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An Honorary Degree is the highest mark of distinction that a university can award. Honorary Degrees are conferred on persons who have a record of outstanding achievement in scholarship or in public life and who have made contributions of unusual importance. Recipients of Honorary Degrees will normally have or have had a close association with UCL
The year of award of each Honorary Degree is indicated in square brackets.
Pictured to the right are two of our latest Honorary Graduates - David Miliband and Professor Toni Williams - at the conferral of their Honorary Degrees in September 2023. See below for their citations and for the full list of 2023 Honorary Graduates.
Please notify any amendments or updates to the entries below to Olivia Whiteley.
2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 |
2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 |
2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 |
2023
Mr David MILIBAND (LLD) - citation (pdf)
President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee.
Dr Ali PARSADOUST (DSc (Med))
Founder and CEO of Babylon Health Services Ltd.
Professor Orlando PATTERSON (DLit)
John Cowles Professor of Sociology, Harvard University.
Baroness Jo VALENTINE (LLD)
Vice-Chair of UCL Council (2017-22); Non-Executive Director, Business in the Community.
Professor Toni WILLIAMS (LLD) - citation (pdf)
Senior Tutor of Girton College, University of Cambridge.
2022
Dame Clare MARX (DSc)
Chair, General Medical Council (2019-21).
2021
Mr Harry BRADBEER (DLit)
Emmy-award winning Film and Television Director of Fleabag and Enola Holmes.
Professor Raj CHETTY (DSc (Econ))
William A. Ackman Professor of Public Economics, Harvard University, USA.
Dr G. Marius CLORE BSc MB.BS PhD FRS (DSc)
NIH Distinguished Investigator, National Institutes of Health, USA.
Professor David CRYSTAL OBE FBA (DLit)
Writer, editor, lecturer and broadcaster; Honorary Professor of Linguistics, University of Bangor.
The Rt Hon the Baroness HALE of Richmond DBE FBA (LLD)
President of the UK Supreme Court (2017-20); Deputy President of the UK Supreme Court (2013-17); Justice of the UK Supreme Court (2009-13); Member, House of Lords.
Professor Bill HILLIER (DSc)
Professor of Architectural and Urban Morphology, University of London; formerly Director, Space Syntax Laboratory, UCL. [posth. award]
Mr Richard HORTON FRCP FRCPCH FMedSci (DSc)
Editor-in-Chief, The Lancet.
Dame DeAnne JULIUS DCMG CBE (DSc (Econ))
Economist and Founder Member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England; Distinguished Fellow, Chatham House; Chair of UCL Council (2014-19).
Professor Bill MANHIRE (DLit)
Emeritus Professor of English and Creative Writing, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
Ms Vivienne PARRY OBE (DSc)
Science writer and broadcaster.
Dr Sigrid RAUSING (DLit)
Editor Granta Magazine; Publisher Granta Books; Chair and Founder, The Sigrid Rausing Trust.
Dr Hayaatun SILLEM CBE (DSc (Eng))
CEO, Royal Academy of Engineering.
2020
Dr Lori HOULIHAN (DLit)
Former Vice-Provost (Advancement), UCL.
2019
Professor Victor HOFFBRAND (DSc (Med))
Emeritus Professor of Haematology at UCL.
Mr Cees NOOTEBOOM (DLit)
Dutch novelist, poet and journalist.
Professor Robert PUTNAM (DLit)
US political scientist and Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Baroness Patricia SCOTLAND (LLD)
Baroness Scotland of Asthal PC QC.
2018
Mr Paul JOHNSON (DSc (Econ))
Director, Institute for Fiscal Studies, since 2011.
Professor Ann OAKLEY (DLit)
Founding Director, Social Science Research Unit, IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society.
Professor Judith RESNICK (LLD)
Arthur Liman Professor of Law, Yale Law School.
2017
Professor Jean GOLDING (DSc)
Emeritus Professor of Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology.
Mr Christopher NOLAN (DLit)
Director.
Justice Catherine O'REGAN (LLD)
Director, Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, University of Oxford.
Lord SAINSBURY of Turville (DSc)
Businessman and politician. Chancellor, University of Cambridge, since 2011.
