GSAS honors outstanding alumni
Each year, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) celebrates the achievements of a select group of Harvard University’s most accomplished alumni by awarding the Centennial Medal, the highest honor that the GSAS bestows. It was first awarded in June 1989, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of GSAS. Centennial medalists are alumni whose contributions to knowledge, to their disciplines, to their colleagues, and to society at large have made a fundamental and lasting impact. Medalists are invited to attend the Honorands’ Dinner, given for the University’s honorary degree recipients, and to join other dignitaries on stage during Commencement’s Morning and Afternoon Exercises in Tercentenary Theatre and during the GSAS Diploma Awarding Ceremony in Sanders Theatre. This year’s medal is being awarded on May 25 to a leading international scholar in mathematics, a well-traveled space scientist, a former university president who epitomizes grace under fire, and a...