This year, 26 students will receive Ph.D. degrees at the ceremony. Three honorary degrees will be awarded to Rockefeller University alumni: Nina V. Fedoroff, Bertil Hille and Gerald M. Edelman.

Dr. Fedoroff is the science and technology adviser to United States Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. She is the Verne M. Willaman Chair in Life Sciences and Evan Pugh Professor at Pennsylvania State University.

Dr. Hille is professor of physiology and biophysics at the University of Washington School of Medicine. In 1999 he shared the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research and in 2001 shared the Gairdner Foundation International Award.

Dr. Edelman is director of The Neurosciences Institute and president of Neurosciences Research Foundation. His early studies on the structure and diversity of antibodies led to the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1972.

Cori Bargmann, Torsten N. Wiesel Professor, Rockefeller University, and Hironori Funabiki, associate professor, Rockefeller University, are the marshals.

Photograph on Founder's Hall steps immediately following ceremony.