CCNY's 172nd Commencement honorees [from the top] Anita Hill, Seymour Moskowitz and Harold Scheraga.
Commencement honors for Seymour Moskowitz ’54ME & Harold Scheraga ’41
Anita F. Hill, the noted law professor, author and voice for gender and civil rights, is the keynote speaker at The City College of New York’s 172nd Commencement Exercises, June 1. Hill will receive the honorary degree Doctor of Humane Letters.
City College will also honor two of its distinguished alumni at the 9:30 a.m. ceremony on the South Campus Great Lawn, 135th St. and Convent Ave., Manhattan.
Seymour L. Moskowitz, ’54ME, co-founder and retired president of CoVant Management Inc., which acquires and manages companies that support federal government agencies in the areas of defense and national security, will be receiving the honorary degree Doctor of Science.
Harold Abraham Scheraga, ’41, pioneering scientist and George W. and Grace L. Todd Professor Emeritus, Department of Chemistry, Cornell University, will be awarded, in absentia, the honorary degree Doctor of Science.
The honors are for their professional accomplishments.
Following are brief bios of the honorees:
Dr. Anita F. Hill
In 1991, Anita Hill’s powerful testimony on national television helped frame sexual harassment and the exploitation of women at work as a matter of human and civil rights. Hill did that during the Senate Judiciary Committee’s televised hearings on the confirmation of Clarence Thomas for the Supreme Court of the United States. She went on to a stellar career as an author and public lecturer on gender and Civil Rights. Her books include: “Race, Gender and Power in America: The Legacy of the Hill-Thomas Hearings” (coedited with Emma Coleman Jordan), and “Reimagining Equality: Stories of Gender, Race and Finding Home.” Hill is University Professor of Law, Public Policy and Women’s Studies at Brandeis University and Of Counsel at Cohen, Milstein, Sellers and Toll. In the latter position, she continues her public work for justice in America. In 2017, she was appointed Chair of the Hollywood entertainment industry’s Commission to Eliminate Sexual Harassment and Advance Equality in the Workplace.
Seymour L. Moskowitz, ’54ME
From the Cold War through the aftermath of 9/11, Seymour Moskowitz’ engineering acumen has contributed vitally to U.S. national security – including counterintelligence and counter terrorism – as well as the development of environmentally clean electric power generation systems to protect life on earth. A member of CCNY’s Class of 1954, Moskowitz’ outstanding career after earning a BS in mechanical engineering includes several highlights. He held leading research positions at Curtiss-Wright and Vitro corporations before his role in a group that acquired Anteon International Corporation. Anteon provided mission-critical information and technology services to government agencies. It grew into CoVant Technologies LLC and CoVant Management with Moskowitz as co-founder of the new entity. Moskowitz served as president of CoVant before retiring. As an innovator, Moskowitz holds seven patents and has authored numerous technical and peer-reviewed papers on turbine and combustion technologies.
Dr. Harold Abraham Scheraga, ’41
Harold Scheraga is George W. and Grace L. Todd Professor Emeritus in the Department of Chemistry at Cornell University. He fell in love with physics and chemistry at CCNY from where he graduated with a BS degree in 1941. His passion led to a new understanding of one of the fundamental building blocks of life, the protein molecule. This laid the foundation for current efforts to treat human diseases by specifically targeting damaged proteins. Scheraga has spent more than six decades at Cornell where’s he’s combined experimental and theoretical approaches to produce a new understanding of molecular interactions within and between proteins. He’s played a major role in explaining the physical principles underlying the behavior of proteins, laying the foundation for understanding forces responsible for protein structure and stability and mechanisms by which proteins fold into three-dimensional objects. These findings, in turn, enabled predictions of native structures of proteins. A Brooklyn native, Scheraga has also been an exceptional mentor to young scientists.
About The City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided a high quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. Today The Chronicle of Higher Education ranks CCNY #2 among public colleges with the greatest success in ensuring the social mobility of our student body; at the same time the Center for world University Rankings places it in the top 1.2% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. More than 16,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight professional schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.