Honorary Graduate
December 2011
Professor Julia Slingo
Professor Julia Slingo is Chief Scientist at the Met Office, and has been a leading figure in climate research for more than 30 years. She has made significant and lasting contributions to many aspects of climate science, and is best known for her work on clouds, which remain a primary source of uncertainty in climate models, and the meteorology of the tropics.
Professor Slingo's work has clearly shown the different controlling influences of the oceans and the maritime continents on tropical climate and the important part this then plays in the global climate, seasonal prediction and climate change. Through this work she has shaped our understanding and our response to the dangers posed by climate change facing India, China and some of the most vulnerable countries of the world.
Professor Slingo has held the most senior roles and taken the lead in climate science. She was the Director of Climate Research in the National Centre for Atmospheric Science and contributed to the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, and to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In 2008 she became the first female President of the Royal Meteorological Society and was awarded an OBE for services to climate science.
Since 2009 she has been the Chief Scientist at the UK Met Office, the meteorological equivalent of the Astronomer Royal. Professor Slingo has a long association with the University of Reading. She was a member of staff for nearly 20 years, during which time she was Director of Climate Research in the National Centre for Atmospheric Science and in 2006 founded the Walker Institute for Climate System Research at the University of Reading.
Professor Julia Slingo will be presented for the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science by Professor Stephen Belcher, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, at the 12.00 noon ceremony on Thursday 15 December. Read the Presentation Speech (PDF 52kb) in full.
July 2011
Dr Christie Peacock
Christie Peacock is a graduate of the University of Reading (BSc Agriculture 1980, and PhD 1984). Her doctoral thesis Sheep and goat production on Maasai group ranches and her subsequent career have together been devoted to improving the livelihoods of resource-poor livestock farmers in rural Africa and Asia.
Dr Peacock is an international authority on goats and has published widely on the subject. She has spoken frequently at international meetings including the 2010 World Food Prize meeting, the Clinton Global Initiative meeting, and the All Africa Conference on Animal Agriculture.
Chairman of Sidai Africa Ltd, Africa's first livestock franchising social enterprise based in Kenya, and a board member of the newly formed FARM-Africa Enterprises, Christie Peacock has recently stepped down as Chief Executive of the charity FARM-Africa after eleven years in post. She serves on the Editorial Board of International Agriculture Journal and the Steering Group of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Agriculture and Food for Development; and is a Fellow of the Society of Biology, of the Royal Agricultural Societies, and of the Society of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce.
Dr Christie Peacock will be presented for the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science by Professor Michael Gooding, Head of the School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, at the 12.00 noon ceremony on Thursday 7 July.
Lord Hennessy of Nympsfield
Lord Hennessy of Nympsfield (Professor Peter Hennessy, FBA) is Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History at Queen Mary, University of London, and between 1988 and 1994 held a Visiting Fellowship at the University of Reading where he taught both History and Politics. Elevated to the House of Lords in October 2010 as a non-political peer, he sits as a cross-bencher.
A graduate of St John's College, Cambridge, and a Kennedy Memorial Scholar at Harvard, Peter Hennessy is a Fellow of the British Academy and has written a number of books including Never Again: Britain 1945-51, The Secret State, The Hidden Wiring: Unearthing the British Constitution, Cabinet and Whitehall, winning the Orwell Prize for political writing in 2007 for Having It So Good: Britain in the Fifties.
Before joining the School of History at Queen Mary in 1992, Peter Hennessy was a journalist for twenty years with spells on The Times as a leader writer and Whitehall correspondent, for the Financial Times as its lobby correspondent at Westminster and as a columnist on The Independent, and was also a regular presenter of the BBC Radio 4 Analysis programme. Co-founder of
the Institute of Contemporary British History in 1986, he won the Times Higher Education Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008.
Lord Hennessy of Nympsfield will be presented for the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters by Professor Tony Downes, Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the 12.00 noon ceremony on Friday 8 July.
December 2010
Professor John Allen
Professor John Allen has taught at the University of Reading for over fifty years. First appointed at the University in 1959 as a Research Fellow, he then became Professor of Geology in 1972 and Director of the Postgraduate Institute of Sedimentology in 1988. Professor Allen now continues as a Visiting Professor in Archaeology.
Professor Allen's archaeological interest arose in the early 1980s and he has a particular interest in the interaction between human and natural forces in the shaping of the landscapes and life of the Bristol Channel.
Research in sedimentology by Professor Allen has received worldwide acclaim. He has published a number of books including Current Ripples and Physical Processes of Sedimentation which led to his election to the Fellowship of the Royal Society in 1979.
Professor John Allen will be presented for the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science by Professor Michael Fulford at the 12.00noon ceremony on Thursday 16 December. Read the Presentation Speech (PDF 150kb) in full.
July 2010
Professor Janet Beer
Professor Janet Beer graduated from the University of Reading with a BA in English in 1978. She has been in the post of Vice-Chancellor at Oxford Brookes University since 2007. Janet Beer has also studied at Warwick University in the UK, and Yale University in the USA. She is married with two grown-up children.
