UD's newest doctoral recipients and their advisers gather on the stage at Clayton Hall.

Doctoral ceremony

UD celebrates its newest doctoral graduates

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5:38 p.m., Dec. 22, 2014--For an audience that ranged from recently arrived little ones to recently retired adults, the doctoral hooding ceremony held Friday, Dec. 19, in Clayton Hall was a time for congratulations and celebrations. 

James Richards, vice provost for graduate and professional education, welcomed the attendees who came from as far away as Cambodia, China, Jordan, Nepal and Saudi Arabia to mark the occasion. 

Campus Stories

From graduates, faculty

As it neared time for the processional to open the University of Delaware Commencement ceremonies, graduating students and faculty members shared their feelings about what the event means to them.

Doctoral hooding

It was a day of triumph, cheers and collective relief as more than 160 students from 21 nations participated in the University of Delaware's Doctoral Hooding Convocation held Friday morning on The Green.

Following a procession led by bagpiper Mark Hamm and a spirited rendition of the national anthem sung by Shari Feldman, Richards lauded the doctoral recipients whose ages ranged from 26 to 66.

“You have invested several years of your life, dedicated yourself to learning, meeting the most rigorous academic challenges and persevering to sit where you are today,” Richards said. “Because of your efforts and the efforts of those who supported, educated and challenged you throughout your time here, you now are among the most educated people in the world.”

Richards urged them to take seriously the responsibility that accompanies the doctoral degree. 

"As your advisers and mentors have done for you, take the time to support and inspire young minds and to treat them with kindness, respect and dignity,” Richards said. “You hold not only your own future but the future of many others in your hands. You are our hope for a better tomorrow.”

Nancy Brickhouse, deputy provost for academic affairs, also welcomed the recipients at what she described as a most special moment in their intellectual journey. 

“This also is an important life event to be enjoyed with family, loved ones and peers,” Brickhouse said. “We all pay special tribute to you, our doctoral graduates, and we honor your magnificent achievement.”

Keynote speaker Dan Rich, who served as UD provost from 2001-2009, joined in lauding the graduates and challenged them to use their knowledge to advance their communities at the local and international level.  

Rich, who currently serves as University Professor of Public Policy, said the achievement of the recipients was all the more remarkable considering the 50 percent attrition rate of those who enter doctoral programs. 

“Those who succeed in actually earning a doctoral degree have an extra measure of determination and stamina,” Rich said. “Character matters as well as intellect.”

Attaining a doctoral degree also confers on the recipient a responsibility to use their advanced knowledge to improve the communities in which they live and work, Rich noted.

“Wherever you will practice your scholarship, you are now part of a global community dedicated to the creating and application of knowledge to address the challenges of civilization,” Rich said. “It is worth a moment to consider what this means for the journey on which you are now embarking.” 

Rich also remarked that the new doctoral graduates are joining this worldwide community of scholars at one the most exciting and dynamic times in intellectual history.

“By virtually any measure, the emerging higher education environment is more turbulent and uncertain, frequently more threatening, and assuredly more competitive than only a few decades ago,” Rich said. “The transformation is still at an early stage and it will surely intensify in strength and complexity over succeeding decades, driven by new technology, shifting educational costs, new patterns of supply and demand, and major changes in both public and private investments.”

Globally, advanced education is influencing the economic prospects of both highly developed and aspiring nations through its potential for innovation and competitiveness, Rich said.  

“All this will impact the nature of the opportunities and challenges that you will face as scholars over the next decades,” Rich said. “Some of you will be leaders of these changes.” 

Future historians, Rich said, will view the 21st century as truly transformative of the structure of knowledge and scholarship and seeking to understand each other as human beings. 

Rich also urged the graduates to maintain optimism about the future and to make this optimism a self-fulfilling prophecy.

“Winston Churchill was right when he said, ‘A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty,’” Rich said. “You are now among the best educated individuals on earth, and if you are optimistic about the future and if you act on that optimism, then there is great hope for the rest of the 7 billion persons on this planet. We are counting on you.”

Mary Martin, associate provost for graduate and professional education, spoke about the meaning of the wearing of the hood and introduced the individual degree recipients.

The recipients and their advisers represent all of UD’s seven colleges: Agriculture and Natural Resources; Arts and Sciences; Alfred J. Lerner College of Business and Economics; Earth, Ocean, and Environment; Education and Human Development; Engineering; and Health Sciences. 

Fields of study include plant and soil sciences, biomechanics and movement science, geography, applied mathematics, biological sciences, English, preservation studies, political science and international relations, and urban affairs and public policy.

Additional fields of study include civil and environmental engineering, chemical engineering, electrical and computer engineering, energy and environmental engineering, mechanical engineering, materials science and engineering, education, and educational leadership. 

Some of the graduates 

Joseph Townsend, who received his Ph.D. in plant and soil sciences, is a retired arborist and adjunct instructor in plant and soil sciences at UD. He plans to continue his research and publishing on the impact urban trees have on community stress.

“I surveyed 2,500 residents of Wilmington on 80 selected blocks, and went back and inventoried the number of trees on each block,” Townsend, a native of Wawa, Pennsylvnia, said. “I found that, based on the survey, trees do have a tremendous impact on community stress.” 

Townsend noted that there is less stress on blocks with more trees, and that this reduced stress also helps to create a sense of safety, while reducing ambient pollution.

“I enjoyed my six months talking to people in the city of Wilmington,” Townsend said. “People welcomed me into their homes and it was fun.” 

Lauren Patson, of Newark, Delaware, who earned her Ed.D. in educational leadership, shared that her son Leo, now 13 months old, was born just before she received approval for her dissertation.

“I got home from the hospital and found out I had received the approval to gather data for my dissertation,” said Patson, who serves as a member of the math faculty at the Delaware Technical Community College. 

“I could not have completed by research without the help of my family who would watch Leo while I worked,” she said. “My grandfather said that when you get your doctorate, you can go anywhere, and do anything. I’m happy that I did that.”

Amal Aldossary, who received her Ph.D. in biological sciences, will serve as an assistant professor at the University of Dammam in her native Saudi Arabia, for one year. She also has accepted the position of postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Systems Biology, in the membrane biology program at the Massachusetts General Hospital at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

“I am super excited. I’ve been at UD for four years, and the journey wasn’t always an easy one, but I had a lot of help from my adviser, Patricia DeLeon, [Trustees Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences],” Aldossary said. “Prof. DeLeon introduced me at a scientific conference to some people from Harvard University. This gave me a chance to explain my work to them, and they gave me a position as a postdoc at Massachusetts General Hospital.” 

The first person in her family to receive a doctoral degree, Aldossary thanked her father, Ali, for supporting her in her pursuit of her academic dreams. She also thanked Mary Martin and the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies for their support.   

“My father encouraged me to come to UD,” Aldossary said. “He told me that there is no better place to get the highest academic degree than at the University of Delaware.” 

Article by Jerry Rhodes

Photos by Kathy F. Atkinson and Evan Krape

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