U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel Wright Bodman will speak at the summer commencement exercises for all eight campuses at 10:30 a.m. August 5 at the Colonial Center. Bodman also will receive an honorary doctoral degree in science.

Samuel Bodman

The University expects to award more than 1,000 degrees from the Columbia campus, including 592 bachelor's degrees, 81 doctoral degrees, one law degree, three pharmacy degrees, 10 graduate certificates, 351 master's degrees, and seven specialists.

Degree candidates from USC's other campuses include 50 bachelor's candidates and 11 master's candidates from USC Aiken; 15 bachelor's candidates and five associate's candidates from USC Beaufort; eight associate's candidates from USC Lancaster; six associate's candidates from USC Salkehatchie; 197 bachelor's candidates and five master's candidates from USC Upstate; seven associate's candidates from USC Sumter; and nine associate's candidates from USC Union.

Bodman was sworn in as the 11th Secretary of Energy on February 1, 2005, after being unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. He oversees a budget of $23 billion and a workforce of more than 100,000 federal and contractor employees.

Before his current appointment, Bodman was deputy secretary in both the Department of Energy and the Department of Commerce for the Bush administration. His professional experience includes more than three decades as a financier and executive in the private sector, most recently chair and CEO of Cabot Corp., a Boston-based Fortune 300 company specializing in chemicals and materials.

Bodman is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the MIT Commission on Education. He also is a trustee of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the New England Aquarium.

A Chicago native, Bodman is a 1961 graduate of Cornell University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering. He earned his doctoral degree at MIT, where he was an associate professor of chemical engineering for six years.

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