratification as a key societal process and on quantitative research, both of which are strongly represented in the department today, contributing to its vitality and national ranking.

His academic career included five Fulbright grants to conduct research in Brazil, where he clarified the role that education, occupation, and income play in social stratification and how they are conditioned by environmental effects. His work had a major impact on national and regional development policy in Brazil, and his contributions to Brazilian national policy and social science were recognized by the Brazilian Order of Merit of Labor in 1981 by order of the president of Brazil.

In 2005, he was honored with a festschrift volume by his colleagues, titled The Shape of Social Inequality: Stratification in Comparative Perspective.

Shirley M. Malcom, Doctor of Science

Shirley M. Malcom is head of the Directorate for Education and Human Resources Programs of
the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The directorate includes AAAS programs in education, activities for underrepresented groups, and public understanding of science and technology. In addition, she currently serves as co-chair (with Nobel laureate Leon Lederman) of the National Science Board Commission on 21st-Century Education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).

A native of Birmingham, Alabama, Malcom earned her bachelor's degree with distinction from the University of Washington; her master's in zoology/animal behavior from the University of
California-Los Angeles; and her doctorate in ecology from The Pennsylvania State University. She served briefly as a high school science teacher and an assistant professor of biology at the university of North Carolina-Wilmington, before moving in 1975 to Washington, D.C., to
work as a research assistant at the AAAS' Office of Research Opportunities.

Having grown up in the segregated South in the 1950s and 1960s, she was keenly aware of the lack of opportunities for minorities to excel in the sciences. At AAAS, she took an inventory of the
nation's science education programs and found that they often excluded minorities, and those that included minorities favored men. In 1976, she and her coauthors published the landmark study, The Double Bind: The Price of Being a Minority Woman in Science. Her research resulted in a number of innovative programs to advance education and science literacy.

From 1977 to 1979, she served as program manager with the National Science Foundation's Minority Institutions Science Improvement Program in Washington, D.C. In 1979, she became head of the AAAS Office of Opportunities in Science, serving in that capacity for 10 years before assuming her current role.

Malcom is a fellow of the AAAS and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She served on the National Science Board, the policy-making body of the National Science Foundation, from 1994 to 1998, and, from 1994 to 2001, served on the President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology. In 2003, she received the Public Welfare Medal of the National Academy of Sciences, the academy's highest award.

Arthur L. Hecker, Distinguished Service Award

An expert in the field of nutritional science, Arthur L. Hecker is retired president of research
and development and scientific affairs at the Ross Products Division of Abbott Laboratories. During his 28-year tenure at Ross Products, Hecker directed the development of more than 200 nutritional formulations and feeding devices, while overseeing a staff of more than 550 scientists with operations in the United States and Europe.

The Montana native earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in nutrition and biochemistry from Montana State University and his doctorate in nutritional science from Colorado State University. While working on his doctorate, he served on the faculty of Colorado State's College of Agriculture, followed by three years' service with the U.S. Army Research and Development Command as chief of the Protein-Carbohydrate Group of the Letterman Army Institute of
Research in San Francisco.

After joining Ross in 1976, he began a close relationship between the Abbott Laboratories organization and The Ohio State University, working with university researchers to develop improved formulations for human and animal applications. On the human front, the scientific
groundwork for nutritional products, such as Ensure, came from the labs of Ross and Ohio State. Hecker was also instrumental in securing support from the Abbott Labs Foundation toward
construction of the Parker Food Science and Technology Building.

Other partnerships with Ross have benefited Ohio State programs in human nutrition, exercise physiology, and College of Medicine programs in gastroenterology, pulmonary medicine, surgery,
dietetics, pediatrics, and endocrinology.

In addition to his corporate work, Hecker has contributed countless hours of personal time to Ohio State. He has been a member of the Agricultural Administration Vice President's Advisory Board since 1977, helping to create a new vision for the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences. He is a frequent speaker at college programs, and he has fostered a faculty/graduate student cooperative research program. He currently serves on The Ohio State
University Research Foundation Board, the Solae Company (DuPont) Science Advisory Board, the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges Food Systems Leadership
Institute, and the board of the Columbus-based Foundation for the Challenged.

In 1998 he received Ohio State's College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences Distinguished Service Award. His other honors include four Abbott Laboratories Presidential
Awards.

Richard G. Smith, III, Distinguished Service Award

Richard G. Smith, III, is executive vice president of NetJets Aviation, Inc., where he advises the Office of the Chairman on the company's flight operations, security, maintenance, and labor relations activities.

Smith learned to fly while earning his B.A. in political science at Davidson College. He began his career at NetJets (then Executive Jet Aviation) as a Learjet Line pilot in 1978 and later served as director of pilot training, chief pilot, and director of flight operations before becoming executive vice president in 1991. Today, NetJets is the premier fractional ownership and air operations management company in the nation.

Smith has been a member of The Ohio State University's Aviation Advisory Committee for more than 25 years, where he has shown his commitment to educating students interested in an aviation career. His interest in building a strong aviation program led him to provide air transportation and head a university delegation to visit the top-rated University of North Dakota School of Aerospace Sciences in 2001 to illustrate the potential for Ohio State.

In 2002, he served as chair of a College of Engineering task force charged with examining the future of aviation at Ohio State. The group's recommendations led to aviation's returning to separate and independent department status after a 10year merger with aerospace engineering.
He maintains his interest in the program as a member of the College of Engineering Dean's Strategy Council.

He is an enthusiastic supporter of the Ohio State Flight Team, which competes nationally with other college teams in demonstrating aviation knowledge and skills, and has facilitated NetJets' financial support of the flight team's needs. In addition, he has directed resources to and has personally been involved with other university programs and initiatives, including those in the Fisher College of Business; the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and First Year Experience; the Department of Industrial, Welding, and Systems Engineering; and the Wetlands project. Through his encouragement, NetJets maintains active relationships for ongoing university internships, co-op programs, and employment opportunities.

Smith has been a guest lecturer in aviation classes at Ohio State and has aided a great number of students from a variety of majors—including aviation, business, computer science, engineering, and meteorology—in seeking careers in aviation.