World Renowned Geneticist Richard Myers to Speak at UA Commencement Dec. 17

World renowned geneticist Dr. Richard M. Myers will be the featured speaker for the University of Alabama’s winter commencement ceremonies Saturday, Dec. 17 at 9 a.m., in Coleman Coliseum on the UA campus.

Myers, a Tuscaloosa native and UA alumnus, is professor and chair of the department of genetics at Stanford University School of Medicine as well as the director of the Stanford Human Genome Center.  He will receive an honorary doctor of humane letters during the ceremony where approximately 1,000 degrees will be conferred.

Also during the ceremonies, Beverly Clarkson Phifer, president and chief executive officer of Phifer Wire Products, will be awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters. Based in Tuscaloosa, Phifer Wire Products is the world’s largest producer of aluminum and fiberglass screen products.

Myers’ laboratory was one of the major contributors to sequencing the human genome, helping to produce the sequences of three of the human chromosomes. Myers’ group also has contributed to discoveries of genes that cause epilepsy, skin cancer and hemochromatosis, and currently works on Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, bipolar disease, hypertension and atherosclerosis.

Myers received his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from UA in 1977; his doctorate in biochemistry from the University of California at Berkeley in 1982; and did his postdoctoral work at Harvard University.

Phifer, daughter of UA alumni the late J. Reese Phifer and the late Sue Clarkson Phifer, graduated from UA in 1970 with a bachelor’s degree in economics. She serves as a member of the UA President’s Cabinet, the UA Museums’ Board of Regents, and the Board of Visitors of the Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration.

As a trustee with the Reese Phifer Jr. Memorial Foundation, she has worked in establishing several scholarship funds, endowed professorships, and fellowships at UA in the Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Engineering, Commerce and Business Administration, Communication and Information Sciences, and the School of Social Work, the School of Library and Information Studies, and the School of Law.