Ken Jeong (top left), the late Henry “Hank” Aaron (top right), Dr. Rosalind Picard (bottom left) and Jen. David H. Berger will receive an honorary degree from Tulane University in 2022.
Four individuals who have made significant contributions in fields ranging from sports and entertainment to national defense and artificial intelligence will receive honorary degrees in early 2022 from Tulane University.
Henry “Hank” Aaron, one of baseball’s greatest players; Gen. David H. Berger, a Tulane graduate and commandant of the United States Marine Corps; Ken Jeong, a doctor who became one of the country’s most sought-after comedians and Dr. Rosalind Picard, inventor, engineer, scientist and pioneer of artificial intelligence, will receive an honorary degree at the ceremony on May 21. Aaron will receive an honorary degree after Tulane’s first death.
“Each of these individuals has achieved the greatest accomplishments in their respective fields while enriching, empowering, entertaining and protecting the lives of others,” said Tulane President Michael A. Fitts. “They truly exemplify and symbolize Tulane’s values of excellence, innovation, compassion and service. I am very happy to meet them on this special occasion. »
“Each of these individuals has made the greatest achievements in their respective fields while enriching, empowering, entertaining and protecting the lives of others.”
– President A. Michael Fitts
Aaron, the greatest home runner of all time, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982. He rewrote the baseball record books during his 23-year Major League career (1954- 76). When he retired at the end of the 1976 season, Aaron held more shooting records than any other player in the game’s history. Aaron’s most famous home run came in Atlanta on April 8 1974, when it reached 715ke homer, breaking Babe Ruth’s seemingly untouchable record. From December 1989 until his death in 2021, he served as senior vice president of the Atlanta Braves.
Aaron was honored for his lifetime achievements as a player and humanitarian. President Bill Clinton awarded the People’s Presidential Medal and President George W. Bush awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his humanitarian efforts. Then Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig established the Hank Aaron Award in 1999, which is given annually to the best batsman in the National and American Leagues.
Aaron was scheduled to receive an honorary doctorate in the humanities letter at the 2020 Tulane ceremony, but his departure was delayed due to COVID-19. At this year’s event, television host and nonprofit executive Billye Aaron will receive an honorary degree in Aaron’s name. Billye Aaron, married to a baseball great for 48 years, has become the first black woman in the Southeast to co-host an hour-long daily television show. He is also a leader in many organizations, including the UNCF and the NAACP, where he is director emeritus of its Legal Defense Fund.
Berger is a native of Woodbine, Maryland, assuming the rank of commandant of the Marine Corps in 2019. He graduated from Tulane University, where he was a member of the Tulane Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps and was commissioned in 1981. Berger commanded at every level – including the management of a survey company; 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines in Haiti during Operation Safe Tomorrow and 8th Combat Force Regiment in Fallujah, Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
In addition to a variety of advanced degrees, including a master’s degree in international public policy from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, Berger’s formal military education includes the Advanced Officers Course of U.S. Army Infantry, the U.S. Marine Corps Command and Staff College, and the U.S. Marine Corps Advanced Combat School. Berger will receive an honorary doctorate in the humanities.
Jeong, who will also speak at the opening ceremony, honed his skills at the New Orleans comedy club while doing research at Tulane Medical School in the 1990s. Many fans know Jeong as that Mr. Chow Drunk franchise, Señor Chang from the critically acclaimed TV show “Community”, Wye Mun Goh from the hit movie Asians are crazy rich, and his own Netflix special “You Complete Me, Ho,” which earned him a People’s Choice nomination. He’s currently a panelist on Emmy-nominated “The Masked Singer,” which is in its seventh season and just wrapped up its second season as host and executive producer of the popular “I Can See Your Voice.”
Jeong earned a bachelor’s degree from Duke University (from which he also received an honorary degree in humane letters) and an MD from the University of North Carolina. He also researched gastroenterology at Tulane University School of Medicine and completed an internal medicine residency at Ochsner Medical Center, while doing comedy shows at clubs in New Orleans. . Jeong will receive an honorary doctorate in the humanities.
Dr. Picard is the author of the book, Affective Computing, is internationally recognized for pioneering the field of affective computing, which includes endowing machines with the capabilities of emotional intelligence and simulated empathy. Picard is a well-known author of over 350 peer-reviewed articles in the areas of digital health, machine learning, wearable technology, and affective computing.
Picard co-founded two companies that commercialized his invention: Empatica, which provided the first FDA-certified smartwatch to monitor seizures, and Affectiva (now part of Smart Eye), whose mission was to humanize technology. . The inventions of Picard and his team are now used all over the world. He is a full professor at MIT where he teaches and directs research at the Media Lab and is the founding faculty chair of MindHandHeart, a campus-wide wellness initiative at MIT. Picard will receive an honorary doctorate of science.
The start of Tulane University 2022 will be at 9 a.m. on May 21 at Yulman Stadium on the university’s downtown campus. It will cover all the swagger and atmosphere of a traditional graduation ceremony with a New Orleans flavor, including live jazz and a second row parade.
