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Michigan State University spring commencement speakers work to
keep our planet healthy
March 31, 2008
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| Gro Harlem
Brundtland |
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| Peter H.
Raven
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EAST LANSING, Mich. — Two internationally
recognized leaders working to keep the world and its
inhabitants healthy will be Michigan State University’s
spring 2008 commencement speakers Friday, May 2.
Gro Harlem Brundtland, former director general of the
World Health Organization and former prime minister of
Norway, and botanist Peter Raven, president of the
Missouri Botanical Garden, will address students,
families and guests during ceremonies at the Jack
Breslin Student Events Center, One Birch Road.
Brundtland, who will receive an honorary doctor of
laws, will speak at the 1 p.m. convocation, a central
ceremony for all undergraduate candidates for degrees
graduating at MSU this spring. Raven, who will receive
an honorary doctor of science, will speak to candidates
for advanced degrees at the 7 p.m. ceremony at the
Breslin Center.
“Both our speakers developed passions for global
responsibility early in their lives,” said MSU President
Lou Anna K. Simon. “Their efforts to educate others as
to how we treat our planet and its citizens in matters
of health equity and plant conservation are reflected in
their public service careers. They will serve as
exemplars of commitment and service for the betterment
of students and for the public good.”
Brief biographies of the speakers follow.
GRO HARLEM BRUNDTLAND
Gro Harlem Brundtland knew she wanted to be a doctor
like her father. When, at the age of 10, she moved with
her family to the United States, she also discovered
within her a strong sense of internationalism and
political activism.
She received her medical education at the University
of Oslo, Norway, and her master of public health from
Harvard University. She worked as a physician in the
Norwegian Directorate of Health and in Oslo’s public
school’s health service. As a young mother and doctor,
her career focused on children’s health issues.
She served as the Norwegian Minister for
Environmental Affairs from 1974 to 1979, focusing on the
links between public health and the environment. In
1981, she became Norway’s first woman prime minister.
She also held that position from 1986 to 1989 and from
1990 to 1996. Brundtland was chairperson of the World
Commission on Environment and Development, commonly
referred to as the Brundtland Commission, developing
broad political concepts of sustainable development, and
providing the impetus for the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio
de Janeiro.
Brundtland, who was elected director-general of the
World Health Organization in 1998, was recognized in
2003 by Scientific American as its “Policy Leader of the
Year” for coordinating a rapid worldwide response to
stem outbreaks of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. In
May 2007, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon named Brundtland to serve as a UN Special Envoy
for Climate Change.
In 2007, in Johannesburg, South Africa, she joined
Nelson Mandela and other world leaders, including former
President Jimmy Carter and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, to
form The Elders, a group of world leaders who lend their
expertise and independent leadership to study and
undertake world problems.
PETER H. RAVEN
Peter H. Raven developed a special fondness for
plants when he was six years old. Trips to the
California Academy of Sciences led to collecting
caterpillars, butterflies and moths, and eventually,
plants.
Under his direction, the Missouri Botanical Garden
has become one of the world’s leading plant conservation
centers. He also is the Englemann Professor of Botany at
Washington University in St. Louis. He utilizes a broad
approach including data from cytogenics, breeding
systems, ecological preferences, pollination biology and
bio-geographic to work out systematic and evolutionary
problems.
For more than 30 years, Raven has been a major
proponent of and force behind biodiversity efforts
around the world, working to ensure the ecosystems of
all plant and animal varieties are protected in light of
human consumption. He is best known for his work
“Coevolution of Insects and Plants,” which he
co-authored with Paul R. Ehrlich, entomologist and
author, and published in the journal Evolution in
1964.
Raven joined lead author Jianguo “Jack” Liu, Rachel
Carson Chair in Ecological Sustainability, University
Distinguished Professor of Fisheries and Wildlife, and
director of the Center for Systems Integration and
Sustainability at MSU, and other research colleagues, in
penning a Policy Forum in the May 23, 2003, issue of
Science magazine.
A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley,
he received his doctorate in botany from the University
of California, Los Angeles. He taught for nine years at
Stanford University. He has authored more than 400
articles and 16 books. In its 1999 issue, Time magazine
named Raven as one of its Heroes of the Planet, who is
“doing extraordinary things to preserve and protect the
environment.”
For additional commencement information, visit the
Web at http://www.commencement.msu.edu/.
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Michigan State University has been advancing
knowledge and transforming lives through innovative
teaching, research and outreach for more than 150 years.
MSU is known internationally as a major public
university with global reach and extraordinary impact.
Its 17 degree-granting colleges attract scholars
worldwide who are interested in combining education with
practical problem solving.
Kristen Anderson, University Relations.
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