Six honored at SU commencement

   COLUMBUS – Six individuals will be honored at The Ohio State University’s summer 2001 commencement for their contributions to society and academics, and their dedication to the university. Ceremonies begin at 9:30 a.m., Aug. 30, in the Jerome Schottenstein Center. This is the first commencement to be held at the Schottenstein Center.

Honorary doctorates will be presented to Raphael Mechoulam, internationally renowned chemistry and biological researcher; University of Maryland president Clayton Daniel Mote, Jr.; U. S. Surgeon General David Satcher; and Karen K. Uhlenbeck, a 2000 National Medal of Science recipient.

The Distinguished Service Award will be presented to Ray J. Groves, chair of Legg Mason Merchant Banking Inc. and The Ohio State University Foundation Board of Directors; and E. Leonard Jossem, emeritus professor of physics at Ohio State and former member of the scientific staff at Los Alamos in the Advanced Developments Division during World War II.

A renowned chemistry and biological researcher, Raphael Mechoulam is the Lionel Jacobson Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He focuses on the activity of natural products, primarily cannabinoids and their synthetic medicinal agents.

During the 1960s, he was the first to isolate and determine the pharmacologically-active constituent in marijuana and hashish, opening the possibility of its use in the treatment of diseases. Three decades later, he identified anandamide, an endogenous ligand for the cannabinoid receptor in the brain, which has led to further investigation of potential therapeutic agents for drug addiction and other diseases.

A native of Bulgaria, Mechoulam earned his master’s degree in biochemistry at Hebrew University in 1952 and his doctorate from the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel, in 1958.

In 1998, C. D. (Dan) Mote, Jr., was named university president and Glenn L. Martin Institute

Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1998. Prior to that, he was a faculty member of the University of California, Berkeley, for 31 years.

As president of the University of Maryland, Mote is committed to positioning the university as a leader in developing the state’s high-tech economy, especially in the information and communication, bioscience and biotechnology, and nanotechnology sectors. He is internationally recognized for his research on the dynamics of gyroscopic systems, including high-speed translating and rotating systems.

Mote earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in mechanical engineering in 1959, 1960, and 1963, respectively, from the University of California, Berkeley.

He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Satcher was sworn in as the 16th Surgeon General of the United States on Feb. 13, 1998. His four-year term expires in February 2002. He is only the second person in history to simultaneously hold the positions of Surgeon General and Assistant Secretary for Health.

Satcher has been a champion of promoting healthy lifestyles. He has led the Department of Health’s efforts to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in health, an initiative that was incorporated as one of the two major goals of Healthy People 2010, the nation’s health agenda for the next 10 years. He also released Surgeon General reports on tobacco and women’s health and smoking; mental health, which was followed by a supplement on children’s mental health; suicide prevention; oral health; and youth violence prevention.

A native of Anniston, Ala., Satcher is a 1963 graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta. He earned his M.D. and Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University in 1970.

The recipient of more than two dozen honorary degrees and distinguished honors, Satcher has been recognized for excellence by the National Medical Association, the American Medical Association and other medical and scientific academies.

Satcher also is the commencement speaker for this summer commencement.

A 2000 National Medal Science recipient, Karen K. Uhlenbeck has held the Sid W. Richardson Foundation Regents Chair in Mathematics at the University of Texas at Austin since 1987.

Uhlenbeck, a Cleveland native, earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan in 1964 and her master’s and doctorate degrees from Brandeis University in 1966 and 1968.

Uhlenbeck’s mathematical interests include the calculus of variations, nonlinear partial differential equations, differential geometry, gauge theory, topological quantum field theory and integrable systems. She has served as an organizer and lecturer for the IAS Mentoring Program for Women in Mathematics since 1994.

Her many honors include a 2001 Guggenheim Fellowship, a MacArthur Fellowship, and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. In 1990 in Kyoto, Japan, she became the second woman to give a plenary lecture at an International Congress of Mathematics meeting.

Ray J. Groves is the chair of Legg Mason Merchant Banking Inc., a group of private equity funds. He also chairs The Ohio State University Foundation Board of Directors and is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council of the Fisher College of Business.

A 1957 Ohio State graduate in business administration, Groves served as chair and chief executive officer of Ernst & Young, an international accounting firm, for 17 years until his 1994 retirement.

Groves has played a leading role in building the Fisher College of Business’s excellence in both academic programming and physical presence on campus. As co-chair of the Fisher College’s Campaign Committee, he has helped lead the college into national prominence through fund-raising efforts.

Previous honors from Ohio State include the President’s 300th Commencement Award in 1987, the Fisher College of Business Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995 and a John B. Gerlach Sr. Development Volunteer Award in 1997.

E. Leonard Jossem is an emeritus professor of physics at The Ohio State University. He has spent more than a half century in service to his discipline.

Jossem earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from The City College of New York in 1938 and his master’s and doctorate degrees in condensed matter physics from Cornell University in 1939 and 1950, respectively. During World War II, he was a member of the scientific staff at Los Alamos in the Advanced Developments Division. Joining the faculty at Ohio State in 1956, Jossem served as chair of the university’s Department of Physics from 1967 to 1980, retiring in 1989. During his tenure at Ohio State, the Department of Physics grew in quality and reputation, becoming known for its emphasis on good teaching.

Long interested in physics education, he was a member of the Commission on College Physics, serving as chair from 1966 to 1971, during which time the commission’s work fundamentally changed the way physics was taught in this country.

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