DURHAM, N.H.—In recognition of their achievements, the University of New Hampshire will award honorary degrees to its three commencement speakers as well as to an award-winning polar glaciologist and an internationally known expert in valuing intellectual property at commencement ceremonies across its three campuses May 16 and 18, 2019. Granite State Awards for outstanding contributions to the state will also be presented to retired New Hampshire Superior Court Justice and World War II veteran Arthur Bean and to Cathy Duffy Cullity, CEO of Girls Inc. of New Hampshire.

Julie Palais ’78 will be awarded an honorary degree during the Durham ceremony Saturday, May 18 for her contributions to climate change research studying volcanic fallout in ice cores from both Greenland and Antarctica. For more than 26 years she served as program director of the Antarctic glaciology program at the National Science Foundation’s Division of Polar Programs. She made 28 trips to Antarctica and three trips to Greenland to understand the history and dynamics of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. Palais Glacier and Palais Bluff are two features in Antarctica which have been named in her honor and in 2017 the International Glaciological Society awarded her the Richardson Medal for “insightful and steadfast service to the U.S. and international glaciological and ice core science communities by enabling discoveries that have impacted the course of climate science and enlightened understanding of the important role of glaciology and the polar regions in global climate change.”

Gordon Smith will be honored at the UNH Law ceremony in Concord May 18. Smith’s professional valuation career spanned 50 years and is a well-respected expert in the field of intellectual property valuation. In 1983, he founded and headed a separate valuation consulting practice—Associated Valuation Technologies. He now serves as chairman emeritus of AUS, Inc., the parent company. He began his association with UNH School of Law in 1988 and subsequently served as guest lecturer, adjunct, trustee and for 10 years as distinguished professor of intellectual property management. Smith has also been a lecturer at the National University of Singapore and Singapore Management University as well as for IP Academy Singapore, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and other global institutions. He has authored and co-authored books and articles that have been translated extensively and are considered authoritative sources worldwide.

In addition, journalist and political commentator David Brooks, Kraft Group executive Robyn Glaser, and healthcare leader Heather Lavoie will deliver the commencement speeches in Durham, Concord and Manchester and receive honorary degrees.

Granite State Awards, for outstanding contributions to the state, will be presented to Bean in Durham and to Duffy Cullity in Manchester.

Bean, who recently celebrated his 100^th birthday, attended UNH from 1936 to 1940, leaving the university one class shy of receiving his degree to enter the U.S. Army Air Corps. As a B-17 bomber pilot, he led 29 missions over Germany, and was part of the first wave of bombers when the 8th Air Force launched its 1,300-aircraft assault on Berlin in March 1945. After earning his law degree from Boston University, Bean was an assistant attorney general in the state before opening his own law practice. Named to the N.H. Superior Court in the 1970s, he retired from the bench in 1988, but still worked as a mediator and arbitrator, participating in over 700 cases and working into his 80s.

Duffy Cullity has served as the CEO of Girls Inc. for 23 years. Under her leadership, Girls Inc. has grown from one small center in Nashua serving 350 girls annually to serving over 2,000 in centers in Nashua and Manchester and in over 40 schools across New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont. Offering research-based informal education programs that encourage girls to master physical, intellectual and emotional challenges, its programs include math and science education, pregnancy and drug abuse prevention, media and economic literacy, adolescent health, violence prevention, careers and leadership, and sports participation. In addition to the core curriculum Girls Inc. provides a dinner club to children in both centers feeding 125 girls daily, a Young Women’s Leadership program for 30 girls and a mentoring program which has matched 180 girls with professional women. Previously, she was involved with programs serving women and children in Lawrence, Mass., as the executive director of the Plains Community Center and the program director at the Lawrence YWCA, where she secured federal funding for a women’s shelter that continues to operate today.