The University of Glasgow is set to award nine honorary degrees during the graduation ceremonies this summer. The list of nine graduands and their achievements are as follows:

Dr Allan Baxter (DSc):

Dr Allan Baxter, senior vice-president of drug discovery, GlaxoSmithKline, has an international profile in the pharmaceutical industry and is directly responsible for GlaxoSmithKline's six Centres of Excellence for Drug Discovery in Europe and the United States.

In 1980, Dr Baxter established GlaxoSmithKline's first Biochemistry Department. Subsequently, he held a series of key management roles including chairing the four therapeutic management comittees for cardiovascular, metabolic, gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases. He became director, Group Discovery, in 1998 before his current appointment as senior vice-president, drug discovery.

Dr Baxter is also a member of the advisory group for the Intermediary Technologies Industry in the Life Sciences.

Professor Dennis Bernstein (DEng):

Professor Dennis Bernstein is based at the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan where his teaching and reseach interests include all aerospace-related aspects of control theory and technology. To pursue applications-orientated control research, Professor Bernstein also founded the Noise, Vibration, and Motion Control Laboratory in Michigan.

His research into problems in linear, nonlinear and adaptive control, supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the National Science Foundation, USA, has been reported in more than 170 journal publications and 300 conference papers.

Professor Berstein is also currently a part-time visiting professor at Glasgow University and editor-in-chief of Control Systems Magazine.

Professor Ian Diamond (DLitt):

Chief Executive of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Professor Diamond was previously lecturer, professor, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Southampton.

His major interests as a distinguished statistician have included extensive work on the 2001 UK census, the delivery of healthcare in both the developed and developing world and local authority demography in Britain.

His research has included work with a number of government departments, notably the Office for National Statistics, the Department of Health, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Transport. Prior to becoming CEO of the ESRC he served on the council as chair of its Research Resources Board. He has also recently taken over chair of the Research Councils UK.

Iain Graham (DUniv) :

Iain Graham has led Graham Technology since its inception in 1986 to its current position as one of Scotland's leading IT companies. Now a multi-million pound firm, Graham Technologies employs 200 people worldwide from offices based in Scotland, America, Australia, Ireland and Indonesia. Scotland's largest and most successful privately-owned software company, it is currently undergoing a global expansion, setting up offices in Paris, Holland, South Africa and New Zealand.

Sir Francis Jacobs (LLD):

Sir Francis Jacobs has held the post of advocate general of the Court of Justice of the European Communities since 1988. Having achieved great distinction both in academic and professional life, he is considered one of the most eminent European lawyers of his generation.

Francis Jacobs has made a major contribution to scholarship not only in the field of European Community law, but also in the fields of human rights and criminal law. He has published major textbooks on the Court of Justice of the European Communities, the European Convention of Human Rights and Criminal Responsibility, as well as numerous highly-regarded articles in academic journals. He was the founding editor of the Yearbook of European Law and is currently a member of the editorial boards of ten academic journals, and the general editor of the Oxford European Community Law library.

Francis Jacobs was also appointed to the Privy Council in December 2005.

Professor Anthony Lever (DSc):

The work of Professor Tony Lever, former director of the Medical Research Council Blood Pressure Unit in Glasgow (1967-1994), has been internationally recognised for more than three decades. This acknowledgment has taken the form of multiple international lectures and awards, including the Merck Sharp & Dohme Award of the International Society of Hypertension, the Croonian Lecture of the Royal College of Physicians and the Pickering Lecture (British Hypertension Society).

Professor Lever and his team put Glasgow firmly on the map as a centre for excellence in hypertension and cardiovascular research. He has been a mentor to many current research leaders in Glasgow, Scotland, the UK, the US and Australia, and has shaped many aspects of modern cardiovascular research strategy world-wide.

Stella Marsden (DVMS):

Wildlife conservationist, Stella Marsden, has remained committed to the protection of animals since acquiring her first infant chimpanzee in 1969.

In 1999, Stella was appointed a member of the Golden Ark by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, in recognition of her work for the rehabilitation of chimpanzees and for the chimpanzee adoption scheme, which raised finance for her projects. Other fundraising projects have included a camp in The Gambia where low-volume, high-value visits could occur, allowing visitors to witness the chimps in their natural environment.

Her commitment extends beyond chimpanzees, having set up The Gambia Horse and Donkey Trust which helps local farmers improve the work capacity of their draught animals by significantly improving the animals' welfare. Already, using novel incentives such as the reward of Scottish football jerseys, the resulting improvement in husbandry has seen a 400% increase in village productivity.

She has also established a school sponsorship scheme in the local primary school where more than 150 children are sponsored to at least the end of primary schooling.

Stella was awarded an OBE in the 2006 New Years Honours List for services to wildlife conservation and to the local community in the Gambia.

Emeritus Professor Michael Samuels (DLitt) :

Michael Louis Samuels, who retired after 30 years service as Professor of English Language at Glasgow University in 1990, is one of the most distinguished English historical linguists of his generation.

His publications are amongst the most cited in the subject of English Language, two of his best known projects being the four volume Linguistic Atlas of Late Medieval English (LALME) and the Glasgow Historical Thesaurus of English. LALME has been compared in scope and detail to the Oxford English Dictionary. The Historical Thesaurus project is the first ever notional classification of the lexicon of any language over time.

Michael Samuels' impact on medieval English studies has been similarly immense. During the 1980s, he wrote a series of seminal articles on major authors (Chaucer, Gower, Langland), culminating in The English Chaucer (1989).

Sandy Stoddart (DLitt):

Sandy Stoddart is an acclaimed Paisley-based sculptor in heroic, monumental, or modern neo-classical styles.

His major works include friezes and decorative sculpture for the Entrance Hall of the Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace, a full size monument to David Hume situated on the High Street in Edinburgh, a heroic bust of Henry Moore bought by the National Galleries of Scotland, and The Biederlally, the satirical monument in defence of Councillor Pat Lally's famous 'Concert Hall Murals Decision'. He was also commissioned to create a bust of Lord Macfarlane, chief fundraiser of the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, which will be exhibited in the Art Gallery when it re-opens next month.

Sandy Stoddart was awarded the prestigious Arthur Ross Award of Classical America for Public Statuary in May 2001.

Kate Richardson (K.richardson@admin.gla.ac.uk)

Photographers are invited to attend the graduation ceremonies at which the individuals will receive their honorary degrees. There may also be an opportunity to photograph the honorary graduates after the ceremony. Photographers are asked to meet a University Media Relations Officer at the door to turret G in the University cloisters where they will be shown into the hall.

Individuals will receive their honorary degrees on the following dates:

Professor Ian Diamond: 29 June
The Right Honourable Francis Jacobs: 29 June
Emeritus Professor Michael Samuels: 30 June
Stella Marsden: 1 July
Dr Allan Baxter: 4 July
Professor Anthony Lever: 4 July
Iain Graham: 4 July
Sandy Stoddart: 5 July
Professor Dennis Bernstein: 6 July

Please let the University of Glasgow Media Relations Office know if you wish to attend the ceremony by phoning 0141 330 3535 or emailing K.richardson@admin.gla.ac.uk

First published: 28 June 2006