NPR’S COREY FLINTOFF TO DELIVER KEYNOTE ADDRESS AT UAF’S 80TH COMMENCEMENT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 12, 2002

Fairbanks, Alaska –National Public Radio newscaster Corey Flintoff will be the keynote speaker for the University of Alaska Fairbanks commencement and is one of four honorary degree recipients to be recognized during the ceremony Sunday, May 12, 2002 at 1:30 p.m. in the Carlson Center on Second Ave.

Flintoff has been a newscaster and reporter with NPR’s Washington, national and foreign desks since 1990. Flintoff was born in Fairbanks and before joining NPR was executive producer for the Alaska Public Radio Network, where he won a Corporation for Public Broadcasting Silver Award for his coverage of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Flintoff also worked as reporter, editor and producer for KYUK-TV/Bethel and KSKA-FM/Anchorage. While at KYUK, he wrote and produced a number of television documentaries, including "Eyes of the Spirit" and "They Never Asked Our Fathers."

Flintoff, his wife Diana and his daughter Claire recently returned from six months in Mongolia, where he served as a Knight International Press Fellow teaching journalism and radio production at remote radio stations. Flintoff will receive an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters.

UAF will also honor Athabascan elder Rev. David Salmon, traditional chief of Chalkyitsik and second chief of Interior Alaska villages with the Tanana Chiefs Conference. Salmon, who just celebrated his 90th birthday, was the first Gwich’in to be ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church where he served for more than 42 years.

Salmon has had a life-long interest in education and sharing his cultural knowledge with others through programs such as UAF’s Elder in Residence program and the Academy of Elders, an intense immersion program for certified teachers intent on developing K-12 curriculum and teacher training programs. Salmon has collaborated extensively with UAF’s anthropology department and has been a Geist lecturer at the University of Alaska Museum for the past five summers. Salmon is considered a master toolmaker and his tools, fish traps and canoes are on display at the museum and in other university buildings. Salmon is a founding member of Denakkanaaga nonprofit elders’ organization. In January, the David Salmon Tribal Hall was opened in Fairbanks and dedicated by TCC in recognition of a lifetime of service. Salmon will receive an Honorary Doctor of Laws. Also receiving an honorary degree this year is John Burns, a marine mammals biologist.

Burns retired from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in 1986 and started a research consulting firm, Living Resources, Inc. Shortly after coming to Alaska as a graduate student in 1960, Burns began studies of walrus and seals associated with sea ice in the Bering and Chukchi seas. In nearly 40 years of work, Burns has produced more than 100 papers and reports that have contributed to the understanding of biology of marine mammals in the subarctic and Arctic.

Burns has had a long collaboration with Alaska Native peoples in the Bering Strait region. In 1991, he was appointed by then Gov. Walter Hickel to a special team to try to resolve the subsistence issue in Alaska. During the Cold War, Burns helped establish an agreement with the former Soviet Union on environmental protection.

Throughout his career he has maintained close relationships with students and faculty at UAF. He currently sits on the board of the University of Alaska Press. Burns will receive an Honorary Doctor of Science.

Professor of Geometry and Topology Jaroslav Nesetril will also be honored with an Doctor of Humane Letters. Nesetril is a professor at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic where he recently accepted the directorship of the Institute of Theoretical Computer Science. He developed the Department of Applied Mathematics there. He is the leader of Prague Combinatorics, the branch of mathematics that deals with finite structures like permutations and combinations, used in statistics and probability which serves as a foundation of computer science.

Nesetril is an internationally renowned mathematician who has also developed a unique artistic style fusing art and mathematics. His collaborative works with painter Jiri Naceradsky on what has been referred to as "anthropogeometry" have been displayed in the Czech Republic and abroad. His published research comprises four books and more than 250 papers in graph theory, geometry, combinatorics, Ramsey theory, logic and results from category theory. Nesetril has worked with UAF faculty and students as a visiting professor. Much of his work is now referenced in standard graduate texts.

The honorary degree recipients were selected for significant achievements that have brought distinction to their academic or professional careers, and for their lasting contributions to the state and the nation.

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Note to editors: photos are available upon request.

CONTACT: UAF Public Information Officer Carla Browning at 907-474-7778 or email: carla.browning@uaf.edu.

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