Repair the world!

Recipients of teaching prizes

Steven Berry, the David Swensen Professor of Economics: Lex Hixon ’63 Prize for Teaching Excellence in the Social Sciences.

Turner Brooks ’65, ’70MArch, professor (adjunct) of architecture: Sidonie Miskimin Clauss ’75 Prize for Teaching Excellence in the Humanities.

Edwin Duval ’73PhD, the Henri Peyre Professor of French: Harwood F. Byrnes/Richard B. Sewall Teaching Prize.

Catherine Nicholson, assistant professor of English: Sarai Ribicoff ’79 Award for Teaching Excellence in Yale College.*

Jonathan Reuning-Scherer ’97PhD, ’00MusM, senior lecturer in statistics and in forestry and environmental science: Richard H. Brodhead ’68 Prize for Teaching Excellence by Non-Ladder Faculty.

Mary-Louise Timmermans, assistant professor of geology and geophysics: Dylan Hixon ’88 Prize for Teaching Excellence in the Natural Sciences and Mathematics.

Recipients of honorary degrees

Jeffrey Michael Friedman, molecular geneticist, who “discovered the master hormone leptin and shifted the way we view obesity—not as a failure of will but rather as a biological phenomenon,” and whose “work has revealed amazing connections between brain, body, and behavior”: Doctor of Medical Sciences.

Dean Kamen, “an inventor, an innovator, an entrepreneur, and an advocate for science and engineering,” whose work “has focused on harnessing technology to improve the quality of life, with such creations as a wearable infusion pump, a portable dialysis machine, an advanced prosthetic arm, an easily transported water purification device, and a plan to bring affordable clean water and energy to developing nations”: Doctor of Engineering and Technology.

Angélique Kidjo, singer, songwriter, and activist, “one of the world’s great voices for Africa,” who has “embrace[d] a dazzling spectrum of genres, from traditional West African rhythms to jazz, funk, rumba, and salsa” and who “work[s] tirelessly for the empowerment and education of African women and girls”: Doctor of Music.

Larry Kramer ’57, “author and dramatist, advocate and activist,...tireless in demanding the world’s attention to the plague of AIDS and in promoting treatment and research,” founder of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis and Act Up, whose play The Normal Heart “is among the most significant cultural forces of the last century”: Doctor of Humane Letters.

Elon Musk, inventor and entrepreneur, who is “changing the way we live our lives,” whose “involvement with PayPal revolutionized everyday financial transactions” and who is “re-envisioning transportation [and] helping to transform energy production, delivery, and consumption” through Tesla Motors, Hyperloop, Space X, and solar technology: Doctor of Engineering and Technology.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s minister of finance, who has “made social and economic reform her mission,” who has “tackled corruption, created a vision and path to long-term economic stability, and worked to build a culture of transparency” in Nigeria and, at the World Bank, “made food security a priority and provided policy advice and capital for the world’s poorest countries”: Doctor of Humane Letters.

Peter Schultz, chemist, whose “pioneering work spans the disciplines of chemistry, biochemistry, chemical biology, and all of molecular science” and who has “redesigned nature’s synthesis machinery to create molecules with new properties and functions, yielding scientific techniques with potential to create new drugs for a range of diseases”: Doctor of Science.

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, “philosopher, literary theorist, cultural critic, and teacher,” who “explore[s] the dimensions of oppression and otherness through multiple lenses” taking on “some of the most difficult philosophical concepts and confound[ing] those who seek easy answers”: Doctor of Humanities.

Janet Louise Yellen ’71PhD, chair of the Federal Reserve, “an esteemed economist and a dedicated public servant” who, with “wisdom, clarity, and calm” and “sound theory, rigorous analysis, and personal integrity and ethics,...steer[s] a prudent financial course for our country”: Doctor of Social Science.

* In our print edition and in our initial post of this article online, we reported Sarai Ribicoff’s class year incorrectly as 1975.