Ted Koppel, journalist and anchor of Nightline, will be the speaker at this year's commencement exercises on May 26.
Koppel, who is originally from Lancashire, England, has served as the anchor of Nightline since 1980; he began in journalism at WMCA Radio in New York as a desk assistant and reporter. He first joined ABCNEWS at the age of 23 in 1963 as a general assignment correspondent.
Koppel has covered every presidential campaign since 1964.
Prior to serving as the anchor of Nightline, Koppel was ABCNEWS' Hong Kong bureau chief from 1969 to 1971, and later served as the station's chief diplomatic correspondent. One of his most notable assignments in this role was his coverage of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's "shuttle diplomacy" which took Koppel on a quarter million mile tour of the world. It was Koppel's work through these years that cemented his place as one of the most influential voices of journalism.
Throughout his career, Koppel has won every major broadcasting award including 37 Emmy Awards, six George Foster Peabody Awards, 10 duPont-Columbia Awards, nine Overseas Press Club Awards, and two George Polk Awards, in addition to numerous other honors. In 1992, Koppel was inducted into the TV Hall of Fame by the Academy of Television Arts and Science.
Even prior to receiving the honorary degree, Koppel is no stranger to Brandeis. In 1995 he met the late Brandeis Professor Morrie Schwartz - now well known for "Tuesdays with Morrie" - and documented Schwartz' thoughts on living with a fatal disease. Koppel later spoke during a memorial service for Schwartz at Brandeis that same year.
Koppel will be joined by other honorary degree recipients, including Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, Professor Lawrence Fuchs (AMST), architect Frank Gehry, philanthropist Richard Goldman and biochemist Joan Steitz, and former senator Father Robert Drinan.
Breyer has served on the Supreme Court since his appointment by President Bill Clinton in 1994. Prior to becoming a Supreme Court Justice, Breyer was a lecturer at Harvard Law School and a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. He has also served as a judge in the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals.
Fuchs has been at Brandeis since 1952 and is the founder of the American Studies Department. He is an expert on immigration history and worked closely with Eleanor Roosevelt. In 1961, he was selected by President John F. Kennedy to be the first director of the Peace Corps in the Philippines, a post he held for two years.
Gehry is an internationally known architect who has, throughout his work, focused on the idea that architecture is art. According to a New York Times architecture critic, "Gehry's architecture is known for its reliance on harsh, unfinished materials and its juxtaposition of simple, almost primal, geometric forms ... (His) work is vastly more intelligent and controlled than it sounds to the uninitiated; he is an architect of immense gifts who dances on the line separating architecture from art but who manages never to let himself fall."
Goldman is a well known San Francisco philanthropist, who has focused on environmental causes. He has focused in supporting grass-roots environmental organizations, establishing the Goldman Environmental Prize in 1990.
Steitz is an acclaimed biochemist from Yale University; she has just received Brandeis' Rosenstiel Award. Steitz is the first scientist to discover the role of snRNPs or "snurps" - tiny particles in cells that are necessary for converting raw genetic information into active proteins.
This year's Commencement marks 50 years since the first graduating class of Brandeis in 1952. In honor of the occasion, members of the class of 1952 will join the class of 2002 during the commencement exercises.