Mr Brian SOMMERLAD (DSc (Med))
Surgeon, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children.
Professor Alison WOLF (DLit (Ed))
Sir Roy Griffiths Professor of Public Sector Management, King's College London.
2016
Sir Anthony Barnes ATKINSON (DSc (Econ))
Economist. Centennial Professor, LSE (2010-), Professor of Political Economy, UCL (1976-79).
Professor Dame Sally DAVIES (DSc (Med))
Chief Medical Officer.
Professor Jose-Maria GRIFFITHS (DSc)
President, Dakota State University.
Professor James Gita HAKIM (DSc (Med))
Professor of Medicine, University of Zimbabwe.
Professor Sing Kong LEE (DLit)
Educationalist; Provost of Nanyang Technological University.
President Dean SPIELMANN (LLD)
President of the European Court of Human Rights.
2015
Dr Linda BUCK (DSc (Med))
Nobel Laureate (Physiology or Medicine, 2004); HHMI Investigator, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
Professor Norman DAVIES (DLit)
British-Polish historian; Emeritus Professor, SSEES.
Mr Ibrahim EL-SALAHI (DLit)
Artist.
Dr Dennis GILLINGS (DSc)
World Dementia Envoy; Board member, UCLPartners.
Professor Geoffrey LEECH (DLit)
Emeritus Professor of Linguistics and Modern English Language, Lancaster University. [posth. award]
Professor Lesley REGAN (DSc (Med))
Honorary Consultant in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Imperial College.
Sir Stephen WALL (DLit)
Former British Diplomat and Chair of UCL Council 2008-14.
Ms Sharon WITHERSPOON (DLit)
Director of the Nuffield Foundation.
Judge Abdulqawi YUSUF (LLD)
Judge, International Court of Justice.
2014
Lord Melvyn BRAGG (DLit)
Broadcaster and author.
Professor Wendy DAVIES OBE (DLit)
Emerita Professor of History, UCL.
Professor Dave DELPY (DSc (Eng))
Bioengineer; Chairman, Defence Scientific Advisory Council; Chief Executive, EPSRC 2007-14.
Professor Dame Athene DONALD (DSc)
Professor of Experimental Physics, University of Cambridge.
Professor Dame Wendy HALL (DSc (Eng))
Professor of Computer Science, University of Southampton.
Mr Stephen RUBIN OBE (DSc)
Businessman; Chairman, Pentland Group plc.
Professor Michael RUSE (DSc)
Lucyle T Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy, Florida State University.
Professor Margaret SNOWLING (DSc)
Psychologist; President, St John's College, Oxford.
Professor Marc TESSIER-LAVIGNE (DSc)
Neuroscientist; President, Rockefeller University.
Professor Michael WORTON (DLit)
Formerly Vice-Provost (International), UCL; Emeritus Fielden Professor of French Language and Literature, UCL.
2013
Dame Jocelyn BURNELL (DSc)
Astrophysicist.
Sir William CASTELL (DSc (Med))
Chairman of the Wellcome Trust.
Lord DYSON (LLD)
Master of the Rolls and Head of Civil Justice.
Sir Malcolm GRANT (LLD)
Chairman of NHS England; President and Provost of UCL, 2003-13.
Professor James HECKMAN (DSc (Econ))
Henry Schultz Distinguished Professor of Economics, University of Chicago; Nobel Laureate (Economics, 2000).
Professor Dame Sally MACINTYRE (DSc)
Professor of Social & Public Health Sciences, University of Glasgow.
Mr Haruo NAITO (DSc)
President and CEO, Eisai Ltd.
Professor Joachim SAUER (DSc)
Professor of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, Humboldt University, Berlin.
2012
Professor Chunli BAI (DSc)
President, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
Sir Cyril CHANTLER (DSc (Med))
Chairman, UCL Partners.
Professor Donald DINGWELL (DSc)
Secretary-General, European Research Council (ERC).
Lady Justice Heather HALLET (LLD)
Judge of the Royal Court of Appeal.
Professor Dame Julia HIGGINS (DSc)
Senior Research Investigator and Emeritus Professor of Polymer Science, Imperial College London.
Mr Alan HOLLINGHURST (DLit)
Novelist.
Professor Baron Peter PIOT (DSc (Med))
Director and Professor of Global Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
2011
Lady Justice ARDEN (LLD)
Judge of the Court of Appeal.
Professor Homi K. BHABHA (DLit)
Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of English and American Literature and Language, Harvard University.
Sir David COOKSEY (DSc)
Businessman and policy advisor; Chairman of the Francis Crick Institute.
Sir Nicholas GRIMSHAW (DSc)
Architect.
Professor Gail MARTIN (DSc (Med))
Head of the PIBS Program in Developmental Biology, University of California, San Francisco.
Sir Paul NURSE (DSc (Med))
President of the Royal Society and Director, Francis Crick Institute; Nobel Laureate (Physiology or Medicine, 2001).
Sir Keith PETERS (DSc (Med))
Senior Consultant in Research and Development for GlaxoSmithKline; President of the Academy of Medical Sciences, 2002-06.
2010
Professor Lorna CASSELTON (DSc)
Emeritus Professor of Fungal Genetics, University of Oxford; Foreign Secretary and Vice-President of the Royal Society, 2006-11.
Professor Peter HIGGS (DSc)
Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Physics, University of Edinburgh; Nobel Laureate (Physics, 2013).
Professor Jonathan ISRAEL (DLit)
Professor of Intellectual History, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton.
Professor Sir Charles Kuen KAO (DSc)
"Father of Fibre Optics"; Nobel Laureate (Physics, 2009).
Professor Timothy KILLEEN (DSc)
Assistant Director for the Geosciences, US National Science Foundation.
Mr Neil MACGREGOR (DLit)
Director, British Museum.
Lord NEUBERGER of Abbotsbury (LLD)
Master of the Rolls.
Baroness O'NEILL of Bengarve (DLit)
Professor of Philosophy, University of Cambridge; Chairman of the Trustees, The Nuffield Foundation.
2009
Dame Carol BLACK (DSc (Med))
National Director for Health and Work; Professor of Rheumatology, UCL.
Professor Helene CIXOUS (DLit)
Writer, academic and feminist thinker.
Lord FOSTER of Thames Bank (DSc)
Architect.
Professor Sir David KING (DSc)
Chief Scientific Advisor to H.M. Government and Head of the Office of Science and Innovation, 2000-08.
Sir Stuart LIPTON (DSc (Eng))
Property developer.
Dr Malcolm WIENER (DSc)
Aegean prehistorian.
Lord WOOLF of Barnes (LLD)
Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, 2000-05; Chair, UCL Council, 2005-08.
2008
Mr Martti AHTISAARI (LLD)
United Nations diplomat and mediator; Nobel Laureate (Peace, 2008).
Professor Henry BALTES (DSc (Eng))
Professor Emeritus of Physical Electronics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.
Professor Sir Martin EVANS (DSc (Med))
Professor Emeritus of Mammalian Genetics, Cardiff University; Nobel Laureate (Physiology or Medicine, 2007).
Professor Peter HAGGETT (DSc)
Professor Emeritus of Urban and Regional Geography, University of Bristol.
Ms Luce IRIGARAY (DLit)
Linguist, psychoanalyst and feminist philosopher.
Mr Ian MCEWAN (DLit)
Novelist and screenwriter.
2007
Professor Angus DEATON (DSc (Econ))
Microeconomist; Dwight D Eisenhower Professor of International Affairs and Professor of Economics and International Affairs, Princeton University.
Dr Mortimer MISHKIN (DSc)
Neuropsychologist; Senior Investigator, National Institute of Mental Health, USA.
Professor Janet THORNTON (DSc)
Director, European Bioinformatics Institute.
2006
Professor Martin DAUNTON (DLit)
President of the Royal Historical Society; Master of Trinity Hall and Professor of Economic History, University of Cambridge.
Mr Andrew DAVIES (DLit)
Author, screenwriter and playwright.
Mr Antony GORMLEY (DLit)
Artist and sculptor.
Professor Arthur Kwok-Cheung LI (DSc (Med))
Secretary of Education and Manpower, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, 2002-07.
