Tom Wolf PhD ’81 receives the 2023 Robert A
The MIT Faculty of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS) has introduced that former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf PhD ’81 has been acknowledged with the 2023 Robert A. Muh Alumni Award.
The biennial Muh Alumni Award acknowledges the super achievements of MIT diploma holders who’re leaders in one of many Institute’s humanities, arts, or social science fields. The prize was based in 2000 by Robert Muh ’59 and his spouse Berit, on the event of the college’s fiftieth anniversary. This 12 months’s award acknowledges Wolf’s distinguished political profession.
Wolf is a 1981 graduate of MIT’s PhD program within the Division of Political Science. He additionally earned a graduate diploma from the College of London and an undergraduate diploma from Dartmouth Faculty.
“Governor Wolf has devoted his life to public service and enhancing the lives of Pennsylvanians throughout his time in workplace,” says Agustin Rayo, the Kenan Sahin Dean of SHASS. “The Muh Award is a tribute to one among our most distinguished alumni.”
Wolf will ship a Muh Award Lecture on Tuesday, March 21, titled “Collective Motion: The Essence of Politics.” The occasion begins at 5 p.m. within the MIT Samberg Convention Middle, sixth ground of the Chang Constructing. The occasion is free and open to the general public.
After serving as Pennsylvania’s secretary of income from 2007 to 2008, Wolf was elected because the state’s forty seventh governor. He served two phrases, holding workplace from January 2015 till January 2023. Throughout his time as governor, Wolf prioritized investing extra in training, increasing entry to well being care, reforming the prison justice system, and defending the setting. Wolf led the state via a interval of tumultuous political division, in addition to the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic.
Wolf returned to the MIT campus final fall, when he delivered a talk as a part of the Manufacturing@MIT distinguished speaker collection. Wolf mentioned reviving American manufacturing and centered on an overview of the coverage method he utilized in his personal state.
Previous to turning into governor, Wolf was proprietor of the Wolf Group, a distributor of lumber and different constructing merchandise. Wolf purchased the household enterprise when it was on the point of chapter, overseeing the eventual progress and transformation of the corporate. Past politics, Wolf has served on and led the boards of quite a few organizations. He additionally interrupted his undergraduate research at Dartmouth to serve within the Peace Corps, spending two years in a small village in India.