Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Alex Szalay was one of four to receive an honorary degree from the Johns Hopkins University during the university-wide Commencement on May 22 at Homewood Field.
“This year’s honorary degree recipients have all had transformational impacts—on how we learn, on the city of Baltimore, on our understanding of our universe, and on the trajectory of the university itself,” says JHU President Ron Daniels. “We are delighted to bestow Johns Hopkins’ highest honor on these four people who share our fundamental interest in cultivating a capacity for learning, on our campuses, in Baltimore, and around the world.”
Astrophysicist, data scientist, and visionary innovator, Szalay has profoundly shaped our understanding of the universe—and how we study it. As a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins University—where he serves as the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Big Data with appointments in computer science and physics and astronomy—Szalay has pioneered new ways of handling and analyzing large datasets, laying the foundation for advances in a wide array of scientific fields, from the exploration of the cosmos to the study of cancer. His research has produced more than 500 publications and has earned him widespread recognition and acclaim. Szalay has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,the National Academy of Sciences, and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.