News from Rensselaer Polytechnic InstituteMarch 27, 2014www.rpi.edu/news

Technology Leader and IBM CEO Virginia M. Rometty To Address Rensselaer Graduates at 208th Commencement

World Wide Web Inventor Tim Berners-Lee and Renowned Geneticist Mary-Claire King Will Also Receive Honorary Degrees

Newswise — Troy, N.Y. – Virginia M. Rometty, the chairman, president, and chief executive officer of IBM, will address graduates on May 24 at the 208th Commencement Ceremony of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Rometty will receive an honorary degree at the ceremony, along with World Wide Web inventor Sir Timothy John “Tim” Berners-Lee, and pioneering geneticist Mary-Claire King.

“At Rensselaer we ask, ‘Why not change the world?,’” said Rensselaer President Shirley Ann Jackson. “In each of their arenas, our 2014 Honorary Degree recipients — IBM Chairman, President, and CEO Virginia M. “Ginni” Rometty; father of the World Wide Web Sir Timothy John “Tim” Berners-Lee; and renowned geneticist Dr. Mary-Claire King — have done just that. Each has asked the critical questions, made the essential connections, and created the tools and technologies to harness the power and potential of data and its complexity in ways that have enabled transformational change.”

Virginia M. “Ginni” RomettyRometty has led IBM as chairman, president, and CEO since 2012. Since beginning her career with IBM in 1981, she has held a series of leadership positions across the company. Her many accomplishments include pioneering IBM’s rapid expansion in the emerging economies of the world and establishing IBM’s Growth Markets organization. Under her leadership, IBM has pioneered cognitive computing for smarter solutions to global challenges, and recently announced the formation of the Watson Group, a new business unit dedicated to the development and commercialization of cloud-delivered cognitive innovations.

Sir Timothy John “Tim” Berners-LeeA graduate of Oxford University, Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989 while working as a software engineer at CERN, the particle physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland. He also wrote the first Web browser and server in 1990. Today, he holds faculty appointments at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (U.S.) and the University of Southampton (U.K.). Berners-Lee serves as director of several organizations including the World Wide Web Consortium and the World Wide Web Foundation.

Mary-Claire KingKing, a professor of Genome Sciences and of Medicine at the University of Washington, is known around the world for her significant accomplishments in human genetics research. In 1990, she demonstrated that a single gene, BRCA1, was responsible for breast and ovarian cancer in many families. This discovery revolutionized the study of many other common inherited diseases, and the approach she developed to identify BRCA1 has since proven valuable in the study of many other genetic diseases and conditions.

2014 President’s Commencement ColloquyOn the eve of Commencement, Rensselaer will convene for the 2014 President’s Commencement Colloquy. Led by President Jackson, Rometty, Berners-Lee, and King will participate in a discussion titled “Creating Clarity in Complexity to Enable Transformational Change.”

The Colloquy will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, May 23, in the concert hall of the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC).

For additional information regarding the 208th Commencement at Rensselaer, see: http://owl.li/uUwrV

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