The Johns Hopkins University will award honorary degrees of doctor of humane letters at commencement to five distinguished leaders in government, education, business and philanthropy, including Johns Hopkins alumnus Michael R. Bloomberg, mayor of New York.

The conferrals will take place during the university's commencement ceremony, at 9:15 a.m. on Thursday, May 22, at Homewood Field. Later that day, Bloomberg will speak at the diploma award ceremony for graduating seniors in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and Whiting School of Engineering. (For details, see commencement story, this issue.)

The awards will bring to 414 the number of honorary degrees conferred by Johns Hopkins since the first were given in 1880 to Henry Rowland, the first Johns Hopkins professor of physics, and in 1881 to President Rutherford B. Hayes.

The honorary degree recipients are:

Michael R. Bloomberg, the 108th mayor of New York. A 1964 engineering graduate of Johns Hopkins, Bloomberg served on the university's board of trustees from 1987 to 2002 and chaired the board for the last six years of his service. In 2001, the university renamed its School of Public Health in his honor, recognizing his unprecedented commitment of energy and financial support to that school and to the entire university.

Randolph W. Bromery, former chancellor of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, former president of Springfield College, former acting president of Westfield State College, interim chancellor of the Massachusetts Board of Regents of Higher Education and interim president of Roxbury Community College. He is also a distinguished geologist and earned his doctorate in geology from Johns Hopkins in 1968. He was a trustee of the university from 1986 to 1994 and is now trustee emeritus. He lives in Amherst, Mass.

Claire M. Fagin, dean emeritus of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and former interim president of Penn. She is a national leader in both nursing education and health policy and an advocate for universal health care and improved geriatric nursing care. She will speak at the School of Nursing Diploma Award Ceremony on the afternoon of May 22. She lives in New York.

Sidney Kimmel, philanthropist, anticancer activist and founder of the Jones Apparel Group. He has established cancer centers in New York, San Diego and Philadelphia and at Johns Hopkins. His $150 million gift in 2001 to the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, to support both research and patient care, is the largest in Johns Hopkins history. He is also a major supporter of causes involving education, the arts and culture. He lives in New York.

Gordon E. Moore, co-founder and chairman emeritus of Intel Corp. and one of the visionaries of the computer revolution. A former staff member of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Moore helped to create Intel Corp. in 1968 and served as executive vice president, president and then chairman of the company that created the microprocessor. He is perhaps best known for the accuracy of his 1965 prediction, now known as "Moore's Law," of the exponential growth of computing power. He lives in Woodside, Calif.

Following are the citations.

Michael Bloomberg

Citation to be read by Alfred Sommer, dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health:

On occasions such as this, universities honor significant accomplishments in exemplary careers. In your case, the question is: Which career?

The truth is that you have been extraordinarily accomplished in at least four. First: investment banking. Just eight years after graduating from Johns Hopkins, you were a partner and emerging leader at one of Wall Street's major firms.

Second: entrepreneurship. From scratch, you created Bloomberg L.P., now a multi-media giant and one of the world's most important sources of business and financial news.

Third: philanthropy and civic leadership. You are our university's most devoted supporter since Johns Hopkins himself. You have transformed this institution not only with gifts of breathtaking generosity but also with the energy, intelligence and creativity you brought to roles as trustee, fund-raiser and board chairman. More than a score of other organizations in health, education and the arts owe you similarly profound gratitude for your efforts on their behalf.

And fourth: politics. As mayor of New York, you have tackled head-on the tough but critically important issues: education, budget deficits and continued healing in a city grievously wounded just before you took office.

Michael R. Bloomberg, you were a leader in the class of 1964 and have been a leader in career after career ever since. Your legendary acumen, your skill and your success notwithstanding, it is in the end for your compassion and humanity that The Johns Hopkins University is proud to confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa.

Randolph Bromery

Citation to be read by Daniel Weiss, James B. Knapp Dean of the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences:

You once compared leading a college to heading "a finely tuned symphony." Everywhere you have been, you have helped campuses hit the high notes.

For more than 30 years, while remaining an active geophysicist, you have been what may best be described as a circuit college president, arriving at campuses around Massachusetts just when they needed you most. You have been chancellor of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, acting president of Westfield State College, interim chancellor of the Board of Regents of Higher Education, president of Springfield College and, until your recent retirement, interim president of Roxbury Community College.

