Troy, N.Y — Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute today announced that Samuel Palmisano, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the IBM Corporation, will be awarded an honorary doctorate in humane letters. The degree will be conferred at a special campus event in the fall semester.

As previously announced, Rensselaer also will award honorary degrees to United States Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), the Honorable Paul A. Volcker, Robert T. Coonrod, and Joé Juneau, which will be presented at the Institute’s 199th Commencement, on Saturday, May 21, 2005 at 9:30 a.m. at the Harkness Field. Senator Clinton will deliver the 2005 Commencement address.

Palmisano, a leader in innovation, delivered the keynote address at the Council on Competitiveness National Innovations Initiative regional summit hosted by Rensselaer in September 2004. Urging that we “optimize our entire society for innovation,” Palmisano outlined a three-pronged approach. First, apply innovation to address America’s greatest challenges and opportunities. Second, embrace a new national strategy to strengthen and sustain our innovation ecosystem. And lastly, share responsibility among multiple innovation stakeholders in business, government, academia, and labor.       

Palmisano was elected chairman of IBM in October 2002, effective Jan. 1, 2003, and has served as chief executive officer since March 2002. Prior to his appointment, he was president and chief operating officer. He has held a number of key leadership positions during his IBM career, including senior vice president and group executive for IBM’s Enterprise Systems Group, where he led IBM’s adoption of the Linux operating environment, as well as the launch of the company’s unified eServer family. Prior to that, he was senior vice president and group executive for IBM Global Services, with responsibility for the worldwide operations of the largest and most diversified IT services organization in the industry.

He has served as senior vice president and group executive for IBM’s Personal Systems Group; led IBM’s strategic outsourcing business; and was president of the Integrated Systems Solutions Corp. (ISSC), an IBM wholly owned subsidiary, and now part of IBM Global Services. Before joining ISSC, Palmisano was IBM senior managing director of operations for IBM Japan. He joined IBM in 1973 in Baltimore, Md.

Contact: Theresa Bourgeois
Phone: (518) 276-2840
E-mail: bourgt@rpi.edu