UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Susan Avery, president emerita of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, will deliver the commencement address for the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences’ 2023 baccalaureate degree commencement ceremony. The ceremony is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 6, in the Pegula Ice Arena on Penn State's University Park campus.
“We are extremely honored to have Dr. Avery as this year’s commencement speaker,” said Lee Kump, John Leone Dean in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. “She has had a distinguished career from facilitating interdisciplinary research efforts spanning the geosciences and incorporating social and biological sciences to implementing strategies for fiscal stability in operations, investments and hiring.”
Avery served as president of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) from 2008 to 2015. Before joining WHOI she served on the faculty at the University of Colorado, Boulder, from 1982 to 2008.
Avery has been active in congressional outreach, including testimony and briefings; in U.S. and international consortia dedicated to ocean research, observation and applications; and worked with the governor’s committee to develop the Massachusetts Green Economy plan.
Avery’s research interests include studies of atmospheric circulation and precipitation, climate variability and water resources, and the development of new radar techniques and instruments for remote sensing. She recently completed two terms as a member and chair of the board of trustees of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.
Avery currently serves on the Exxon Mobil Corporation board of directors, the board of the American Institute of Physics, the board of the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory and on the advisory committee for the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Avery is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Meteorological Society, for which she also served as president, and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Avery holds a bachelor of science degree in physics from Michigan State University and a master of science degree in physics and doctorate in atmospheric sciences from the University of Illinois.
More information about commencement can be found at http://commencement.psu.edu/.