Nobel laureate Tom Cech will give the University of Colorado at Boulder commencement address during the winter commencement ceremony on Friday, Dec. 18.
The university ceremony, which will be begin at 9:30 a.m. in the Coors Events/Conference Center on campus, is free and open to the public.
Due to traffic delays and the possibility of adverse winter weather, early arrival is strongly advised. Guests should plan to be seated by 9 a.m. People entering the events center are asked not to bring large purses or bags to the ceremony. All bags that are brought to the ceremony will be searched.
During the ceremony, 2,278 degrees will be conferred. Degrees to be awarded include 1,700 bachelor's degrees, 392 master's degrees, 176 doctoral degrees and 10 law degrees.
A distinguished professor in CU-Boulder's chemistry and biochemistry department, Cech resumed teaching at CU-Boulder this fall after a 10-year stint as president of Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Cech, who shared the 1989 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his discovery that RNA in living cells is not only a molecule of heredity but also can function as a catalyst, has been a faculty member at CU-Boulder since 1978.
He also is director of the Colorado Initiative in Molecular Biotechnology, which was founded at CU-Boulder in 2003 to foster research, teaching and technology development in the life sciences, physical sciences, math, computational sciences and engineering.
Free parking for guests will be available in various lots on campus and at all campus meters. A live webcast of the ceremony and additional information about commencement, including a campus parking map and information for people with disabilities, is available on the Web at /.