Alondra Nelson Awarded Honorary Doctorate from Rutgers University

Alondra Nelson, Harold F. Linder Professor in the School of Social Science, has been awarded an honorary doctor of science degree by Rutgers University, an honor presented to her at the 2022 Rutgers Commencement by the 21st president of Rutgers, Jonathan Scott Holloway. 

Nelson leads the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and currently serves in the Biden administration as Deputy Assistant to the President. She was noted for her contributions to the study of science, technology, race, and social citizenship—and their intersections—as well as her acclaimed books The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation after the Genome (2016) and Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight against Medical Discrimination (2011). 

The first in-person commencement in two years, the event over the weekend saw an estimated 19,371 graduates receive degrees. The oldest public university in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area, Rutgers stands among America’s highest-ranked, most diverse public research universities. 

You can watch Nelson receive her honorary doctorate here.