Public Broadcasting’s Gwen Ifill and William F. Baker, Renowned Neuroscientist Wolf Singer Among Rutgers Honorary Degree Recipients at 2008 Commencement

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – Gwen Ifill, one of the country’s pre-eminent broadcast journalists, and William F. Baker, president emeritus of Thirteen/WNET New York, the Public Broadcasting Service’s flagship station, will receive honorary degrees at Rutgers’ 242nd Commencement in May, the university’s Board of Governors announced during today’s meeting.

Ifill, who will receive an honorary Doctor of Letters degree and deliver the keynote address during the May 21 universitywide ceremony in New Brunswick, is moderator and managing editor of PBS’ Washington Week and a senior correspondent for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. She served as the 2007 Senator Wynona Lipman Chair in Women’s Political Leadership at Rutgers’ Center for American Women and Politics. Baker, a pioneer in public television and a member of the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame, will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.

Rutgers also will award an honorary Doctor of Science degree to renowned German neuroscientist Wolf Singer, director of the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research and also the founding director of the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies. Singer will speak at the joint Newark College of Arts and Sciences-University College convocation on May 20 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC).

Ivy F. Matsepe-Casaburri, South Africa’s minister of communications who earned a doctorate in sociology from Rutgers in 1984 and was an associate professor, will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree as will Arthur F. Ryan, chair and recently retired CEO of Prudential Financial Inc. and one of the driving forces behind significant corporate and philanthropic support for the city of Newark’s revitalization. Ryan will address graduates at the Rutgers Business School convocation May 20 in Newark at NJPAC.

 Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick will confer approximately 10,800 academic degrees at Commencement, scheduled for Wednesday, May 21, at 1:30 p.m. on Voorhees Mall on the College Avenue Campus. Representatives from all 27 degree-granting units and their guests, faculty, and staff attend this ceremony.

Ifill, from New York City, earned a bachelor’s degree from Simmons College in Boston and began her journalism career at the Boston Herald American. She later worked for the Baltimore Evening Sun and The Washington Post, covering such areas as the White House, Congress, presidential campaigns and government. She also has been a White House correspondent for The New York Times and covered politics, public affairs, and national trends for The Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, Today and MSNBC. She has won honors from groups including the National Press Foundation and the Radio-Television News Directors Association.

Baker began producing and hosting radio programs while in his teens in his hometown of Cleveland and earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from Case Western Reserve University. He joined Scripps Howard Broadcasting in 1971 and moved to Westinghouse Television in 1978, becoming president within a year. In 1981, he became chair of Group W Satellite Communications, where during the next decade he launched five cable television networks, including the Discovery Channel and the Disney Channel. In 1987, Baker became president and chief executive officer of Educational Broadcasting Corp., licensee of Thirteen and WLIW21 New York. He has won several Emmy Awards.

Singer’s work has shaped much of the nature and direction of teaching and research in his discipline. Throughout his career, he has studied the fundamental aspects of brain development and the functional organization of the cerebral cortex, especially the neuronal foundations of perception. Singer was born in Munich, studied there and in Paris, and earned his doctorate in medicine from the University of Munich in 1968.

Following postgraduate studies, Singer joined the Department of Neurophysiology at the Planck Institute. He also was a professor of physiology at the Technical University of Munich. He has been widely published and received numerous honors, including the Ernst Jung Prize for Science and Research and the Communicator Prize of the German Research Foundation.

Matsepe-Casaburri rose from humble beginnings in South Africa to become minister of communications. She is the first woman to become premier of Free State Province and is known throughout Africa as a leader in the applications of communications technology to economic development, educational empowerment and the advancement of democracy.

As a member of the African National Congress, she struggled against the apartheid regime that ruled South Africa and fought for the release of then-imprisoned Nelson Mandela. She was executive director of her country’s Educational Development Trust and the first woman appointed to the board of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. She became board chair of the South African Broadcasting Corp. and was appointed to her present position in 1999. Matsepe-Casaburri is one of the most successful, visible and accomplished women in Africa.

Ryan was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., raised on Long Island, and attended Providence College. Following military service, he began his professional career at Control Data Corp. before joining Chase Manhattan Bank in 1972. He eventually became the bank’s president and chief operating officer in 1990, and four years later became chair and the chief operating officer at Prudential, the first to be appointed from outside the company. Prudential stands today as a leading international corporate citizen with more than $600 billion in assets and operations in the U.S., Asia, Europe, and Latin America, which many attribute to Ryan’s disciplined and aggressive management style.

Ryan has been deeply committed to public education in Newark and throughout the state. He and his wife, Pat, have played pivotal roles in the revitalization of New Jersey’s civic culture and have been tireless supporters of NJPAC, the Newark Museum, the New Jersey Symphony and the new Prudential Center. Ryan has been chair of the American Council of Life Insurers and co-chair of NJPAC, Achieve Inc., and the Committee to Encourage Corporate Philanthropy.