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WUSTL PhotoChancellor Mark S. Wrighton will confer degrees at the 146th Commencement ceremony, which begins at 8:30 a.m. May 18 in Brookings Quadrangle. The 2,622 candidates will receive 2,735 degrees, of which 1,467 are undergraduate and 1,268 are graduate and professional.

“I think WUSTL is the best place we could ever have chosen to go to school,” said Ryon Buchman, this year’s student Commencement speaker. “I hope we can look back 10 years from now and remember everything we’ve accomplished here, because we’ve accomplished a lot.”

After this issue, the Record will phase into its monthly summer publication schedule.

Photo by Robert BostonAnn Vitale adjusts Emily Gravenhorst’s prosthetic ear in the School of Medicine’s maxillofacial prosthetics laboratory.The medical school’s maxillofacial prosthetics laboratory helps patients fit back into society after disfigurement due to accident or disease.

More than a dozen distinguished individuals will speak at Commencement-related events for graduates and their friends and families.

The No. 13 softball team is headed to the College World Series for the first time in school history after defeating No. 17 Wartburg College, 2-0, at the 2007 NCAA Regional May 13 in Decorah, Iowa.

Kwee L. Thio, M.D., assistant professor of neurology, has received a two-year, $365,805 grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for research titled “Leptin as a Novel Neurohormonal Anticonvulsant.”… John Shareshian, Ph.D., associate professor of mathematics, has received a three-year, $144,464 grant from the National Science Foundation for research titled “Enumerative, Algebraic and Topological Combinatorics.”… Sandor Kovacs, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of medicine, has received a two-year, $330,000 grant from the Barnes-Jewish Hospital Foundation for Cardiovascular Biophysics Research. … David A. Balota, Ph.D., professor of psychology, has received a three-year, $66,651 grant from the National Science Foundation for research titled “Construction and Utility of a Large Scale Semantic Priming Database.”

Two recently initiated School of Medicine programs will grant degrees and certificates this year to their first classes.

The decision for implementing the violent weather plan for Commencement ceremonies will be made by 7 a.m. May 18. Major local radio and TV stations will be given the information, and it will appear on wustl.edu and be announced through campus e-mail.

From medicine to engineering, law to biology, the Record features 12 of the University’s most interesting graduates in our Gallery of Graduates. Their profiles explore what brought them to WUSTL, their accomplishments during their time as students and where they’re headed now.