All credit to UCONN's effort arranging for Waterbury native and
Connecticut alumnus Rick Mastracchio ’82 (BS, Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering) now on his fourth International Space Station mission, to be a speaker for the Class of 2014's May 10 commencement and recipient of an Honorary Doctorate degree. B1G symbolism for UCONN's highly-respected STEM programs, and one of the university's most accomplished alumnus. Sure beats the network news correspondent who left most people underwhelmed and desperate for the end at my commencement.
"Mastracchio is very active on social media. You can follow his pre-flight training preparations – including a fascinating array of behind-the-scenes photos and video clips – through his Twitter account
@AstroRM." Or, be even more impressed with
Matracchio's Facebook postings. Check out Rick's
impressive pictures, On accomplishments, commitment to UCONN, Waterbury, science education, and pictures alike, all are more than worthy of an off-season Senhor Testiculous award.
In addition to Mastracchio, fellow Huskie, Franklin Chang-Diaz '73, is also a veteran astronaut with six successful flights to his credit. Chang-Diaz retired from NASA in 2005. Around that time, he was also a UCONN commencement speaker and similarly granted an Honorary Doctorate degree.