RIT to recognize five distinguished leaders at 2026 commencement

Rochester Institute of Technology will confer honorary degrees to five outstanding individuals at its 2026 commencement ceremony on Friday, May 8. The honorees will be recognized alongside more than 5,000 graduates, including those from RIT’s international campuses.

Earning honorary degrees are:

‌

Mae Jemison

Dr. Mae Jemison, a former NASA astronaut, physician, educator, and the first woman of color to go into space, will receive an Honorary Doctor of Science degree. In addition to receiving an honorary degree, Jemison will also deliver the keynote address for the university’s Academic Convocation ceremony starting at 10 a.m. on Friday, May 8, in the Gordon Field House and Activities Center.

Jemison accepted her first mission on the STS-47 crew as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in September 1992. While in orbit, Jemison conducted experiments that took advantage of the microgravity environment, where objects appear to be weightless.

Prior to becoming an astronaut, Jemison graduated from Stanford University with degrees in chemical engineering and African American studies, and she earned her medical degree from Cornell University. She also joined the Peace Corps serving as medical officer, responsible for the health of all U.S. Peace Corps volunteers, staff members, and embassy personnel of Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Following her time at NASA, Jemison launched The Earth We Share, an international science camp. As an environmental studies professor at Dartmouth College, she focused on designing sustainability into technologies for both the industrialized and developing worlds. In addition, she founded the consulting company Jemison Group Inc., which focuses on combining space and technology to improve daily life on earth, and the Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence, which designs and implements STEM education experiences.

‌

Katherine Hayles

RIT alumna Dr. Katherine Hayles ’66 (chemistry), the Distinguished Research Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the James B. Duke Professor Emerita from Duke University, will receive an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree and will be the keynote speaker for the doctoral hooding ceremony, also on May 8.

Hayles’s research focuses on the relationships among literature, science, and technology in the 20th and 21st centuries. Her 12 print books include Bacteria to AI: Human Futures with our Nonhuman Symbionts; Postprint: Books and Becoming Computational, Unthought: The Power of the Cognitive Nonconscious; and How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis, in addition to more than 100 peer-reviewed articles. Her books have won several prizes, including The Rene Wellek Award for the Best Book in Literary Theory for How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Literature, Cybernetics and Informatics, and the Suzanne Langer Award for Writing Machines. She was awarded two National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Rockefeller Residential Fellowship at Bellagio, and two University of California Presidential Research Fellowships.

In addition to her RIT degree, she earned a master’s degree in chemistry from California Institute of Technology, a master’s degree in English literature from Michigan State University, and a Ph.D. in English literature from University of Rochester. She was also inducted into RIT’s Innovation Hall of Fame in 2010.

‌

Troy Katsur

Academy Award-winning actor Mr. Troy Kotsur, a former member of NTID’s traveling performance troupe Sunshine Too, will receive an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree.

Born deaf, Kotsur has been acting and directing for over 20 years.

In 2022, he won the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his role in CODA, becoming the first Deaf male actor to win an Oscar. He also earned a BAFTA, Critics’ Choice, SAG Award, and numerous others for the same role. Since CODA, Kotsur has received praise from critics and audiences for his work in the hit Netflix thriller Black Rabbit, Apple TV sci-fi epic Foundation, and the recent Paramount-wide theatrical release Primate, among others. 

Throughout his career, he has had critically acclaimed performances in major films, a lead role in the Broadway run of Tony Award-winning play Big River, and memorable television roles, including in Criminal Minds, CSI:NY, and The Mandalorian. He is a longtime member of Deaf West Theatre in Los Angeles.

Kotsur will address the graduates of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at their graduation ceremony on May 9.

‌

Kip Thorne

Dr. Kip Thorne, the Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, Emeritus, at California Institute of Technology (Caltech), will receive an Honorary Doctor of Science degree.

From 1967 to 2009, Thorne led a Caltech research group working in relativistic astrophysics and gravitational physics, with emphasis on relativistic stars, black holes, and gravitational waves. Under his mentorship, 53 students earned their doctoral degrees and he has worked with roughly 60 postdoctoral students. His co-authored textbooks include Gravitation and Modern Classical Physics, and he wrote Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein’s Outrageous Legacy.

Thorne co-founded the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) Project and, as a result of the breakthrough discovery of gravitational waves arriving at Earth from the distant universe in 2015, he shared the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics.

His most recent book, The Warped Side of our Universe, consists of poetry tightly integrated with paintings by artist Lia Halloran. He also served as executive producer and adviser on Christopher Nolan’s 2014 movie, Interstellar.

‌

Mohammed Al Zarooni

Dr. Mohammed Al Zarooni, executive chairman of Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority and a member of RIT Dubai’s Board of Directors, will receive an Honorary Doctor of Commercial Science degree.

With over 30 years of experience leading and developing free economic zones, Al Zarooni is considered one of the world’s top free zone influencing leaders. In 2021, Al Zarooni was appointed as Executive Chairman of Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority (DIEZ), holding three of Dubai’s pioneering Free Zones, Dubai Airport Freezone, Dubai Silicon Oasis, and Dubai CommerCity. In 2014, he was instrumental in conceptualizing and establishing the nonprofit World Free Zones Organization, a multilateral organization which acts as an association for all free zones in the world. He is also secretary-general of the Dubai Free Zone Council.

In 2000, Al Zarooni was appointed Director-General of the Dubai Airport Freezone Authority (DAFZA), which, through his visionary leadership, quickly grew to become one of the top performing free zones in the world. In 2002, the Dubai government appointed him vice chairman and CEO of the Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority, one of the region’s most advanced and successful technology hubs. He continues to lead Dubai Airport Freezone and Dubai Silicon Oasis.

A prominent personality in Dubai’s economy, Al Zarooni sits on several boards, including Dubai Aerospace Enterprise and Emirati Human Resources Development Council. He is also chairman of e-commerce’s Tradeling Board.  

Al Zarooni earned a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in the United Kingdom.