It was warm and sunny as over 230 students received their degrees from President David Joyce who was residing over his first commencement ceremony since taking over as President of the College last summer.
"Make your alma mater proud," Joyce told the students in the welcome address.
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The Theme: Ripon College Commencement 2004 Science and Technology in the 21st Century
This synergy continues in the modern world. Experimental research designed to help understand the structure and function of genes has led to discoveries that now allow technicians to manipulate the basic units of heredity to help fight hunger and disease; development of computer chip technology by chemists using improved polymers and silicates has led to faster computers that can process complex mathematical models used by meteorologists and petrologists; development of nanotechnologies by physicists holds promise for revolutionary new devices to aid manufacturing and clinical medicine.
Ripon College celebrates the researchers and innovators who, with a humanistic purpose, advance science and technology, as well as the educators who disseminate their discoveries and help students learn how to make discoveries of their own. In the 21st century, we need an educated citizenry who recognize science as a way of knowing the world, who recognize technology as its essential companion, and who recognize that both science and technology must be embedded in a set of values focused on the improvement of the quality of life for all.
Honorads
Karen A. Holbrook
Karen Holbrook is president of The Ohio State University in Columbus. Previously she had served as senior vice president for academic affairs and provost – as well as professor of cell biology and adjunct professor of anatomy and cell biology and medicine at the University of Georgia Medical College. She has also served the University of Florida as vice president for research and dean of the graduate school as well as professor.
Holbrook was a professor of biological structure and medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine, where she gained a national reputation for her expertise in dermatology. She also taught–biology at Ripon College for three years.
Her honors and awards include the Kung Sun Oh Memorial Prize from the Yonsei Medical College of Seoul, Korea; the Distinguished Contribution to Research Administration Award from the Society of Research Administrators International; and the 34th Annual Marion Spencer Fay National Board Award of the Medical College of Pennsylvania.
She has held leadership roles in professional and honorary societies, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, where she is a member of the board of directors and Fellow; the American Association of Universities; the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges; and the Association of American Medical Colleges. She is on the board of ACT, the American Council on Education and the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.
She holds her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in zoology from the University of Wisconsin and a doctorate in biological structure from the University of Washington School of Medicine where she pursued postdoctoral training in the dermatology.
Amory B. Lovins
Amory Lovins is cofounder and chief executive officer of Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), an independent, entrepreneurial, nonprofit, applied-research center in Old Snowmass, Colo. RMI fosters the efficient and restorative use of natural and human capital to create a secure, prosperous, and life-sustaining world.
Lovins also founded and chairs RMI’s fourth for-profit spin-off, Hypercar, Inc., and co-founded its third, E Source, which was sold to the Financial Times group in 1999.
A consultant physicist educated at Harvard and Oxford, he has received an Oxford master of arts (by virtue of being a don), eight honorary doctorates, a MacArthur Fellowship, the Heinz, Lindbergh, World Technology, and Hero for the Planet Awards, the Happold Medal, and the Nissan, Mitchell, "Alternative Nobel," Shingo and Onassis Prizes; held visiting academic chairs; briefed 16 heads of state; published 28 books and several hundred papers; and consulted for scores of industries and governments worldwide.
The Wall Street Journal’s Centennial Issue named him among 39 people in the world most likely to change the course of business in the 1990s, and Car magazine, the 22nd most powerful person in the global automotive industry. His work focuses on transforming the car, real estate, electricity, water, semiconductor, and several other sectors of the economy toward advanced resource productivity.
Donald L. Bogdanske
Don Bogdanske has taught biology at Ripon High School in Ripon, Wis., for 26 years. As a teacher, he strives to provide his students with state of the art materials for their learning, including digital microscopes and computer-assisted laboratories. He also assists students with research, recently helping senior students submit abstracts to the Wisconsin Science Congress, of which he is the co-chair. Bogdanske is also the science chair of the Ripon School District.
Bogdanske has been recognized for his teaching with several awards, including the 2001 Paul F. Brandwein Fellow, a Wisconsin Outstanding Biology Teacher Award, a Kohl Fellowship, a Wisconsin Society of Science Teachers (WSST) Regional Science Award for Excellence and, most recently, an Outstanding Educator Award for Research with High School Students from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. He is an active presenter, participating annually at WSST meetings and regional and national conventions.
In addition to teaching, Bogdanske has been head coach of the Ripon High School cross country and track teams. He holds a bachelor’s degree in natural resources and biology and a master’s in teaching, both from the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point.
Robert D. Clingan
Robert Clingan has been a member of the science faculty of Wisconsin’s West Bend Joint School District since 1979. He has been teaching general and advanced chemistry for more than 30 years. He co-created West Bend’s Forensic Science Project, an annual program that takes senior students to an off-campus site to investigate a mock crime scene using many of the science skills and techniques learned in the classroom.
As a teacher at Sauk Prairie High School, he received the Teacher of the Year Award in three consecutive years. He has been nominated for West Bend’s Rolf’s Teacher of the Year Award in each of his 25 years in the district, receiving the award — which is awarded only once in a teacher’s career — in 1987. That same year he received the South Eastern Wisconsin Science Teacher of the Year Award. He has been a presenter at both the Sally Ride and John Muir academies as well as at the North Central Association’s 2001 conference in Chicago. He is an Eagle Scout of the Boy Scouts of America and a member of the West Bend Education Association, for which he served as president for three years.
Clingan has also coached football, wrestling, baseball, track and basketball. He received his bachelor’s degree in biology and his master’s in education from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
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