NJIT commencement to award honorary degrees to speaker and two alumni

NEWARK, NJ — Longtime Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute President Shirley Ann Jackson will speak at New Jersey Institute of Technology’s 2022 commencement on May 17 at Prudential Center in Newark. Jackson, who’ll also receive an honorary doctorate of science, has led RPI since 1999. On her watch, RPI has hired more than 450 new faculty members, grown its endowment to more than $1 billion and added innovative research centers to its Troy, N.Y., campus. Her presidency will end on July 1, when she’s succeeded by Martin Schmidt, a former provost at MIT. 

Jackson is also a STEM trailblazer, with both a bachelor of science in physics and Ph.D. in theoretical elementary particle physics. She is the first black woman to earn a doctorate from MIT and served the public sector under presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton as co-chairperson of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board and chairperson of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, respectively. She also was on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology during the Obama administration and, in 2016, was awarded the National Medal of Science. 

At the ceremony — the last for longtime NJIT President Joel S. Bloom — NJIT will also award honorary doctorates of science to two alumni: Stephen DePalma, who earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 1972, and Paul Sarlo, who earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 1992 and a master’s degree in civil engineering in 1995.

DePalma is the former CEO of engineering firm Schoor DePalma and served on NJIT’s board of trustees for 17 years, the last seven as chairperson; he’s now a chairperson emeritus. Sarlo is the deputy majority leader of the New Jersey Senate, where he represents 15 municipalities in Bergen and Passaic counties and chairs the Budget and Appropriations Committee; he’s also mayor of Wood-Ridge. 

NJIT’s Class of 2022 comprises some 3,100 scholars who are earning bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees.

Bloom has been president for 11 years and, on July 1, he’ll hand the reins to Teik Lim, a former interim president at the University of Texas at Arlington.

For more on commencement and related convocations for NJIT’s academic schools, visit https://commencement.njit.edu/. To access the livestream of commencement on May 17, visit njit.edu.

  NJIT