Honorary Degrees 2008

The University awards Honorary Degrees each year to recognise the work of outstanding individuals.

The Most Rev'd Dr John Sentamu, who received the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Divinity, has been Archbishop of York since 2005. The former Selwyn student trained for the Anglican ministry at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, being ordained a priest in 1979.

He was born in Uganda in 1949 and practised law in its High Court before he was imprisoned by Idi Amin. He left Uganda to take up his place at Selwyn.

Dr Sentamu is an outspoken critic of the regime of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. He was most recently in the news for completing a 13,000ft skydive in early June at the age of 58 to raise money for Armed Forces charities.

Professor David Gross, Professor of Theoretical Physics and Director of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2004.

Along with Frank Wilczek, a student of his, and David Politzer, the Nobel award was made for his discovery of asymptotic freedom. His work explained why the force between subatomic particles (or quarks) weakens as they come closer together.

Born in 1941, Professor Gross was Rothschild Visiting Professor at the Isaac Newton Institute at Cambridge University last year.

Professor Gross was awarded his bachelor's degree at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1962 before completing a PhD in Physics at Berkeley in 1966. He was also a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows and worked at Princeton before moving to his current post where he works on particle physics and string theory.

Sir Ralph Robins was born in 1932 and graduated from Imperial College, London in 1955. He first joined Rolls-Royce as an apprentice engineer that year, and progressed through the company to become Chief Executive and then serving as Executive Chairman, from 1992-2003.

He is credited with transforming Rolls-Royce into a global player; in particular with fostering highly effective relationships with the academic world and pioneering the development of University Technology Centres, three of which are in Cambridge.

Professor Herman Waldmann, Professor of Pathology and Head of the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology at Oxford, was a student at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in the 1960s.

He became a University Lecturer in the Cambridge Department of Pathology and a Fellow of King's College, and later a Visiting Scientist at the Laboratory for Molecular Biology. While there he worked with Cesar Milstein, who was to receive the Nobel Prize.

His main research interest is immunological tolerance, and exemplifies the translation of fundamental research to therapeutic practice. He is particularly noted for the development of CAMPATH-1H, a monoclonal antibody used in the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.

Professors Gross and Waldmann and Sir Ralph Robins all received the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science at today's ceremony.

Finally, Professor Christopher Hogwood, born in 1941, received the degree of Doctor of Music this afternoon in recognition of his achievements as a conductor, keyboardist and musicologist.

Educated at Pembroke College where he is now an Honorary Fellow, as well as at Charles University, Prague, Professor Hogwood has compiled a catalogue of more than 200 recordings.

Also an Honorary Fellow of Jesus College, he has worked at Keele University, Harvard University and King's College, London, and is currently Visiting Professor at the Royal Academy of Music. He founded the Academy of Ancient Music, some of whose members, along with the choirs of Gonville & Caius and Selwyn Colleges, provided the music at today's ceremony.