EAST LANSING, Mich. – Both a Nobel Prize recipient and a Pulitzer Prize recipient will be presented with honorary degrees at Michigan State University on Friday, May 5.

Ellen Zwilich, recipient of a Pulitzer Prize in music and former composer-in-residence at Carnegie Hall in New York City, will receive an honorary doctor of fine arts degree at the undergraduate convocation at 1 p.m. Robert Grubbs, recipient of the Nobel Prize for chemistry and a professor at the California Institute of Technology, will receive an honorary doctor of science degree at the advanced degrees ceremony at 7 p.m. Both events will be in the Breslin Center. Grubbs also will be the keynote speaker at MSU’s College of Natural Science diploma ceremony at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, May 6, also at the Breslin Center.

“Robert Grubbs and Ellen Zwilich are outstanding examples of the world-class scholars that we attract to Michigan State, as part of our continuing effort to bring the best of the world to MSU and to share the best of MSU with the world,” said MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon. “They’re both path breakers in their respective fields, and we take tremendous pride and pleasure in welcoming them back to campus for the convocation and to renew their links to this university.”

Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown Records, will be the speaker for the undergraduate ceremony. Gordy also will receive an honorary doctor of humanities degree.

Student speaker Danielle Lab of Bowling Green, Ohio, a senior majoring in communication and English, will address her fellow seniors at the convocation.

Convocation is the one central ceremony for all undergraduates who will be graduating this spring at MSU. Degrees are conferred at the individual college ceremonies.

Robert Grubbs

Grubbs’ work involving the development of metathesis method in organic synthesis earned him and two others the 2005 Nobel Prize in chemistry. His discoveries have helped chemists around the world develop custom-built molecules with specialized properties that have many scientific applications such as better drug and disease treatments.

He joined MSU’s faculty in 1969 where he began the research that would lead to his discoveries involving the metathesis method. He was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 1973 and went to Caltech in 1978 with full tenure. He has been the Victor and Elizabeth Atkins Professor of Chemistry since 1990.

“Professor Grubbs has had a positive and lasting influence on innumerable colleagues and students throughout his academic career,” said George Leroi, dean of the College of Natural Science. “It’s appropriate that his first honorary degree comes from MSU where his work began.”

Among an extensive list of awards, Grubbs has most recently received the Paul Karrer Gold Medallion, the Kirkwood Medal, and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Distinguished Achievement Award in Organic Synthesis. He recently became associated with the August-Wilhelm-Con-Hofmann-Denkmunze, German Chemical Society and the Fellows of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

“It’s no accident that such areas as polymer chemistry, organometallic chemistry, catalysis and synthetic methodology have honored him with their awards,” said G.J. Karabatsos, MSU chemistry professor emeritus. “The awarding of an honorary degree to him from MSU will bring honor to both him and the college.”

Grubbs is a native of Kentucky. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Florida. Upon completion of a doctorate in chemistry at Columbia University, he joined Stanford University as a postdoctoral fellow.

Ellen Zwilich

Since becoming the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize in music, in 1983, for her Symphony No. 1, Zwilich’s career has flourished.

Her most recent symphony, Symphony No. 4, “The Gardens,” was composed in tribute to MSU’s campus gardens and was performed Feb. 5, 2000, in the Great Hall of the Wharton Center for Performing Arts by an orchestra, choral ensembles and the MSU Children’s Choir, totaling more than 450 performers on stage. The work was recorded for Koch International Classics and will be released at a later date. The concert also was the subject of a WKAR-TV documentary that will soon air on public television throughout the United States.

“Ellen Zwilich is one of the most prolific, imaginative and accomplished composers of her generation,” said James Forger, director of the MSU School of Music.

Among her many awards are the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Chamber Music Prize, the Arturo Toscanini Music Critics Award, the Ernst von Dohnanyi Citation, an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship and four Grammy nominations.

“Few composers in the modern world possess the combination of writing music of substance that also has immediate appeal to mixed audiences,” said Leon Gregorian, director of orchestras at the MSU School of Music. “This combination explains why her music has received so many prestigious awards.”

Zwilich’s works have been performed by many leading American orchestras and major ensembles abroad. She has written commissioned orchestral works for the New York Philharmonic and the Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Long Beach, Indianapolis and Pittsburgh symphonies; and the American Composers, Cleveland and Minnesota orchestras.

A native of Miami, Zwilich received degrees from Florida State University and the Julliard School. She has studied with a number of notable composers, including Roger Sessions, Elliott Carter and Richard Burgin. She was a member of the American Symphony Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski and the first composer-in-residence at Carnegie Hall.

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Michigan State University has been advancing knowledge and transforming lives through innovative teaching, research and outreach for 150 years. MSU is known internationally as a major public university with global reach and extraordinary impact. Its 15 degree-granting colleges attract scholars worldwide who are interested in combining education with practical problem solving.