Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, Ph.D.
RECIPIENT OF THE HONORARY DEGREE
Through force of will and inspired leadership, Freeman A. Hrabowski, III has invigorated the U.S. scientific enterprise by cultivating talent among underrepresented groups. As president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), he designed and pioneered an approach that has fostered academic excellence and ongoing success even among students who have historically floundered in science at institutions of higher learning.
As a mathematically precocious youngster in Birmingham, Alabama, Dr. Hrabowski participated in the Civil Rights Children’s Crusade in 1963 and spent five days in jail at age 12. He graduated from Hampton Institute and continued to the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where he earned a Master’s degree in mathematics and a Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration and Statistics. He has dedicated his career to creating data-driven strategies for broadening participation in STEM.
Between 1992 and 2022, he served as president of UMBC. The university has generated more Black bachelor’s degree recipients who have gone on to earn Ph.D.s in the natural sciences or engineering and M.D. Ph.D.s than any other institution in the nation. Dr. Hrabowski and philanthropist Robert Meyerhoff co-founded the Meyerhoff Scholars Program in 1988. It emphasizes high expectations, intensive faculty support, and student community that continues as graduates’ careers unfold. The program’s power has created a culture of academic excellence not only for Black people, but for students of all races at UMBC, whose population is predominantly White and Asian. The system that Dr. Hrabowski built has provided a prototype for other schools across the country.
In 2022, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute launched the $1.5 billion Freeman Hrabowski Scholars Program, which aims to expand diversity in science. It supports early career researchers who run their labs in a way that fosters inclusivity.
Dr. Hrabowski has written five books and he chaired the National Academy of Sciences committee that produced the 2011 report, Expanding Underrepresented Minority Participation: America’s Science and Technology Talent at the Crossroads. The following year, President Obama appointed him chair of the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences. In 2023, he received the latter organization’s Public Welfare Medal for his “outstanding leadership in transforming U.S. science education and increasing cultural diversity within the science workforce.”