Date: 20 April 2000
The University of Aberdeen’s first graduation ceremonies of the new Millennium will see one of the most wide-ranging line-ups of honorary graduates in recent years.
Thirteen leading figures, including three high-profile women, from the worlds of business, the law, education, the arts, science and the church, will receive honorary doctorates in July.
Helena Kennedy QC, Chair of the British Council, Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University, who was made a Labour Life Peer in 1997, will receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws (LLD) along with Baroness Young of Old Scone, Chair of English Nature and a former Chief Executive of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.
The honorary degree of Doctor of Music (DMus) will go to Lisa Milne, one of Scotland’s most talented young opera singers and recitalists, who has appeared at Edinburgh International Festival, Glyndebourne, and with Scottish Opera.
Jeremy Peat, Chief Economist at the Royal Bank of Scotland since 1993 and a former Senior Economic Adviser at the Scottish Office, will receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws (LLD) as will Peter Stein, former Regius Professor of Civil Law at Cambridge. Professor Stein held the Chair of Jurisprudence at Aberdeen from 1956 to 1968, and also served as Dean of the Faculty of Law.
Donald Cruickshank, Chairman of the Scottish Media Group, author of the recent high-profile Cruickshank report on banking, will also receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws (LLD), along with Norman Gillies, Director of Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the Gaelic college on the Isle of Skye.
Professor Carl Djerassi, the distinguished American chemist who invented the contraceptive pill, Professor Sir David Carter, Chief Medical Officer for Scotland, and Professor Christopher Edwards, Principal of the Imperial College of Medicine in London, will all receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Science (DSc).
Dr George Bruce, the Fraserburgh-born poet, critic and former BBC arts producer, and Alasdair MacIntyre, Professor of Philosophy at Duke University, will both receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (DLitt), while the Very Rev James Harkness, Dean of the Chapel Royal and a former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, will receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity (DD).
The graduation ceremonies will take place at the Mitchell Hall, Marischal College, University of Aberdeen, from 3-7 July, 2000.