Drawing a larger circle

Recipients of teaching prizes

Joanne Freeman, Professor of History and of American Studies: the Sidonie Miskimin Clauss ’75 Prize for teaching excellence in the humanities

Andrew Ehrgood ’84, ’93MPhil, Lecturer in English: the Richard H. Brodhead ’68 Prize for teaching excellence by a non-ladder faculty member

Timothy Newhouse, Assistant Professor of Chemistry: the Dylan Hixon ’88 Prize for teaching excellence in the natural sciences and mathematics

Harrison Huibin Zhou, Professor and Department Chair of Statistics and Data Science: the Lex Hixon ’63 Prize for teaching excellence in the social sciences

Kurt Zilm, Professor of Chemistry: the Harwood F. Byrnes/Richard B. Sewall Teaching Prize, awarded to any faculty member who over a long period of service has inspired a great number of students and consistently fostered the learning process

Rosie Bsheer, Assistant Professor of History: the Sarai Ribicoff ’79 Prize for teaching excellence in Yale College in the humanities

Recipients of honorary degrees

Elizabeth Alexander ’84, poet, playwright, essayist, and educator, whose words are “radiant, illuminating our world anew,” and whose “verse and prose circle the globe”: Doctor of Letters.

Angela Evelyn Bassett ’80, ’83MFA, an actress, director, and producer, active on film, television, and stage—“an icon” and “an actress of range and power”: Doctor of Fine Arts.

Frans de Waal, a biologist who has shed new light on the cognitive abilities of nonhuman primates, “diminishing the divide between humans and our primate relatives”: Doctor of Social Science.

Richard P. Lifton, geneticist, whose research has “improved countless lives” and “advanced our understanding of the genetics of disease”: Doctor of Medical Sciences.

Laura Mulvey, a professor of film who has “given us new ways to examine our culture and ourselves” and a filmmaker who has “defied conventions and produced daring works of art”: Doctor of Humanities.

Judea Pearl, a pioneer in cognitive computing who has “transformed our understanding of cause and effect, probability, and uncertainty”: Doctor of Engineering and Technology.

Marilynne Robinson, novelist and essayist, whose work evokes “all the beauty and devastation of our mortal world” and has “led us to new understandings of ourselves”: Doctor of Letters.

Willie Ruff ’53MusB, ’54MusM, a jazz musician, educator, and documentarist of “creativity and charisma” who has introduced “new audiences to the transcendent power of jazz”: Doctor of Music.

Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and author, whose work helps us “comprehend the complexity of the cosmos,” and for whom “no question is too vast, no problem too intricate” to examine: Doctor of Humane Letters.

Rowan Williams, 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, a theologian who works to “nurture dialogue and understanding in our fragile world”: Doctor of Divinity.