University Park, Pa. -- Penn State will honor J. Stuart Hunter, a world-renowned innovator and one of the most influential industrial statisticians of the last 50 years, at one of three University Park fall commencement ceremonies to be held Saturday, Dec. 20.
An estimated 14 associate degrees and 2,261 baccalaureate degrees will be conferred at two ceremonies at University Park, over which Penn State President Graham B. Spanier will preside. He also will lead the Graduate School ceremony for an expected 699 graduate students.
Hunter will receive an honorary doctor of science degree and will speak at the undergraduate ceremony at 9 a.m. at the Bryce Jordan Center. Considered a pioneer in industrial experimental design, Hunter has spent his life helping to define and quantify basic industrial engineering concepts such as quality, safety, efficiency and reliability and has made fundamental contributions to industry in the United States and abroad.
Hunter's ideas have been applied to a wide spectrum of pursuits in manufacturing, product design and production systems development and improvement. He served as staff statistician for American Cyanamid Co. and as a member of the Mathematics Research Center at the University of Wisconsin. In 1988 he retired as professor emeritus in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Princeton University but has spent many years since as an industry consultant. He currently teaches at Arizona State University.
The 9 a.m. commencement ceremony will include graduates in the College of Agricultural Sciences, Smeal College of Business, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, College of Engineering and the College of Information Sciences and Technology. The ceremony for associate degree recipients, the College of Arts and Architecture, College of Communications, College of Education, College of Health and Human Development, College of the Liberal Arts and the Eberly College of Science will begin at 12:30 p.m., also at the Bryce Jordan Center. The Graduate School ceremony will begin at 4 p.m. at Eisenhower Auditorium.
Ann C. Crouter, dean of the College of Health and Human Development, will speak at the Graduate School ceremony. Crouter is the director of both the Social Science Research Institute and the Consortium for Children, Youth and Families. During her Penn State career, she was professor-in-charge of the graduate program in human development and family studies for six years and director of the Center for Work and Family Research from 2002 to 2006. She has been director of the Social Science Research Institute and director of the Consortium for Children, Youth and Families since 2006.
At other Penn State campuses an estimated 306 students will graduate with associate degrees, 926 with baccalaureate degrees and 260 with graduate degrees, for a University-wide total of 4,466 fall graduates.
In addition to the commencement ceremonies, the Schreyer Honors College will recognize about 54 graduating seniors at 5 p.m. Friday, Dec. 19, at The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel.
For detailed information about fall commencement events at University Park and other Penn State campuses, visit http://www.commencement.psu.edu.