Honorary Fellowships
15 July 2013
Two Nobel Prize winners, a British politician and a writer and television presenter are amongst those to be honoured by Cardiff University at its annual degree ceremonies (15-19th July).
Professors Mario Capecchi and Oliver Smithes, awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Medicine along with Cardiff University's Chancellor Professor Sir Martin Evans, will be presented with Honorary Degrees in recognition of their outstanding academic achievements. It will be the first time the three Nobel Prize winners have all been together since collecting their awards in Sweden almost six years ago.
Baroness Glenys Kinnock, Kevin McCloud and Richard Parks join six other eminent individuals from fields including journalism, medicine and sport, amongst others, to receive Honorary Fellowships.
Honorary Fellowships and Degrees are awarded to individuals who have achieved international distinction in their field.
More than 6,000 students will graduate in this year's ceremonies, and approximately 20,000 people will be welcomed to Cardiff for the celebrations. The event is one of the biggest in the University's calendar and the ceremonies will be broadcast live on the Big Screen in the Hayes area of Cardiff and streamed on the University's website.
The Honorary Fellows for 2013 are:
Madeleine Bunting is Associate Editor at The Guardian and is currently working on strategy development as the media industry is revolutionised by digital technology. She has written three books, most recently an examination of identity and belonging, 'The Plot, A biography of an English Acre' for which she won the Portico Prize and was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature's Ondaatje Award. She has won several awards for her journalism. She writes on a wide range of subjects, bringing a distinctive ethical preoccupation to politics, social change, global economics and questions of identity.
Dr Peter Florence MBE is a festival director best known for founding the Hay Festival with his father Norman Florence. He was educated at Ipswich School, Jesus College, Cambridge and the University of Paris and has an MA in Modern and Medieval Literatures. As well as the Hay Festival, Florence founded similar festivals in Mantua, Segovia, The Alhambra Palace, Cartagena, Nairobi, Zacatecas, Thiruvananthapuram, Dhaka, Xalapa, Belfast and Paraty. He is the co-editor of the Oxtales and Oxtravels anthologies with Mark Ellingham of Profile Books, in partnership with Oxfam.
Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead is a British politician and currently the Opposition Spokesperson for the Department of International Development in the House of Lords. A former student of University College Cardiff, Glenys was a teacher for 28 years before being elected as Member of the European Parliament for South East Wales in1994. In the Parliament she was, inter, alia elected Co- President of the EU-Africa, Caribbean, Pacific Joint Parliamentary Assembly of 105 Member States. Upon retirement in 2009 she was appointed Minister of State in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and made a member of the House of Lords as Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead.
Dr Paul Langmaid CBE is the former Chief Dental Officer for Wales and graduated from Cardiff Dental School in 1975. Following ten years in General Dental Practice in Cornwall, he was appointed Chief Dental Officer on the island of Anguillla in the West Indies. He joined the Dental Division of the then Welsh Office in 1993 and was appointed Chief Dental Officer until his retirement in December 2010. He remains on the dental register and on the Specialist List for Dental Public Health and a trustee of the Dentists' Health Support Trust.
Professor Laura McAllister is Chair of Sport Wales and Professor of Governance at the University of Liverpool's School of Management. She is a former Wales football international and national team captain. She is also a Board Member of UK Sport, the Welsh Football Trust, Stonewall UK, British Council Wales and the Institute of Welsh Affairs. She is a member of the External Advisory Group for the Wales Governance Centre at Cardiff University. Educated at Bryntirion Comprehensive School Bridgend, Laura is a graduate of the London School of Economics and Cardiff University where she completed a PhD in politics.
Kevin McCloud is a designer, writer and television presenter. He is best known for Channel 4's Grand Designs and for his annual coverage of the Stirling Prize. He wrote and presented his four hour Grand Tour of Europeand spent two and a half weeks in the slums of Mumbai for Channel 4's 2010 India season. He has designed lighting for some of the finest buildings in Europe, including Ely Cathedral and Edinburgh Castle.
Richard Parks is a former Wales and Barbarians flanker. In 2011 he made history becoming the first ever person to climb the highest mountain on each of the world's 7 continents and stand on all 3 poles (The North Pole, The South Pole and the summit of Everest) within 7 months. His record setting 737 Challenge also raised hundreds of thousands of pounds in aid of Marie Curie Cancer Care whilst creating an advertising value worth £2.1 million to the cancer charity. Richard is currently preparing for his next world first expedition in 2014.Professor Simon Smail CBE began his distinguished career at the former Welsh National School of Medicine's Department of General Practice and continued as a member of Cardiff University's School of Medicine until 2006. Throughout the 1980s he pioneered health promotion measures and was instrumental in setting up the Heartbeat Wales programme and founding Chair of the Wales Health Promotion Authority. He has also played a key role on the management and development of medical education. In 2007 he chaired major review of the Welsh Healthcare Library services for Cardiff University and remains an active Board member of Public Health Wales.
John Reardon Smith is Chairman of The Reardon Smith Nautical Trust and a former Director of two Ship-owning Companies, Reardon Smith and the Leeds Shipping Company. He served on the Board of two Marine Mutual Insurance Companies, The West of England and The United Kingdom Protection and Indemnity Associations. He also served on many Shipping Industry Committees which included Lloyds Registry, The General Council and The Shipping Federation.
Honorary degrees were awarded to:
Professor Mario Capecchi is a world renowned molecular geneticist and co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology, alongside Sir Martin Evans and Oliver Smithies. His pioneering work on gene targeting of mouse embryo derived stem cells has helped set a new standard for research worldwide. Professor Capecchi completed his PhD in biophysics from Harvard University under the guidance of Dr James Watson – co-discoverer alongside Sir Francis Crick of the structure of DNA.
Professor Oliver Smithies is a world-leading geneticist specializing in gene targeting. Born and educated in the UK he invented molecular sieving gel electrophpresis – a tool used by scientists worldwide. In 2007, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Mario Capecchi and Sir Martin Evans, for the discovery of principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells.