University awards six honorary degrees
Posted on 6 July 2012
Linda Grant, Peter Phillips, Professor Jun Chen, Sir Mike Tomlinson, William Marslen-Wilson and Archie Norman will be awarded honorary doctorates at the University’s graduation ceremonies on 11, 12 and 13 July.
The University confers honorary degrees on individuals who have made a significant contribution to society. Recipients often have existing links with the University and are chosen from nominations made by its members.
Linda Grant
Author Linda Grant was born in Liverpool, the child of Russian and Polish Jewish immigrants. She read English at the University of York before completing an MA at MacMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario.
Her first book, Sexing the Millennium: A Political History of the Sexual Revolution, was published in 1993 and her first novel, The Cast Iron Shore, published three years later, won the David Higham First Novel Award. Linda Grant’s account of her mother’s decline into dementia, Remind Me Who I am Again, won the MIND/Allen Lane Book of the Year award and the Age Concern Book of the Year award. Her non-fiction work, The People On The Street: A Writer’s View of Israel, won the Lettre Ulysses Prize for Literary Reportage. Her Booker Prize shortlisted novel, The Clothes on Their Backs, won the South Bank Show award. Her short story for radio, Lucy In The Sky with Diamonds, marking the 40th anniversary of the Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, was broadcast in July 2007.
Peter Phillips
Peter Phillips is ranked among the most influential economists in the world. Born in Weymouth and educated in New Zealand, he received a PhD from the London School of Economics. He was appointed to a full professorship at the University of Birmingham at the age of 27 and moved to Yale University in 1979 where he is Sterling Professor of Economics. He also holds positions at the University of Auckland, Singapore Management University and Southampton University.
A leading econometrician, he is founder and editor of the international journal Econometric Theory and founding editor of Themes in Modern Econometrics. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the New Zealand Association of Economists, an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy. He received the New Zealand Medal of Science and Technology in 1998 and was NZIER/QANTAS Economist of the Year 2000.
Professor Jun Chen
Professor Jun Chen is President of Nanjing University, one of York’s key international partners in China. He was awarded a PhD in Geology by Nanjing University in 1985, becoming a Professor of Geochemistry there in 1992. Before his election as President in 2006, he was Dean of the Department of Earth Sciences, Vice-President and Executive Vice-President.
York and Nanjing are collaborating across a range of disciplines – science, social science and the humanities. In 2008, the universities commissioned the York-Nanjing Joint Centre for spintronics and nano-engineering, based on the leading research of both institutions in these areas. President Chen is interested in developing Chinese education policies and is a member of the Fifth Academic Degree Committee of the State Council and the Fifth Committee of Science and Technology under the Ministry of Education. He serves as a member in the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress. He is Vice-President of the Chinese Society for Mineralogy, Petrology and Geochemistry.
William Marslen-Wilson
William Marslen-Wilson has an international reputation in psycholinguistics, cognitive psychology, and cognitive neuroscience. His early research revealed the remarkable dynamic properties of human speech comprehension, showing that speech is literally understood as it is heard. The resulting ‘Cohort’ model of spoken-language understanding has had a major influence on the study of language from the 1970s onwards.
His later research has focused on human language as a neurocognitive system, mapping out the neural substrates of language processing using novel neuroimaging techniques, and with a strong cross-linguistic flavour. He has worked at the Universities of Chicago and Cambridge, UK, and was Co-Director of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen. He joined Birkbeck College in 1990 before becoming Director of the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge which grew into one of the world’s strongest centres for cognitive neuroscience. He was made a Fellow of the British Academy in 1996.
Sir Mike Tomlinson
The former Chief Inspector of Schools, Sir Mike Tomlinson CBE was born in Rotherham. He completed a BSc in Chemistry at Durham University before becoming a school science teacher. In 1978 he joined Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Schools (now Ofsted) and became Chief Inspector and Head of Ofsted from 2000 to 2002.
In 2002 he became Chair of the Learning Trust, a body set up to run the education service in Hackney in place of the local authority. From being the poorest performing authority it became the sixth best in England. In 2004 he carried out an inquiry into A level grading and was appointed chair of the 14–19 working group charged with proposing reform of curriculum and qualifications. The Tomlinson Report was published in 2005. He is Chair of Myscience, the body responsible for the National and Regional science learning centres and the national STEM centre based at the University of York. He was made a CBE in 1997 and knighted in 2004.
Archie Norman
Archie Norman is a leading British businessman and politician. As Chairman of ITV plc since January 2010, he has supported placements for York students at the company. He has brought a new leadership dimension to British businesses, based on strong corporate social responsibility and genuine employee engagement.
A Harvard Business School graduate, he was Chief Executive and then Chairman of Asda from 1991 to 2000. He helped turn round the fortunes of the business, making it the second largest supermarket chain in the UK. Elected as Conservative MP for Tunbridge Wells in 1997, he became Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Transport and the Regions and was also Chief Executive of the Party. He founded the think tank Policy Exchange. After leaving Parliament in 2007 he set up Aurigo Management, which acquires and transforms underperforming or distressed businesses. He is also a Senior Advisor to Lazard. In November 2007 he was appointed Deputy Chairman of Coles Group.
Notes to editors:
- Linda Grant will be presented for her honorary degree by Dr Jane Grenville, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Students in Ceremony One on 11 July at 9.30am.
- Professor Peter Phillips will be presented for his honorary degree by Professor Michael Wickens from the Department of Economics and Related Studies in Ceremony Two on 11 July at 12 noon.
- Professor Jun Chen will be presented for his honorary degree by Professor John Robinson, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Teaching, Learning and Information in Ceremony Three on 11 July at 3.30pm.
- Sir Mike Tomlinson will be presented for his honorary degree by Professor Judith Bennett from the Department of Education in Ceremony Six on 12 July at 3.30pm.
- Professor William Marslen-Wilson will be presented for his honorary degree by Professor Quentin Summerfield from the Department of Psychology in Ceremony Seven on 13 July at 9.30am.
- Archie Norman will be presented for his honorary degree by Professor Kiran Fernandes from the York Management School in Ceremony Eight on 13 July at 12 noon.
Contact details
Graduation on social media
Join in the celebration with our social media coverage
Keep up to date
Subscribe to news feeds