As well as having a significant national profile and a deep understanding of the issues and challenges facing the Higher Education sector, Janet Beer is the current Chair of the steering group for Teaching Quality Information and the National Student Survey (NSS), which all students participate in each year to give feedback on their university experience.
In August 2009, Janet Beer became Chair of the University Alliance group. She is actively involved in the furthering of Higher Education and was one of two advisers to the House of Commons Select Committee on Education and Skills. She also sits on the Advisory Board of the Higher Education Policy Institute, is a board member of the Equality Challenge Unit, Higher Education Academy and a member of the Financial Sustainability Strategy Group (HEFCE).
Janet Beer has an established record of research in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century American literature and culture, and contemporary Canadian women's writing. She has been the Associate Editor of The Year's Work in English Studies (OUP) since 1999 and is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of American Studies.
Professor Janet Beer will be presented for the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters by Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor Christine Williams at the 12 noon ceremony on Thursday 1 July 2010. Read the Presentation Speech (PDF 264kb) in full.
Ms Alison Carnwath
Ms Alison Carnwath graduated from the University of Reading in 1975 with a BA in German and Economics. She is now Chair of Land Securities, Britain's biggest property company and a FTSE 100 company, and Chairman of MF Global Holdings Ltd. She is also one of only three females currently heading up a FTSE 100 company.
After joining Land Securities in 2004 as a non-executive director, Alison Carnwath became Chairman in November 2008. Land Securities is the largest property company in Europe and the leading British property development and investment company headquartered in central London. The company also owns the Piccadilly lights in Piccadilly Circus, London and was one of the companies involved in developing The Bullring shopping centre in Birmingham.
During her distinguished career, Alison Carnwath spent 25 years as an investment banker at a number of companies including J. Henry Schröder, Phoenix Securities, Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, Peat Marwick Mitchell, KPMG, and Lloyds Bank International. She is currently a non-executive of two FTSE 100 companies alongside Land Securities; she has been non-executive director of Gallagher since 2003, Friends Provident since 2002 and Man Group since 2001. In addition, she has been on the boards of Cullens, Manweb, Sears, National Power, Arcadia and Nationwide among others. Alison Carnwath is a patron of the Woolf collection in the British Library, and is on the development board of the Royal Society of Arts, and the Healing Foundation.
Ms Alison Carnwath will be presented for the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws by Professor Ginny Gibson, Head of the School of Real Estate and Planning.Read the Presentation Speech (PDF 72kb) in full.
December 2009
Mr Timothy Ford
Tim Ford was admitted as a solicitor in 1969, and two years later had become a partner, specialising in matters commercial and corporate. He became Managing Partner of his law firm, Park Nelson and from 1996 - 2002 he led the firm through a period of expansion and significant consolidation in the legal profession.
In 1991 he began an association with the London hospitals which was to last for nearly 10 years. At the turn of the Millennium Tim's commitment and loyalty switched to the University of Reading. During his nine years with the Institution he was a member of Council before being appointed its President, with his term ending this Summer. Read the Presentation Speech (PDF 59kb ) in full.
Mrs Lorna Arnold
Lorna Arnold is the foremost expert on the early history of Britain's nuclear weapons programme nuclear weapons programme. She was probably the first female British diplomat and was posted to Berlin, shortly after the German capitulation to work in the Allied Control Commission.
In 1959 Lorna joined the British Atomic Energy Authority, where she worked initially on the Windscale Accident commission and then for the Historian's Office. Together with Margaret Gowing, she published a famous history of British nuclear energy from 1945-1952: Independence and Deterrence. Read the Presentation Speech (PDF 93kb) in full.
July 2009
Mr Saul Lehrfreund MBE
Saul Lehrfreund graduated from the School of Law at the University of Reading in 1990 and has since acquired an international reputation in the field of international human rights law. He is a founding member and Executive Director of the Death Penalty Project, and is also a founder member of the UK Foreign Secretary's 'Death Penalty Panel', as well as of the pro bono lawyers' panel of the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office. Mr Lehrfreund maintains close links with the School of Law and returns to Reading, whenever possible, to deliver a seminar on the Death Penalty to the International Human Rights Law class. He has also, on a number of occasions, taken International Human Rights Law students from Reading on summer placements.
Mr Lehrfreund was presented for an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws by Professor Sandy Ghandhi, Professor of Law, on Saturday 4 July 2009. Read the Presentation Speech (PDF 54kb) in full.
