Graduating students, the main participants of the graduation ceremony at Rutgers University-New Brunswick and Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences on May 14, 2023, arrived at the ceremony cheerfully, wearing traditional red and black robes. The ceremony was broadcast live by the local "university TV", then made available on the largest video-sharing portal.
Keywords in a stadium
According to estimates, nearly 20,000 recent graduates have studied and earned degrees in Rutgers University schools by 2023. Those with an entrepreneurial spirit also recorded their messages evoking the past and looking to the future on video.
To the sound of the trombone, under the banner of the respective faculty and school, students filled the arena of the SHI Stadium marching to bouncy rhythmic music, waving to the thousands of celebrants gathered in the stands.
A dignified procession of the professors of the university — named Queen's College in 1766 in honor of King George III's wife, and then named after one of the supporters of the institution, Lieutenant Henry Rutgers — marched onto the stage.
The institution's band and choir made the ceremony unique, the university song was played in the spirit of the motto of Rutgers "Sun of righteousness, shine upon the West also".
According to historian Jonathan Holloway, the 21st president of Rutgers University, the words "love", "gratitude" and "responsibility" can describe their community. He recommended these 3 keywords to the attention of students who are saying goodbye to their alma mater.
"Punched the air..."
Mark Angelson, educational leader managing Fulbright scholarships and hundreds of other programs of the US Department of State, member of the intelligence advisory board supporting the US president, an alumnus of Rutgers, former chairman of the Board of Governors of his alma mater, received an honorary doctorate of "Human Letters".
One of Rutgers' new honorary doctors, Katalin Karikó, and the 21st president of Rutgers University, Jonathan Holloway
Rutgers University awarded Katalin Karikó with the title "Honorary Doctor of Science". She got a yellow collar on her red and black robe. The world-famous mRNA researcher, who started from Kisújszállás and earned a degree in biology and a doctorate in biochemistry at the University of Szeged, was celebrated by twenty thousand university students in the stadium of the New Jersey state university.
The eulogy summarizing the twists and turns of Karikó's fabulous life story and the results of her research was presented by the excellent historian and university leader Jonathan Holloway. He even mentioned that Karikó obtained a doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Szeged. Moreover: "she is the mother of the two-time Olympic champion, five-time world champion rower, Susan Francia".
Katalin Karikó's praise can also be read on the Rutgers website: "Katalin Karikó devoted four decades of research focusing on RNA-mediated mechanisms—and her groundbreaking work unlocked the opportunity for the therapeutic use of the mRNA." Throughout her research career, Karikó has performed clinical trials and studies on mRNA therapy as a treatment for several diseases, including HIV, multiple sclerosis, and cancer.
With her research, she demonstrated the possibility of treating autoimmune diseases using novel mRNA technology.
The new honorary doctor of Rutgers, the Hungarian Katalin Karikó, triumphantly punched the air and waved back to the students.
"Chase your dreams!" "Find your voice!" "Give the world your best!" This is what Sheryl Lee Ralph (on the right of Katalin Karikó in our photo), an Emmy award-winning actress, encouraged the Rutgers students.
At the institution's 257th graduation ceremony - following an American tradition - the alumnus who became a star gave a passionate speech, sang, and made a selfie with the students of her alma mater in the background.
Hungarian celebrities strengthen Rutgers' reputation
In 1989, Rutgers joined the Association of American Universities, which brings together the best higher education institutions of the continent. This also strengthened its status as a research university, which is illustrated by the description: 5 Nobel laureates worked or graduated from the institution. For example, Milton Friedman, a Nobel Memorial Prize-winning economist, studied here.
Hungarian research celebrities also strengthen the reputation of the institution. Among the members of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, mathematician János Komlós, Abel and Széchenyi prize-winning mathematician Endre Szemerédi, and neuroscientist György Buzsáki, one of the winners of the European Brain Prize, taught at Rutgers.
The University of Szeged is also represented among the researchers of Rutgers University. Antal Berényi, a brain researcher at the Albert Szent-Györgyi Faculty of Medicine of SZTE, worked for 3 years in the Buzsáki Laboratory of New Jersey's State University.
Those connected by Szeged and the mRNA molecule
Her personal good friend and former colleague, Pál Maliga, a professor at Rutgers, also greeted Katalin Karikó, the biochemist who received the title of "Honorary Doctor of Sciences" at Rutgers University.
Pál Maliga and Katalin Karikó, both former students of the University of Szeged and former researchers of the Biological Research Centre in Szeged, met again at Rutgers University. Both scientists are researching the secrets of mRNA. Photo: R E
Excellence in plant molecular biology, director of Rutgers University's Department of Plant Biology and Chloroplast Molecular Genetics Laboratory, Pál Maliga obtained his Ph.D. degree in 1972 at the University of Szeged (called József Attila University at the time).
At the Biological Research Center of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, located in Szeged, he achieved world-famous success first in the Institute of Genetics and then in the Institute of Plant Physiology in connection with photosynthesis and the two cell organelles that play a role in it.
His achievements include the modification of the chloroplast gene, also known as the green color bodies, the study of the mitochondrion, a cell organelle that plays a key role in the production and storage of energy, and the development of a model system for chloroplast genome engineering in tobacco.
In addition to recalling shared Biological Research Center memories, the main topic of conversation between the two researchers was the wonderful molecule that determines their current and future work, the mRNA.
Photo by R. U., screenshot
