Encaenia Honorary Degree Ceremony 2007

20 June 2007

This year’s Encaenia Honorary Degree Ceremony was held on 20 June in the Sheldonian Theatre, and honoured those who have made an outstanding contribution in the worlds of science, politics and the arts. There were eight Honorands in total: Degrees of Doctor of Science awarded to Richard Lerner, Lord May of Oxford and Professor Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra. Degrees of Doctor of Letters were awarded to Dame Antonia Byatt, Sir Clive Granger and Degrees of Doctor of Civil Law were awarded to President Jimmy Carter and Baroness Hale of Richmond and a Degree of Doctor of Music was awarded to Mr Daniel Moses Barenboim.

The procession, which left Brasenose College at 11:15am, included senior members of the University. Among them was the University Chancellor Lord Patten of Barnes and members of the student body, in full academic dress. The Honorands first proceeded to the Divinity School to sign their names in the Honorary Degrees Book. They were then summoned to the Sheldonian Theatre where they were introduced by Professor Richard Jenkyns, the Public Orator, and then admitted to their degrees by the Chancellor. The Public Orator gave the first part of the Creweian Oration in commemoration of the Benefactors of the University, which was followed by the second part of the Oration given by Professor Christopher Ricks, Professor of Poetry. The Chancellor then concluded the ceremony and the Honorands proceeded to a lunch held in their honour.

More details about the Honorands:

Degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa:

Dr Richard A Lerner, BS, MD, is a research chemist and President of the Scripps Research Institute, Lita Annenberg Hazen Professor of Immunochemistry and Cecil H and Ida M Green Chair in Chemistry. He is best known for his work in the field of catalytic antibodies which has shown that antibodies can be employed as enzymes – research which has relevance for such conditions as atherosclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease.

Lord May of Oxford, OM, AC, BSc, PhD, FRS,is a mathematical biologist, Professor of Zoology at the University of Oxford and Imperial College London and a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. He is former Head of the Office of Science and Technology and former President of the Royal Society. He has been credited with creating the field of ‘chaotic dynamics’ in biology after showing that individual species are liable to greater fluctuations in abundance in many complex ecosystems. He has used his mathematical modelling to explain the current state of biodiversity and warn of the increasing risk of species extinction.

Professor Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao, Ms, DSc, PhD, FRS, is a research chemist, National Research Professor and Honorary President and Linus Pauling Research Professor of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore, India. He is best known for his work on transition metal oxides that has led to an understanding of the relationship between the structures of these materials and their properties.

Degree of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa:

Dame Antonia Susan ‘AS’ Byatt, DBE, BA, FRSI, is a Booker Prize-winning author and critic who is internationally renowned for novels such as Possession,The Biographer’s Tale and The Virgin in the Garden and collections of short stories such as Sugar and Other Stories and Little Black Book of Stories.She is an alumna of Somerville College.

Sir Clive Granger, KT,BA, PhD, is a Nobel Prize-winning economist and Emeritus Professor at the University of California, San Diego. His breakthroughs in analysing the relationships between different financial or economic variables over time led to him being awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics with Robert F Engle in 2003.

Degree of Doctor of Civil Law, honoris causa:

Mr James Earl ‘Jimmy’ Carter,BS, is a Nobel Peace Prize winner and and served as President of the United States of America (1977-1981). His presidency was marked by significant achievements in foreign policy including the negotiating of the Panama Canal treaties, the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel and the SALT II treaty with the Soviet Union. In 1982 he became University Distinguished Professor at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia and founded The Carter Centre in Georgia. He is known as a campaigner for democracy and human rights. He will deliver the Seventh Annual Hands Lecture for Mansfield College on Thursday 21 June, when he will also be made an Honorary Fellow of the College.

Baroness Brenda Hale of Richmond, DBE, MA, FBA, PC,Lord of Appeal in Ordinary is a barrister and judge who in 2004 became the first woman to join the House of Lords as a Law Lord – a member of the UK’s highest court of appeal. She is Chancellor of the University of Bristol and a visiting fellow of Nuffield College at the University of Oxford. During her time serving on the Law Commission she is credited with leading work that reformed family law in Britain; in particular the Children Act 1989 and contributions to the Family Law Act 1996.

Degree of Doctor of Music, honoris causa:

Mr Daniel Moses Barenboim, is a pianist and conductor and Music Director of the Berlin State Opera as well as Principal Guest Conductor of Milan’s La Scala opera house. From 1991-2006 he was Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He is a prolific recording artist and received a Grammy in 2003 for his recording of Wagner’s Tannhäuser.

Stage and film director Ariane Mnouchkine is unable to attend Encaenia, and will receive her honorary degree at a ceremony later in the year. In 1964 she founded the avant-garde theatre group Théâtre du Soleil, while in the 1980s she translated and directed a series of Shakespeare plays for the French stage. In 1978 she wrote and directed the film Molière for which she received an Academy Award nomination.