Rockefeller University Honors William O. Baker, Presents Honorary Degrees to Irene Diamond and Christian de Duve and Awards 21 Doctorates at Graduation Ceremonies

The Rockefeller University will honor William O. Baker, Ph.D., former chairman of the board of AT&T Bell Laboratories, Inc., and award honorary doctoral degrees to philanthropist Irene Diamond and Nobel Prize winner Christian de Duve, Ph.D., M.D., at the institution’s 39th commencement exercises, Thursday, June 12, 1997.

At the graduation ceremony, 21 students from seven countries, including China, Hong Kong, Korea, Thailand, Ukraine, the United States and Yugoslavia, will receive doctoral degrees. The students include nine enrolled in the M.D.-Ph.D. program offered jointly by the university, Cornell University Medical College and Sloan-Kettering Institute.

“Through their graduate studies at The Rockefeller University, our students are trained to become independent, creative scientists. We congratulate them on their achievements and look forward to following their future accomplishments, as they continue their research careers around the world,” says Torsten N. Wiesel, M.D., president of Rockefeller.

Holding with tradition, The Rockefeller University commencement has no speaker. Rather, faculty mentors introduce each student and describe his or her research after which the student receives a hood and diploma.

Baker receives David Rockefeller Award

Baker, chairman emeritus of The Rockefeller University’s board of trustees and a pioneer in the communications and electronics industries, is the third recipient of the David Rockefeller Award. The honor recognizes an individual from the university’s community whose extraordinary service exemplifies the commitment to the institution made by David Rockefeller, the 82-year-old grandson of the university’s founder, John D. Rockefeller Sr. The award acknowledges “unswerving enthusiasm for its scientists and a deep concern for the progress of their research; selfless dedication to further the university’s mission and strengthening the institution; and an unstinting effort to enlist others to join in supporting biomedical science for the benefit of humankind.”

David Rockefeller received the first David Rockefeller award in June 1995, in recognition of his distinguished service on the university’s board of trustees since 1950. The board also named him a life trustee and honorary chairman in June 1995. In 1996, the civic leader and philanthropist Brooke Astor received the David Rockefeller Award.

Baker helped establish the field of macromolecules, the polymers used as electrical insulators and structural materials in communications and electronics. His work resulted in semiconducting polymers, high modulus polymer carbons and crystallite control in fibers and films. He helped guide research leading to the application of synthetic polymers, the commercial synthesis of quartz crystals as well as the development of satellite telecommunications, the solar cell and expert operating systems.

He joined Bell Labs in 1939, becoming head of Polymer Research and Development in 1948, and serving from 1951 to 1954 as assistant director of Physical Sciences Research. He became vice president of research in 1955, having overall responsibility for Bell Laboratories research programs for 25 years, when he became president of the company in 1973. He received his bachelor of science degree from Washington College in 1935 and his doctorate in physical chemistry from Princeton University in 1938.

Diamond Receives Doctor of Laws honoris causa

Diamond is president of The Irene Diamond Fund, Inc., and was the president of the Aaron Diamond Foundation until its close in December 1996. The Aaron Diamond Foundation’s emphasis on medical research programs made it the United States’ largest private supporter of AIDS research. In 1991, the foundation established the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center for the City of New York, directed by David Ho, M.D., professor at Rockefeller.

A native of Pittsburgh, Diamond pursued a film industry career in New York City and Hollywood, Calif., becoming a senior story and talent editor for Warner Brothers, Samuel Goldwyn and Paramount Pictures. Among her credits, during many years work with the producer Hal Wallis, is the purchase and development of the scripts for Come Back Little Sheba, The Rose Tattoo and Casablanca.

Along with her husband, Aaron, a New York real estate developer, Irene established the Aaron Diamond Foundation in the 1955. Later, the Diamonds determined that the foundation should exist for 10 years after its major funding was in place, which occurred in January 1987. The foundation spent $220 million over 10 years, mostly in New York City. In addition to the support of the Diamond AIDS Research Center, the foundation created a $20 million postdoctoral research fellowship program for young scientists in the AIDS and drug abuse fields and was a major supporter of new programs and the smaller “New Visions” schools in the public school system and of the arts, human rights and civil liberties. The new Irene Diamond Fund will work in AIDS and immunology and in the performing arts.

de Duve Receives Doctor of Science honoris causa

de Duve is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor Emeritus at Rockefeller and president of the International Institute of Cellular and Molecular Pathology (ICMP) in Belgium. A biochemical cytologist, de Duve has investigated the separation and characterization of the different parts, or organelles, of living cells. He discovered lysosomes, subcellular particles that function in the digestive system of the cell, in 1949.

