The Urbana Champaign Senate has nominated four men to receive honorary degrees at the May 2016 Commencement exercises.
The U. of I. Board of Trustees will likely consider the nominations at its January 21 meeting.
Senators voted Dec. 7 to accept a committee’s recommendations to offer honorary degrees to Ronald J. Adrian and Ang Lee, both with U. of I. connections, and to scholars Jagdish Sheth and Edward C. Taylor.
Ronald J. Adrian
Adrian, a campus faculty member in the department of theoretical and applied mechanics from 1972-2004, is the Ira A. Fulton Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Arizona State University.
The committee’s nomination called him “arguably the most important experimental fluid mechanician of the last 50 years.”
In addition to seminal contributions to fundamental fluid mechanics, Adrian is the developer of particle image velocimetry, an experimental technique that has revolutionized fluid mechanics.
“Ron Adrian was instrumental in building fluid mechanics during his 32 years (at the U. of I.),” the committee said. “When he came here … fluid mechanics research was concentrated in experimental two-phase and compressible flow, with little or no activity in turbulence, transition, stability or any theoretical aspect of the subject. Over the course of Ron’s career, that changed.”
Ang Lee
Lee, who received his bachelor’s degree from the U. of I. in 1980, is widely regarded as one of the most innovative film directors in the world.
He has received numerous awards for his work, including Academy Awards for best director for “Life of Pi” in 2012 and “Brokeback Mountain” in 2005. In 2001, his film “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” captured the Academy’s Best Foreign Language Film honors.
“Above all, he is noted for his transformations of traditional film genres and for his sensitive portrayals of humans in richly complex situations,” said Lee’s nomination document. “A native of Taiwan, Lee is seen as heralding a new form of ‘global cinema,’ blending Western and Eastern cinematic and cultural traditions.”
Jagdish Sheth
Sheth is the Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Marketing at Emory University and was nominated by Madhu Viswanathan, the U. of I.’s Diane and Steven N. Miller Centennial Chair in the department of business administration.
Sheth has published more than 300 research papers and has written several books about marketing. His 1969 book, “The Theory of Buyer Behavior,” is considered a classic in marketing circles, as it focused for the first time on consumer behavior.
Viswanathan said Sheth is deserving of the honorary degree.
“He is a legendary scholar in marketing, one of the foremost management thinkers and consultants in the world,” Viswanathan said in the nomination. “He is a generous philanthropist for academic causes who has given back to his discipline of marketing and related areas of business, to the universities he has been affiliated with, and to society.”
Edward C. Taylor
Taylor, the A. Barton Hepburn Professor of Organic Chemistry Emeritus and a senior research chemist at Princeton University, was nominated by the U. of I.’s Scott E. Denmark, the R.C. Fuson Professor of Chemistry.
Denmark said he nominated Taylor because of his “seminal contributions” to the field of heterocyclic synthesis and his study of the therapeutic potential of hundreds of new classes of organic compounds.
Taylor’s investigation of “anti-folates” helped lead to the discovery of Alimta, the first drug ever approved for the treatment of mesothelioma cancer.
Taylor has received many awards, has been cited or is an author of more than 400 scientific publications and has edited or written 74 books.
“There is hardly a synthetic or medicinal chemist practicing today who has not benefited from Taylor’s contributions to the concepts and methods of heterocycle synthesis.”
