UB to hold commencement ceremonies May 3-22

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Some 5,799 students are candidates to receive 6,392 degrees and certificates during the University at Buffalo’s 2019 commencement ceremonies being held May 3-22.

UB no longer holds a traditional University Commencement, instead splitting the large ceremony honoring College of Arts and Sciences’ baccalaureate recipients into two separate ceremonies differentiated by departments.

UB’s 2019 commencement season begins on May 3 with the ceremony for students graduating from the MD program in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. The ceremony will take place at 1:30 p.m. in the Center for the Arts, North Campus. Delivering remarks will be Howard A. Zucker, New York State health commissioner. President Satish K. Tripathi will confer degrees.

L. Nelson Hopkins, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Neurosurgery and founder of the Gates Vascular Institute and the Jacobs Institute, will be awarded the Chancellor Charles P. Norton Medal, UB’s highest honor. UB alumnus Donald Pinkel, a pioneering pediatric oncologist, will receive a SUNY Honorary Doctorate in Science in absentia. Michael Cain, vice president for health sciences and dean of the Jacobs School, will accept the award on Pinkel’s behalf.

The remainder of the commencement schedule:

• School of Dental Medicine: 3 p.m. May 10, Center for the Arts. Brendan Dowd, DMD ’86, president of the New York State Dental Association and a clinical instructor of restorative dentistry at UB, will speak. Tripathi will confer degrees.
• Graduate School of Education: 9 a.m. May 17, Center for the Arts. No speaker is planned. Provost Charles F. Zukoski will confer degrees. Tripathi will present Amanda Nickerson, professor in the Graduate School of Education and director of the Alberti Center for Bullying Abuse Prevention, with the UB President’s Medal in recognition of extraordinary service to the university.
• School of Nursing: 9 a.m. May 17, Alumni Arena, North Campus. No speaker is planned. Cain will confer degrees. Tripathi will award a SUNY Honorary Doctorate in Science to Rebecca J. McCormick-Boyle, BS ’81, rear admiral and commander, Nurse Corps (retired), U.S. Navy.
• College of Arts and Sciences (graduate): 1 p.m. May 17, Center for the Arts. No speaker is planned. Zukoski will confer degrees.
• School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (graduate): 1 p.m. May 17, Alumni Arena. No speaker is planned. Tripathi will confer degrees. Amit Goyal, SUNY Empire Innovation Professor and founding director of UB’s RENEW Institute, will receive the UB President’s Medal in recognition of extraordinary service to the university. Alumnus Ashutosh Sharma, an internationally renowned chemical engineer, will receive a SUNY Honorary Doctorate in Science.
• School of Architecture and Planning: 5 p.m. May 17, Center for the Arts. The speaker will be Madeline Burke-Vigeland, chair of the Dean’s Advisory Council and studio director in the New York office of the San Francisco-based Gensler architecture firm. Zukoski will confer degrees.
• School of Management (graduate): 5 p.m. May 17, Alumni Arena. No speaker is planned. Tripathi will confer degrees.
• School of Social Work: 9 a.m. May 18, Center for the Arts. Andrea Ó Súilleabháin, executive director of the Partnership for the Public Good, will speak. Zukoski will confer degrees.
• School of Management (undergraduate): 9 a.m. May 18, Alumni Arena. No speaker is planned. Tripathi will confer degrees.
• School of Public Health and Health Professions: 1 p.m. May 18, Center for the Arts. Erie County Health Commissioner Gail Burstein will speak. Tripathi will confer degrees.
• School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (undergraduate): 2 p.m. May 18, Alumni Arena. Dean’s Award winner Jonathan Watts, BSIE ’00, BSCE ’03, vice president at Watts Architecture & Engineering DPC, will speak. Zukoski will confer degrees.
• School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences: 5 p.m. May 18, Center for the Arts. The speaker is John A. Pieper, president and professor at St. Louis College of Pharmacy. Zukoski will confer degrees.
• Biomedical Sciences (undergraduate and graduate, including Roswell Park Graduate Division): 9:30 a.m. May 19, Center for the Arts. The speaker will be Kenneth H. Fischbeck, Distinguished Investigator and chief, Neurogenetics Branch, National Institutes of Health. Zukoski will confer degrees.
• College of Arts and Sciences (undergraduate arts, natural sciences and mathematics, and interdisciplinary programs): 9:30 a.m. May 19, Alumni Arena. John Ringland, associate professor of mathematics, will speak. The student speaker will be Anyssa Evelyn, who will receive a bachelor’s degree from the Social Sciences Interdisciplinary Program. Tripathi will confer degrees. Students and families are encouraged to share photos, memories and best wishes to social media using the hashtag #UBClassOf2019; those messages will stream live in the arena.
• College of Arts and Sciences (undergraduate humanities and social sciences): 3 p.m. May 19, Alumni Arena. The faculty speaker will be Diane Christian, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of English; the student speaker will be Michael Brown, student representative to the UB Council, who will receive a bachelor’s degree in political science. Zukoski will confer degrees. Students and families can use the hashtag #UBClassOf2019; those messages will stream live in the arena.
• School of Law: 3 p.m. May 19, Center for the Arts. The speaker will be the Hon. Maite D. Oronoz-Rodriguez, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico. Tripathi will confer degrees. Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul will receive the Dean’s Medal. A SUNY Honorary Doctorate in Laws will be awarded to Julio M. Fuentes, JD ’75, senior U.S. Circuit Court judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.
• Educational Opportunity Center: 7 p.m. May 22, Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall, North Campus. A speaker has yet to be announced.