The 268th Commencement ceremony on May 20 will feature six honorary degree recipients, recognizing their contributions in fields ranging from medicine to music.
This year, Penn will honor oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee, mathematician Ingrid Daubechies, psychiatrist Karl Deisseroth, songwriter-producer duo Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, and architect Maya Lin.
Siddhartha Mukherjee
Siddhartha Mukherjee, who is also the Class of 2024 Commencement speaker, will receive an honorary doctor of sciences degree. Mukherjee received the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for his book, “The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer,” which was named one of the best 100 nonfiction books in the past century by Time Magazine. He also wrote “The Gene: An Intimate History,” which was recognized as one of 2016’s most influential books by The New York Times and The Washington Post.
At Columbia University, Mukherjee is an associate professor of medicine and an oncologist at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. He researches the relationship between stem cells and cancer cells, with the goal of eventually developing drugs against blood cancers such as acute myelogenous leukemia.
Ingrid Daubechies
Ingrid Daubechies will also receive an honorary doctor of sciences degree. Daubechies is a Belgian American mathematician known for her contributions to the field of wavelet theory and practical applications. She was the first woman to receive the $100,000 Wolf Prize in Mathematics for her discovery of the Daubechies’ wavelets, which have been essential for image-compression algorithms such as the JPEG.
Daubechies, who has been named the “Godmother of the Digital Image” by The New York Times, is the James B. Duke Professor of Mathematics and Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University.
Karl Deisseroth
Karl Deisseroth, D.H. Chen Professor of Bioengineering and of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, will also receive an honorary doctor of sciences degree. Deisseroth’s research focuses on major depression and autism-spectrum disease, utilizing technology such as optogenetics, which is controlling the activity of neurons with light, and CLARITY, which creates transparent images of the brain.
He is the author of the 2021 book “Projections: A Story of Human Emotions,” which explores the human mind through personal experiences with patients.
Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff
Philadelphia native Kenneth Gamble and pianist Leon Huff will both receive honorary doctor of music degrees. In 1971, Gamble and Huff co-founded Philadelphia International Records, pioneering a genre of music that became known as “The Philly Sound.” Artists under the label included the O'Jays and Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, and PIR won its first Grammy with Billy Paul's “Me and Mrs. Jones” in 1973.
Gamble and Huff were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2008. Gamble currently serves with the Songwriters Hall of Fame as a Board of Directors honorary member, while Huff continues to produce songs. Over their 60 year partnership, the duo has collaborated on over 3,500 songs.
Maya Lin
Designer, artist, and environmentalist Maya Lin will receive the honorary doctor of arts degree. As an undergraduate student at Yale University in 1981, Lin won a national competition for her design of the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial planned in Washington, D.C. Lin has created many architectural projects over her career, including “Ghost Forest” at Madison Square Park and Decoding the Tree of Life at the Penn Medicine Pavilion.
Lin, who is committed to using sustainable design methods in her projects, received the 2009 National Medal of Arts for artistic excellence. She also received a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016 for her contributions to art and architecture.
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