For immediate release: Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013
Media representatives are invited to attend the December Commencement ceremony at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Sunday (Dec. 15)
2 p.m.
Dean E. Smith Center
Bowles Drive
Chapel Hill
Kevin Guskiewicz, a world renowned concussion expert and MacArthur “genius” grant winner, will deliver the December Commencement address. His selection continues Carolina’s tradition of highlighting faculty speakers at December Commencement.
Chancellor Carol Folt will preside at the ceremony for students who graduated in August as well as those graduating Sunday.
Graduates: To date, 1,104 students have applied to graduate in December. Administrators anticipate awarding 542 bachelor’s, 408 master’s, 144 doctoral and 10 professional degrees. In August, 964 students were awarded degrees.
Speaker: As Kenan Distinguished Professor of Exercise and Sport Science and senior associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, Guskiewicz’s work has largely focused on improving safety in football – a sport he loves. He is the founding director of the Matthew Gfeller Sport-Related Traumatic Brain Injury Research Center and research director for the Center for the Study of Retired Athletes. He leads the NFL’s subcommittee on safety equipment and playing rules, and has been working with the league over the last decade to develop safer ways to play the game.
Guskiewicz’s long-term epidemiological study on hundreds of retired football players uncovered a correlation between the number of concussions a player suffered and the appearance of dementia, depression and other brain dysfunction later in life. In August, Time magazine called Guskiewicz an “impact investigator” worthy of inclusion on its list of “Game Changers – America’s top innovators and problem-solvers.” Guskiewicz’s work earned him the MacArthur Foundation award in 2011. For more information, please see: http://bit.ly/1m1zlh9.
Media kits/seating: News Services expects to have advance copies of Guskiewicz’s speech. Media kits will be available from Tanya Moore of News Services at the bottom of sections 123 and 124. No media seating will be reserved; reporters may sit in the guest section.
Broadcasters: Audio feeds will be available.
Media parking: Media parking will be available in the Bowles lot across from the front of the Smith Center and the Manning lot down Bowles drive below Kenan-Flagler Business School.
Guskiewicz photo: http://bit.ly/1fBsadf
Photo credit: Dan Sears
News Services contact: Tanya Moore (919) 962-4515, tanya_moore@unc.edu
Additional Commencement information: http://commencement.unc.edu