Dr Susan Solomon
Dr Susan Solomon, of the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, is one of the foremost atmospheric scientists in the world. She took on one of the most prominent roles in global climate science when she was appointed co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Fourth Assessment Report. Dr Solomon came to particular prominence following the discovery of the dramatic Antarctic Ozone Hole. She was a leading member of a team that hypothesized that the unusually cold conditions high above the Antarctic led to previously unrecognised chemical reactions, which caused chlorine present in the atmosphere due to human activity to be released and attack ozone. Her work played a key role in the decision that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) should be outlawed; we are now witnessing the first signs of recovery of the ozone layer. Through her roles in the international assessments of ozone depletion and climate change, Dr Solomon has worked closely with many atmospheric scientists at the University of Reading, which is home to one of the world's leading atmospheric science departments.
Dr Solomon was presented for an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science by Professor Keith Shine, FRS, Professor of Physical Meteorology in the School of Mathematics, Meteorology and Physics, on Friday 3 July 2009. Read the Presentation speech (PDF 49kb) in full
December 2008
Professor Michael Twyman
Professor Michael Twyman began his academic career as a lecturer in Fine Art at the University of Reading. In the 1960s, he became head of a unit that was the first of its kind in the world: the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication. Professor Twyman who retired in 1998 continues his association with the Department to this day as Director of the Centre for Ephemera Studies. He was presented for the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters by Professor Sue Walker, Professor of Typography and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. Read the Presentation speech (PDF 235kb) in full.
Professor John Dunning OBE
Professor John H. DunningOBE was Emeritus Professor of International Business at the University of Reading and was the first head of the Economics Department upon its establishment in 1964. He was the founder and leading light of the 'Reading School' of thought in the economics of international business and international investment, and has been a consultant to the United Nations, the World Bank and numerous other governmental organisations. He was presented for the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters by Professor John Hendry, Head of the School of Management. Read the Presentation speech (PDF 24kb) in full.
June 2008
Mr John Armitt CBE
Mr John Armitt CBE, chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority, the body responsible for developing the infrastructure for the 2012 Olympic Games, and the former chief executive of Network Rail, was presented for the honorary degree of Doctor of Science by Professor Roger Flanagan, of the School of Construction Management and Engineering. Read the Presentation speech (PDF 77kb) in full.
Mr Peter Erskine
Mr Peter Erskine, distinguished businessman and former Chairman and Chief Executive of O2, who was named CSC Business Leader of the Year in 2005, was presented for the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws by Professor John Hendry, Head of the University of Reading Business School. Presentation speech
December 2007
Sir John Madejski OBE
Sir John Madejski, OBE, DL, founder of the Thames Valley Trader (now Auto Trader), Chairman of Reading Football Club, Deputy Lieutenant of Berkshire and Freeman of the Borough of Reading, was presented for the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Tony Downes. Mr Madejski was installed as seventh Chancellor of the University of Reading on Friday 14 December 2007.
Read the Presentation speech (PDF 244kb) in full
See the full Order of Proceedings (PDF 408kb)
Mr James Godfrey
Mr James Godfrey OBE, a graduate of this University (BSc Agriculture, 1974) and an internationally renowned agriculturalist who is currently Chairman of the International Potato Centre (CIP), was presented for the honorary degree of Doctor of Science by Professor Richard Ellis, Dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences. Read the Presentation speech (PDF 50kb) in full.
July 2007
Mr Michael Bond OBE
Mr Michael Bond OBE, raised and educated in Reading and the author of over one hundred books, including the Paddington Bear series, was presented for the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by Professor David Malvern, Head of the University's Institute of Education. Read the Presentation speech (PDF 17kb) in full.
The Rt Hon. Baroness Hale of Richmond
The Rt Hon. the Baroness Hale of Richmond, a legal academic, barrister and judge, who became the first female Lord of Appeal in Ordinary (Law Lord) in 2004, was presented for the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws by Professor Patricia Leopold, Head of the University's School of Law. Read the Presentation speech in full.
December 2006
Dr Patricia Hillebrandt
Dr Patricia Hillebrandt is a construction economist and Senior Visiting Research Fellow in the School of Construction Management and Engineering. Dr Hillebrandt was presented for the honorary degree of Doctor of Science by Professor Peter Lansley. Read the Presentation speech in full.
July 2006
Mr Martin Green
Mr Martin Green is a farmer and amateur field archaeologist known and respected throughout the academic archaeological community. Mr Green was presented for the honorary degree of Doctor of Science by Professor Richard Bradley. Read the Presentation speech in full.
Mr Heston Blumenthal
Mr Heston Blumenthal is a local restaurateur and one of the world's top chefs who has achieved international acclaim for his innovative style of cuisine. Mr Blumenthal was presented for the honorary degree of Doctor of Science by Professor Don Mottram. Read the Presentation speech in full.
Professor James Knowlson
Professor James Knowlson is an Emeritus Professor of French and creator of the Beckett Archive and of the Beckett International Foundation at the University of Reading. Professor Knowlson was presented for the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by Professor Cedric Brown.
Dr Anthony Minghella
Dr Anthony Minghella was a Film director and Patron of the Beckett International Foundation at the University of Reading. Dr Minghella was presented for the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by Professor Jonathan Bignell. Read the Presentation Speech in full