Professor Njabulo NDEBELE (DLit)
Author; Vice-Chancellor and Principal, University Cape Town, 2000-08.
Lord YOUNG of Graffham (LLD)
Politician and businessman; Chair, UCL Council, 1995-2005.
2005
Professor Sir Bob HEPPLE (LLD)
Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Cambridge.
Professor Rodney HUDDLESTON (DLit)
Linguist and grammarian.
Professor Sir Nicholas WALD (DSc (Med))
Epidemiologist; Professor of Environmental and Preventative Medicine, Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Queen Mary University of London.
2004
Professor Guy CANIVET (LLD)
Former Chief Justice, Cour de cassation, France.
Dr Thomas JESSELL (DSc)
Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Columbia University, New York, USA.
Dr Meave LEAKEY (DSc)
Palaeontologist.
Professor Takeshi OKA (DSc)
Professor Emeritus of Chemistry and Astronomy, University of Chicago.
Sir John SKEHEL (DSc)
Virologist.
2003
Sir Tim HUNT (DSc (Med))
Biochemist; Nobel Laureate (Physiology or Medicine, 2001).
Professor Daniel MCFADDEN (DSc (Econ))
Econometrician; Nobel Laureate (Economics, 2000).
Professor Dr Erwin NEHER (DSc (Med))
Biophysicist; Nobel Laureate (Physiology or Medicine, 1991).
Mrs Anna Kajumulo TIBAIJUKA (DSc (Eng))
Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme.
2002
Mr Peter ACKROYD (DLit)
Novelist and biographer.
Madam Justice Fernanda CONTRI (LLD)
Former Vice-President and President of the Italian Bar Association.
Madame Noelle LENIOR (LLD)
Biologist; Nobel Laureate (Physiology or Medicine, 1995).
Professor Dr Jutta LIMBACH (LLD)
Jurist and politician.
Dr Christiane NUSSLEIN-VOLHARD (DSc)
Biologist; Nobel Laureate (Physiology or Medicine, 1995).
Mr Derek WALCOTT (DLit)
Poet, playwright, writer and visual artist.
2001
Mr Itsuko HASEGAWA (DLit)
Architect.
Professor Eric KANDEL (DSc (Med))
Neuroscientist; Nobel Laureate (Physiology or Medicine, 2000).
Dr Benjamin LEWIN (DSc)
Publisher.
Professor Sir Joseph ROTBLAT (DSc)
Physicist; Nobel Laureate (Peace, 1995).
Dr Max van der STOEL (LLD)
High Commissioner on National Minorities of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, 1992-2000.
2000
Professor Sir Harold KROTO (DSc)
Chemist; Nobel Laureate (Chemistry, 1996).
Professor James WATSON (DSc)
Molecular Biologist and zoologist; Nobel Laureate (Physiology or Medicine, 1962).
Professor Joseph WEILER (LLD)
Joseph Straus Professor of Law and European Union Jean Monnet Chair, New York University Law School.
1999
Sir Cameron MACKINTOSH (DLit)
Theatrical producer.
Dr John MULVEY (DSc)
Joint Founder and Director, Save British Science Society.
Professor Bert SAKMANN (DLit)
Nobel Laureate (Physiology or Medicine, 1991); Emeritus Scientific Member, Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Heidelberg, Germany.
1998
Professor Robert F FURCHGOTT (DSc (Med))
Biochemist; Nobel Laureate (Physiology or Medicine, 1998).
Professor William M GORMAN (DSc (Econ))
Economist.
Mr Mario VARGAS LLOSA (DLit)
Writer and politician.
1997
Dr Lloyd J OLD (DSc (Med)
Director of the Scientific Advisory Council, Cancer Research Institute, New York, USA; William E. Snee Professor of Cancer Immunology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, USA.
Professor Mamphela RAMPHELE (DSc)
Trustee, The Rockefeller Foundation; Managing Director of Human Development, World Bank, 2000-04; Vice-Chancellor, University of Cape Town, 1996-99.
Lord ROGERS of Riverside (DLit)
Architect.
Mr Michel TOURNIER (DLit)
Writer.
Professor Anne TREISMAN (DSc)
Professor of Psychology, Princeton University.