University awards honorary degrees

Published: 17 June 2009

The University has awarded eight honorary degrees as part of its annual Commemoration Day celebrations.

The University of Glasgow has awarded eight honorary degrees as part of its annual Commemoration Day celebrations.

Honorary degrees were awarded to Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, Chair of the British Council and Human Genetics Commission and President of the National Children’s Bureau, who was awarded a Degree of Doctor of Laws.
 
Retired Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament and former MSP, Rt Hon George Reid also received a Degree of Doctor of Laws.Rt Hon George Reid

Scottish folk singer Jean Redpath received a Degree of Doctor of Music while Hannah Frank, the late artist and sculptor of Glasgow University was awarded a posthumous Degree of Doctor of Letters which was collected by her niece Fiona Frank.

Prof Ross Roy, retired Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of South Carolina, Columbia and Founder of the Journal Studies in Scottish Literature received a Degree of Doctor of Letters.
 
Sir Kenneth Collins, retired Chair of the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency; Prof David Hirsh, Executive Vice President for Research at Columbia University; and Prof Ian McDougall, Emeritus Professor of the Research School of Earth Sciences, Australia National University and world leader in the science of geochronology were all made Doctors of Science.
 
Commemoration Day celebrates the foundation of the University of Glasgow in 1451. The events comprise of a service for the Commemoration of Benefactors in the University Chapel; the conferring of honorary degrees by the Chancellor; and the Commemoration Day lunch. The current form of celebrations has been followed for over a century but its roots go back to the annual May banquet held first in 1492.

First published: 17 June 2009

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