[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/science_hondocs.jpg” caption=”David Hubel, left, and Michael Rowe will receive honorary degrees at today’s Convocation ceremony.”]Today, 625 science students will walk the stage in the Great Hall at Hamilton Place to receive a McMaster degree.

Beginning at 9:30 a.m., science graduands will receive doctor of philosophy, master of arts (geography), master of science and bachelor of science degrees.

Honorary degrees will be presented to David Hunter Hubel, Nobel laureate neurobiologist, and Michael Rowe, physicist. Hubel will deliver the Convocation address.

David Hunter Huble, Doctor of Science

David Hunter Hubel is a pioneering neuroscientist whose work has shaped our understanding of the human brain. Hubel began to investigate the central-nervous mechanisms of vision at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. In 1958, he joined the laboratory of Steven Kuffler at Johns Hopkins University where Hubel began collaborative research with Torsten Wiesel. A year later, the entire lab moved to Harvard Medical School and eventually formed the new Department of Neurobiology. From 1982-2000, Hubel was the John Franklin Enders University Professor of Neurobiology at Harvard, where he remains a research professor of neurobiology.

Through their research, doctors Hubel and Wiesel demonstrated that messages reaching the brain from the eyes undergo analysis in various components before being synthesized into an impression that originates in the higher brain. They showed that this ability develops directly after birth and that there is, therefore, a critical period during which visual input is necessary for normal neural development. This discovery led to the development of means to prevent one of the most common forms of human blindness.

Michael Rowe, Doctor of Science

As a researcher and administrator, Michael Rowe has left his mark on the most advanced frontiers of science. Rowe studied at Queens University and earned his PhD in physics from McMaster, working under the supervision of Bertram Brockhouse. He became a research physicist at the U.S. National Bureau of Standards, which eventually became the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He was appointed to the senior executive service, the highest rank in U.S. Civil Service, as project manager for the Cold Neutron Research Facility. He led the development of the only internationally competitive cold neutron centre in North America and became director of the NIST Center for Neutron Research.

Rowe has published extensively on condensed matter science and was at the forefront of research on the dynamics, structure and fundamental properties of materials. His work on neutron scattering represents a significant contribution to experimental condensed matter physics.

He also played an important role in the development of instruments that utilize cold neutrons, and has been a leader in the design of the latest generation cold neutron sources.