Nine remarkable individuals—including a legendary athlete-turned-philanthropist and leaders in artificial intelligence and higher education—will receive honorary degrees at this year’s Commencement ceremony on June 9.
“The common denominator among this year’s diverse and exceptional class of honorands is the outsized impact they each have had as innovators and agents of change in their respective careers and in the world,” says President Sian Leah Beilock. “I am proud to welcome them to Dartmouth.”
Each year prospective honorary degree recipients—scholars, artists, innovators, public servants, philanthropists, and others who have made extraordinary contributions to their respective fields and society at large—are nominated by members of the Dartmouth community. The confidential nominations are reviewed by the Council on Honorary Degrees, whose members advise the president. The honorary degree recipients are then selected by the president and the Board of Trustees.
This year, the recipients are:
- Joy Buolamwini, a computer scientist, artist, and founder of the Algorithmic Justice League
- Liz Cheney, former U.S. representative from Wyoming and vice chair of the House Jan. 6 committee
- Mung Chiang, president of Purdue University
- Commencement speaker Roger Federer, philanthropist and former tennis champion
- Mira Murati, Thayer ’12, chief technology officer of OpenAI
- Paul Nakasone, retired director of the National Security Agency and commander, U.S. Cyber Command
- Richard Ranger ’74, a retired attorney and current lecturer in the business and law faculties of Uganda Christian University
- John Urschel, a mathematician and former Baltimore Ravens guard
- Roy Vagelos, philanthropist and retired chairman and CEO of Merck & Co. and retired chairman of Regeneron