Errol Morris, left, is an award-winning filmmaker, while Richard Alley was a member of the group that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
Two graduates of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's College of Letters & Science will receive honorary degrees at commencement next month.
Errol Morris (BA'69, History), who won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Film in 2003 for “The Fog of War,” is regarded as one of the most innovative and influential filmmakers of his generation.
Richard Alley (Ph.D.'87, Geology), the Evan Pugh Professor of Geoscience at Penn State University, has made significant contributions to the study and understanding of climate change through his research on the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.
The honorary degrees, as well as doctoral and professional degrees, will be presented at the 5:30 p.m. commencement ceremony on Friday, May 17 at the Kohl Center. The ceremony is the first of five that will be held that weekend.
Morris will receive an honorary doctor of humane letters degree. He has directed 10 documentary features, and his style has changed the practice of how documentary films are made.
“Morris’ work is not simply an exercise in aesthetic innovation,” writes Vance Kepley Jr. in his nomination supporting Morris. Kepley is the director of the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research and a professor of film in the Department of Communication Arts. “His films probe contemporary social and political issues of the American experience.”
Morris’ film “The Thin Blue Line” explores the circumstances of a wrongful murder conviction in Texas. “Mr. Death” turns the lens toward capital punishment. “The Fog of War” is an examination of the career of former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and the policies that shaped the Vietnam War.
Alley was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2008 and has received numerous awards for his research, including the Seligman Crystal of the International Glaciological Society, the Louis Agassiz Medal of the European Geosciences Union, the Revelle Medal from the American Geophysical Union, and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement.
As a participant in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Alley is also a member of the group that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
In his nomination letter, Department of Geoscience Chair Brad Singer says Alley has made exceptional efforts to bring his research to his students, the public and policymakers.
“He has dedicated himself to explaining this science, and its implications for society, to a broad audience,” Singer says.
Alley will be granted an honorary doctor of science degree.
To read about all honorary degree recipients at UW-Madison next month, read the full story from University Communications.