VOLUME 108, ISSUE NO. 26 | STUDENT-RUN SINCE 1916 | RICETHRESHER.ORG | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 2024
Peggy Whitson breaks the glass ceiling, lands among the stars NOAH BERZ
SENIOR WRITER
WILLIAM LIU / THRESHER
‘Off the beaten track’
Commencement speakers speakers through through the the years years Commencement RIYA MISRA & KRISTAL HANSON
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF & THRESHER STAFF
A former American president, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Nobel laureates and the founder of Khan Academy. All may share similar traits or levels of fame, but there’s another, quieter, common ground: They’ve all spoken at Rice’s commencement.
This year’s commencement speaker is Rice alumna and “America’s most experienced astronaut” Peggy Whitson ’86, who has logged more days in space — 675, to be precise — than any other American astronaut. Whitson got her Ph.D. in biochemistry from Rice in 1985, finishing her dissertation just in time to apply for a position at NASA.
“I wanted to be able to write on my [NASA] application that I had a Ph.D. from Rice,” Whitson told Rice Magazine in 2003. As an astronaut, she contributed to hundreds of experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and earth science. From 2009 to 2012, Whitson was the
SEE SPEAKERS PAGE 7
Rice wraps up Conversations on the Middle East series, looks to fall semester Attendance was as low as 2 people, though sessions were intended to be small, provost said PRAYAG GORDY
SENIOR EDITOR
With the final session rescheduled to Wednesday April 17, the Conversations on the Middle East series is coming to a close. Introduced by Provost Amy Dittmar in early March, the five-part series intended to facilitate difficult conversations about the Israel-Hamas war and the larger crisis in the Middle East. Five faculty members from four different departments — political science, history, sociology and religion — led sessions presenting their insights to undergraduate and graduate students. “At Rice, our richly diverse, international community, deeply grounded in a culture of compassion and understanding, can serve as a model for having crucial conversations,” Dittmar wrote in her announcement. “We are hosting a series of educational events where faculty members will present topics that provide background and perspectives on the current conflict and that are related to their scholarly work.” Abdel Razzaq Takriti, the Arab-American Educational Foundation Chair in Arab Studies and an associate professor of history, will lead the final session, “Anti-Palestinian Racism and the Politics of Scholasticide,” on April 17. The first session, held March 21,
introduced game theoretic models of deterrence and was hosted by T. Clifton Morgan, a professor of political science. Morgan discussed the balance between a country convincing its adversaries that it will respond to an attack while showing that it will not attack if not provoked. A week later, Nathan Citino, the chair of the history department, led a talk about U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Elaine Howard Ecklund, a sociology professor and the director of the Boniuk Institute for the Study and Advancement of Religious Tolerance, ran a seminar the following week titled “Islamophobia and Antisemitism in the U.S.” Instances of Islamophobia and antisemitism have increased dramatically since Oct. 7, 2023. In the fourth session on April 9, Matthias Henze evaluated multiple definitions of antisemitism and offered guidelines for detecting it. After the talk, titled “What is Antisemitism?” Henze, the director of Rice’s Jewish Studies program, told the Thresher that a first step in combating antisemitism is to recognize it.
The conversations about deterrence and foreign policy each had about 15 attendees, the faculty who led them said, while “Islamophobia and Antisemitism in the U.S.” had approximately half a dozen. Two students attended Henze’s talk. Students were required to RSVP for the talks in advance, and sign-ups were limited to 25 per session. “I was very surprised by the low
SEE CONVERSATIONS PAGE 2
WILLIAM LIU / THRESHER
Peggy Whitson has spent more time in space than any other American. She was the first female, nonmilitary Chief of the Astronaut Office for NASA and the first woman commander of the International Space Station, but despite all her success, Whitson denies any claims of special talent or giftedness. Above all else, she said, hard work and perseverance brought her to the top. “I’ve always felt like it was important to be the best at my job,” Whitson, a Rice distinguished alumna, said. “I worked with a bunch of people who are wicked smart … but I would say work ethic was my secret weapon.”
It wasn’t until I graduated high school, and they picked the first female astronauts, that the dream became … a goal. Peggy Whitson 2024 COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER
Whitson grew up on a hog and soybean farm in a rural town near Beaconsfield, Iowa. She turned her gaze to the stars at age 9, when the Apollo 11 mission put men on the moon for the first time. Her dad flew planes for fun, and going on joy rides with him kept Whitson excited about the possibility of spaceflight, but the lack of an American female presence in space was discouraging at first. When Sally Ride and Shannon Lucid were announced as the first female and nonmilitary NASA astronauts in 1978, she realized a future in space exploration might be possible for her after all. “It wasn’t until I graduated high school, and they picked the first female astronauts, that the dream became … a goal,” Whitson said. “That made it seem like a real possibility.” Motivated from a young age, Whitson graduated as salutatorian from Mount Ayr Community High School in 1978, and earned a bachelor’s degree in biology and chemistry from Iowa Wesleyan College in 1981 before pursuing a Ph.D. and postdoctoral fellowship in biochemistry at Rice. As she was nearing college graduation, Whitson was discouraged from pursuing a career in space by advisors who said her talents would be better put to use in medical school. One mentor even proffered a prediction that astronauts would have become obsolete by the time she reached her goals. But Whitson said her critics did little to deter her from the path she knew was right for herself. In fact, they only made her more persistent. “It’s great to have the mentors, but it was also great to have a little bit of criticism along the way,” Whitson said. “It motivated me. I was going to prove that person wrong.” Whitson’s Ph.D. advisor, Kathleen Matthews, was impressed with her from
SEE WHITSON PAGE 6