Six Will Receive Honorary Degrees at Commencement

A former United States secretary of state, an internationally acclaimed artist, a pioneer in retina research, a leader in the study of astronomy, a revered medical historian and a person described as “the ranking synthetic organic chemist of our time” will receive honorary degrees at commencement exercises May 16.

Four of the six are UW alumni; the other two taught at UW–Madison. Recipients include:

• Lawrence S. Eagleburger, who was President George Bush’s secretary of state and President Jimmy Carter’s ambassador to Yugoslavia. Eagleburger is a senior foreign policy advisor for the Washington law firm of Baker, Donelson, Bearman and Caldwell. He earned his master’s degree from the UW.
• Sam Gilliam, painter and printmaker, is a two-time veteran of the UW–Madison’s Tandem Press, where he has collaborated as a guest artist. He also has been in residence in the UW–Madison Department of Art. Gilliam has exhibited his work in museums and galleries around the world. His stained canvas draping, “Fire Flies and Ferris Wheels,” produced for the Elvehjem Museum’s gala reopening in 1990, still tours the world as an artistic ambassador for UW–Madison.
• Alice R. McPherson is president of Houston’s prestigious McPherson and Associates retinal clinic. During her distinguished 30-year career, she has received more honors and awards than any woman in American ophthalmology. An acknowledged role model for women in all medical disciplines, she has been on the faculty of Baylor College of Medicine since 1959. McPherson received both her B.S. and M.D. from the UW.
• Astronomer Donald E. Osterbrook is described as one of this century’s greats. His basic area of research is the luminous gases that abound in our own galaxy. Recent decades have seen him turn his attention to the past, “reinventing” himself as one of the nation’s most respected historians of astronomy. The author of several books on the founding of major observatories and the lives of famous astronomers, Osterbrook was a member of the UW Department of Astronomy between 1958-1973. He is professor of astronomy emeritus at the University of California-Santa Cruz.
• Charles E. Rosenberg is often called the leading historian of medicine in the world today. He is author of The Care of Strangers, an exhaustive study of American hospitals. Another book, The Cholera Years, is a now-classic study placing several epidemics in their larger social and intellectual context. These and his other publications emphasize the interdependence of the histories of science, medicine and the broader culture. Rosenberg holds a B.A. from UW. He returned here as a lecturer and research assistant professor in the 1960s.
• Gilbert Stork, winner of a 1996 Wolf Prize, has enjoyed a long and successful career in organic synthesis. Stork’s research explores the synthesis of complex natural products used in the fields of medicine and pharmacy. Columbia University, where he is Eugene Higgins Professor Emeritus of Chemistry, credits him as a major architect of the growth of the department. Stork earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from the UW.

The university will bestow honorary degrees during commencement exercises for graduate and professional students at 5 p.m. in the UW Field House. For more information, contact Paula Gray, Office of the Secretary of the Faculty, (608) 262-3956.