The College will award honorary degrees to eight individuals at the 225th Commencement ceremony, including President Bill Clinton, who will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.
Selecting the recipients involves a three-step process. First, students, faculty or alumni nominate candidates to the Council of Honorary Degrees, according to Senior Class President Alyse Kornfeld.
The council, which included Kornfeld, Acting President James Wright, Secretary to the Board of Trustees Cheryl Reynolds, and six professors, reviews the background of each nominee and makes recommendations to the Trustees.
The College President sends the recommendations to the Trustees, who make the final decisions on the recipients, Reynolds said.
This year's eclectic group of individuals "are all very accomplished in their fields," Reynolds said.
Sidney Altman
Sidney Altman, a recipient of the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1989 for a discovery in the field of biochemistry, will receive an honorary Doctor of Science degree.
According to Altman's mentor L.S. Lerman, who was quoted in a recent College press release, the revolutionary discovery "opened previously unimagined paths for attack on difficult biological problems. It was a new mechanism with strong implications for the origin of life." A Canadian, Altman came to the United States in 1956 and graduated with a degree in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he played on the ice hockey team and edited poetry and science essays.
He completed his doctoral and post-doctoral work at the University of Colorado and Harvard University.
Since 1971, Altman has been a member of the biology faculty at Yale University and also served as chair for the biology department and as Dean of Yale College.
Rita Dove
Pulitzer Prize winning writer and poet Rita Dove, the seventh Poet Laureate of the United States and the first African-American woman ever to hold this position, will receive an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the College.
Dove has written numerous other collections of poetry, short stories, and journal articles.
A native of Ohio, Dove graduated summa cum laude with a bachelors degree in English from Miami University and spent one year as a Fulbright Scholar in Germany.
Currently, Dove is Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia.
Freeman Dyson
Physicist and writer Freeman Dyson proved to be a precocious youngster, according to a College press release -- calculating the number of atoms in the sun when he was six years old and writing an incomplete novel about a moon expedition when he was just nine.
He has contributed immensely to the field of theoretical physics and has been instrumental in bridging the gap between scientific and non-scientific "cultures."
While in his 20s, Dyson made major contributions to the theory of quantum electrodynamics and in the field of nuclear power.
Dyson, who was born in England, has also written numerous books about science for non-scientists, such as "Origins of Life" and "From Eros to Gaia."
Dyson came the United States in 1947 and continued his education at Cornell University, where he then became a physics professor.
Dyson, who was a Montgomery Fellow at the College this fall, will receive the honorary Doctor of Science degree.
William H. Gray III
William H. Gray III, currently the president of the United Negro College Fund, served in the U.S. House of Representatives and in 1979 became the majority whip -- the third highest-ranking position in the House.
Gray, who comes from a family of ministers and teachers, earned a bachelor's degree from Franklin and Marshall College in 1963, a masters degree in divinity from Drew Theological Seminary and a masters in theology from Princeton Theological Seminary.
Gray has been a pastor in a Philadelphia church for 20 years and has taught history and religion at various religiously-affiliated colleges and universities.
Gray will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.
Nannerl O. Keohane
Nannerl O. Keohane, who in 1992 was the first woman selected to be president of Duke University in North Carolina, has proved herself to be one of the most prominent women in higher education in the country.
Keohane had previously served as president at Wellesley College, her alma-mater. Keohane graduated from Wellesley in 1961 Phi Beta Kappa with honors in political science. She then received a scholarship to study at Oxford University, where she earned her masters degree with honors.
In 1967, Keohane completed her formal education at Yale with a doctorate in political science.
Keohane has taught at Stanford University, Swarthmore College and the University of Pennsylvania. At Stanford, she received the Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching. She has also written in the fields of education, feminism and political philosophy.
Keohane will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.
Anna Quindlen
Anna Quindlen is probably best known for her Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper columns, which examine political and social issues. She is only the third woman to have won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary.
Quindlen, born in Philadelphia, joined the New York Times in 1977 after graduating from Barnard in 1974. Four years before joining the Times, she was a reporter for the New York Post.
In 1989, she began an op-ed column in the Times and eventually she became an editor.
Her columns and essays have been compiled in the books "Living Out Loud" and "Thinking Out Loud." Quindlen recently left the Times to become a full-time novelist.
She will receive an honorary Doctor of Letters degree.
Derek Walcott
Derek Walcott, prolific writer, poet and playwright, was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1992.
Walcott, an accomplished poet, has also contributed immensely as a playwright. Walcott has also been involved in many other aspects of theatrical production.
In 1959, he founded the Trinidad Theater Workshop in his effort to establish indigenous West India theater. Walcott created a stage adaptation of "The Odyssey," which was produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Walcott went to college in the West Indies and then taught at a boy's school in Grenada and at Kingston College in Jamaica.
He has also taught and lectured at Columbia University, Harvard University, Rutgers University and Yale. Currently, Walcott is a professor of creative writing and theater at Boston University.
In 1994, Walcott visited the College to read from his poetry and prose, and this year, will receive the honorary Doctor of Letters degree.
