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CANCER WARRIOR DR. JUDAH FOLKMAN OBERLIN COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER
APRIL 30, 2002-- "Cancer Warrior" Dr. Judah Folkman will present the address at Oberlin College's 2002 Commencement program Monday, May 27 on Tappan Square, where more than 700 students are expected to receive degrees. The ceremony marks the 169th Commencement at the college--the first in the U.S. to admit students regardless of race or gender.
Profiled as the Cancer Warrior on the PBS science program NOVA, the Commencement speaker, as a medical researcher at Harvard Medical School, pioneered the concept of starving cancerous tumors of their blood supply. In so doing he developed angiogenesis (the formation of blood vessels), an arm of biology that has become a major front in the war on cancer.
"Judah Folkman's answer to stopping cancers by cutting off their blood supplies has been much too long thought of as too simple to ever work. Now, however, a broad set of antiangiogenic agents based on Judah's ideas are coming on line," says Nobelist James D. Watson, author of The Double Helix. "The verdict 'cancer' need no longer be synonymous with fear and despair. Our country's 'war against cancer' at last has found its general."
Folkman's research thus far has found applications in 25 other diseases as varied as diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration, psoriasis, arthritis, and endometriosis.
Considered deserving to go down in history as one of medicine's most innovative, persistent and brilliant innovators, Dr. Folkman has been the subject of cover stories in Time and Newsweek, and his long battle for scientific acceptance has been chronicled in the book Dr. Folkman;s War: Angiogenesis and the Struggle to Defeat Cancer by medical and science journalist Robert Cooke.
In addition to Dr. Folkman, others receiving honorary degrees from Oberlin are:
- Robert Conrad, co-founder and president of WCLV, Cleveland's classical music station and host of the station's long-running national broadcasts of The Cleveland Orchestra, who will receive an honorary doctor of humanities degree;
- Tania Leon, a highly regarded composer and conductor as well as exceptional educator and advisor to arts organizations, who will receive an honorary doctor of music degree;
- Kenneth Waltz '48, a leading theorist of international relations for more than 40 years, who will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree.
Oberlin will also confer two special awards. Charlotte Owens Baker, local civil rights activist and community leader, will receive the College's annual award for distinguished service to the community. Emeritus Professor of Chemistry Norman Craig '53 will be awarded the Alumni Medal in recognition of his outstanding and sustained service to Oberlin College and its extended community.
A complete schedule of other weekend activities--including symposia, campus tours, concerts, recitals, theatrical performances and tours of Oberlin perennial gardens and historic homes--can be obtained by calling the Office of the Oberlin Alumni Association at 440/775-8692.
Media Contact: Betty Gabrielli
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