In 1974, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Albert Claudeand George E. Palade, of Rockefeller, for discoveries concerning the structural and functional organization of the cell. He has received numerous other honors and awards.

He joined the Rockefeller faculty in 1962, maintaining a part-time appointment with the University of Louvain where he now is a professor emeritus. In 1975 he created the ICMP.

He is the author of three books: A Guided Tour of the Living Cell, Blueprint of a Cell and Vital Dust: Life as A Cosmic Imperative. A citizen of Belgium, de Duve is a native of England. He received his degree of doctor of medicine, surgery and obstetrics in 1941, the Agregation de l’Enseignement Superieur (the equivalent of a doctorate) in 1945 and a master of science degree in chemistry in 1946, all from the University of Louvain.

Graduating Students

The 1997 graduating students and their thesis topics follow.

*Monica Boyle, B.S., College of Idaho.
Somatic Gonadal Precursor Development in the Drosophila Mesoderm

Ronald J. Buckanovich, B.S., Cornell University
The Paraneoplastic Antigen Nova-1 is a Neuron Specific and Sequence Specific RNA Binding Protein

Emily Chan, A.B., Harvard-Radcliffe College
Regulation and Function of Kv3.3

Henry I-Ting Chen, Sc.B., Brown University
The WW Domain: Characterization of a Novel Protein Binding Module and Its Role in Signal Transduction

Steven Louis Cohen, B.S., Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, M.S., Cornell University
Protein Characterization by Mass Spectrometry

John Peter Corradi, B.S., Columbia University
Characterization of the Paraneoplastic Cerebellar Degeneration Antigen cdr2

Jonathan Dworkin, A.B., Swarthmore College
Mechanisms of Transcriptional Regulation at the pspA Promoter of Escherichia coli

Eric Peter Hailman, A.B., Harvard College
Lipid Transfer Reactions Initiate Inflammatory Responses of Cells to Bacterial Lipopolysaccharide

Michael E. Hurwitz, A.B., Harvard College
Nup82p, an Essential Yeast Nucleoporin on the Cytoplasmic Face of the Nuclear Pore Complex, is Required for Poly(A)⁺ RNA Export

Goran Jovanovic, B.Sc., University of Belgrade, M.Sc., University of Belgrade
Activation of Phage Shock Protein Operon Transcription in Escherichia coli

Pairote Laochumroonvorapong, B.S., Yale University
Experimental Models of Mycobacterial Replication and Killing in Macrophages

Chi-Hon Lee, M.Sc., National Tsing Hua University, M.D., China Medical College
Protein/Peptide Recognition Modules in Cellular Signaling and HIV Pathogenesis

Julie Michiko Miwa, B.A., University of California-Berkeley
Identification and Characterization of a Neuronal Cell Surface Protein: A Novel Member of the a-bungarotoxin/Ly-6 Superfamily

Lori Suzanne Newman, A.B., Princeton University
b-Nap, a Cerebellar Degeneration Antigen, is a Neuron-Specific Vesicle Coat Protein

Darren Benjamin Orbach, A.B., Princeton University
The Functional Architecture of Color Representation in Area VI of the Macaque Cerebral Cortex: An Optical Imaging Study

*Chae Gyu Park, B.S., Seoul National University, M.S., Wichita State University
Presentation of Viral Superantigen-Induced and Activation-Induced T Cell Death

Goujun Sheng, B.S., Fudan University
Molecular and Functional Specificity of PAX/HD Proteins

Alexey Y. Titov, M.Sc., University of Kharkov
Observation and Study of Exclusive Decays of Beauty Baryons at the Tevatron Proton-Antiproton Collider

Peter H. Weinstock, B.A., Columbia College
The Roles of Lipoprotein Lipase and Apolipoprotein A-IV in Fat and Energy Metabolism: Studies in Induced Mutant Mice

Zilong Wen, B.Med., First Medical College of PLA
The Specificity of Gene Activation by Growth Factors and Cytokines

Yingming Zhao, B.S., East China University of Chemical Technology, M.S., Academia Sinica
Rapid, Sensitive Tool for Protein Identification, Characterization, and the Study of Biomolecule Interaction

* = in absentia