Carolina hoods future leaders

Surrounded by friends, family and faculty advisors, more than 200 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill doctoral candidates were draped with colorful velvet hoods May 9 at the Dean E. Smith Center as the students officially received their degrees.

“This is a very significant time in the academy,” said Chancellor Carol L. Folt. “Awarding of the doctoral degree is an academy’s greatest ceremonial and academic distinction. A love of learning brought all of our candidates here today. “

Presided by Folt, the annual Doctoral Hooding ceremony celebrated the 250 students who earned their doctoral degrees from Carolina’s Graduate School, which offers 80 programs from American studies and psychology to public policy and biochemistry.

“We’re honoring your deeply personal journeys and your path to understanding and discovery,” Folt said. “These discoveries make not only our University strong, but they are also guaranteeing the future of our state, our nation and advancing understanding across the breadth of human endeavor.”

Susan A. Murphy, the H.E. Robbins Distinguished University Professor of statistics, professor of psychiatry and research professor at the University of Michigan, served as the event’s keynote speaker.

An alumna of the Carolina Graduate School, Murphy received a 2013 MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant for breakthroughs that may help clinicians more effectively assess and adapt treatment of chronic and relapsing diseases. She is also a principal investigator with the Pennsylvania State University Methodology Center.

She also was named a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellow for her work in designing the Sequential Multiple Assignment Randomized Trial, which collects and analyzes a patient’s health data over time, and provides guidance on the possible need to change treatment or on how long current treatment should continue.

Reflecting on her own journey that led her to a membership within the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, Murphy told the doctoral candidates to continue to persevere and strive to increase their communication skills — a talent that will serve them well in their fields.

“People are not born with high-quality communication skills, it’s hard,” she said. “We have to continually strive to build those skills, but it pays off in the long run.”

During the Hooding Ceremony, the each of the doctoral graduates was called onto the stage to have their hoods draped on them by their advisers or dissertation committee, conferring the degrees.

“Your work here has advanced the University’s mission in research, teaching and public service,” said Steven W. Matson, dean of the Graduate School. “Now, as our future leaders, we’re counting on you to continue that work, to take on the challenges we face as a society and to succeed. Whether your goal is to conduct groundbreaking research, to teach, or provide earnest public leadership, we know you will share with others what you’ve learned here.”