At each institution, you found great satisfaction in helping schools build upon their unique strengths. Before your arrival at Roxbury in 2002, many thought the historically black college's survival was uncertain. Under your leadership, however, it very clearly has begun already to turn the corner.

You earned your Ph.D. in geology from Johns Hopkins in 1968 and have maintained a close relationship with the university ever since. A seminar series in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences is named for you. We are grateful for your service as trustee and trustee emeritus.

Randolph Wilson Bromery, World War II veteran of the famous Tuskegee airmen, accomplished scientist, gifted administrator and educational statesman, The Johns Hopkins University is proud to confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa.

Claire Fagin

Citation to be read by Martha Hill, dean of the School of Nursing:

Few names in nursing prompt such immediate recognition and widespread respect as that of Claire Fagin. You have truly been a leader, making significant and lasting contributions through your scholarship and through your leadership in both the academy and the broader arena of national health policy.

You first achieved national notice in 1966 with a groundbreaking doctoral dissertation on the benefits of a mother's presence for hospitalized children. While at the Herbert Lehman College of the City University of New York, you established the first baccalaureate program that prepared nurses for primary care practice.

As dean of the School of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania, you led that school to a position of national prestige and leadership. You revamped the curriculum, started a doctoral program and greatly enriched research efforts, establishing a privately funded Center for Nursing Research. You continued your service to the University of Pennsylvania after leaving the deanship, becoming the first woman interim president of an Ivy League university in 1993.

You have received the highest honors the profession of nursing awards and remain active today, a tireless advocate for universal health care and a national leader in efforts to improve geriatric nursing care.

Claire Fagin, in recognition of decades of advocacy for patients, distinguished scholarship, and inspiration and mentoring of generations of nursing leaders, The Johns Hopkins University is proud to confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa.

Sidney Kimmel

Citation to be read by Edward D. Miller, Frances Watt Baker, M.D., and Lenox D. Baker Jr., M.D., Dean of the Medical Faculty:

You are the self-made son of a Philadelphia cab driver, and the founder of one of the largest and most successful apparel companies in the world. Your approach to business is legendary: a hands-on and courageous style of leadership that has propelled you and Jones Apparel Group to the pinnacle of the industry.

Your determination to share your success with the world is legendary as well. You have been monumentally generous to many important causes in your home city and elsewhere. But you have focused your incredible energy and passion most especially on the treatment and cure of cancer, a scourge that claims annually the lives of some 550,000 Americans.

In the struggle against cancer, you have been not only a philanthropist but also an activist, an educator and an advocate. With your admonition to "imagine a world without cancer," you also have been an inspiration. Cancer centers bearing your name have arisen in New York, San Diego and Philadelphia and, of course, here at Johns Hopkins. Your $150 million gift to the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, the largest in Johns Hopkins history, has brought us a great deal closer to the cancer-free world you imagine.

Sidney Kimmel, in recognition of your visionary leadership and in particular your exemplary dedication to the cause of eradicating cancer, The Johns Hopkins University is proud to confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa.

Gordon E. Moore

Citation to be read by Ilene J. Busch-Vishniac, dean of the Whiting School of Engineering:

You are the visionary of Silicon Valley, co-founder of a business that gave birth to the microprocessor and helped launch a revolution. It is no exaggeration to say that you deserve a huge share of the credit for the way we learn, the way we work, the way we communicate and the way we live today.

You also deserve credit for an amazingly accurate prediction you made in 1965. That forecast of the exponential growth of computing power is now known as "Moore's Law."

Your first job after completing the requirements for your doctorate was at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, where you studied flames and the shapes of spectral lines. You later joined Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, working with the co-inventor of the transistor. In 1957, you and seven colleagues established the highly successful Fairchild Semiconductor Corp.

With a Fairchild colleague, you founded Intel Corporation in 1968, initially focusing on memory chips. Intel later introduced the world's first microprocessor, now the "brain" inside computers throughout the world. Today, Intel is the world's largest chip maker and a leading developer of other innovative technology. You now serve as chairman emeritus.

Gordon E. Moore, you have put computers on our desks, on our laps and now in our pockets. For your entrepreneurial leadership and unmatched contributions to information technology and our entire way of life, The Johns Hopkins University is proud to confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa.