April 19, 2001
University Park, Pa – Penn State will award three honorary degrees at its 2001 spring commencement ceremonies. Recipients are:

·      Kazuo Inamori, founder and chairman emeritus of both Kyocera Corporation and DDI Corporation (KDDI);

·      Stanley B. Prusiner, renowned neurologist and Nobel Prize winner; and

·      Henry B. Schacht, chairman and CEO of Lucent Technologies.
Inamori will receive an honorary doctorate of science from the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at 7 p.m. on Saturday, May 12, in Eisenhower Auditorium. He is a leader in the fields of advanced ceramic materials, electronic equipment and telecommunications, and is also chairman emeritus of Taito Corporation and the current president of The Inamori Foundation, which provides grants to young scholars to pursue creative ideas in natural, human, and social sciences. Inamori is a visionary industrialist with an extraordinary talent for developing innovative and successful companies, and a philanthropist who generates and rewards creativity. He received a bachelor’s degree in applied chemistry from Kagoshima University, Japan, in 1955.           

Schacht will receive an honorary doctorate of humane letters from the Smeal College of Business Administration at 7 p.m. on Saturday, May 12, in the Bryce Jordan Center. He is a successful business strategist whose self-assurance, creativity and management skills have enabled him to compete successfully in the international business world of advanced technologies. Schacht returned to Lucent last year, having most recently served as chairman of the Lucent spinoff, Avaya. He served as Lucent's first chairman and chief executive officer from 1995 to 1997, during its launch and first year as an independent company. Prior to his service at Lucent, he spent thirty-three years at Cummins - a leader in American diesel making, the last twenty-two years as CEO. A graduate of Yale University, he received his M.B.A. from Harvard University.

Prusiner will receive an honorary doctorate of science and will speak at the College of Medicine commencement at 1 p.m. on Sunday, May 20, in Founders Hall of The Milton S. Hershey School. He received the 1997 Nobel Prize in physiology and is recognized internationally for his contribution to the understanding of a new biological principle of infection. His discovery of the disease-causing protein “prion” and the results of his groundbreaking studies, have revealed how disease can be both inherited and infectious. Through this work, he created a new field of research that has resulted in significant progress in understanding degenerative diseases of the central nervous system such as Mad Cow Disease, Human Prion Disease and age-dependent neurological diseases. Pruisner received his A.B. and M.D. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, his postgraduate clinical training at the University of California School of Medicine, San Francisco, and his research training at the National Institutes of Health as a member of the U.S. Public Health Service.

Penn State awards honorary degrees to scholars, performers, artists and practitioners in academic fields, or individuals who have made particularly distinguished contributions to society in areas such as public service, business or government. This year's recipients were nominated by a 15-member faculty committee and approved by President Graham B. Spanier and the Board of Trustees.

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Contact:  Amy Neil, Department of Public Information, at (814) 865-7517 or aen4@psu.edu.