PSD to Award Honorary Degrees

Every year, the Division of Physical Sciences nominates individuals to be presented with an honorary degree from the University of Chicago. By long tradition, honorary degrees are conferred only for outstanding contributions to scholarship or to scientific research.

The degree is awarded to persons whose contributions have not yet been extensively recognized by the receipt of major awards or honorary degrees, although many do go on to receive such accolades. For example, Stephen Hawking received an honorary degree from Chicago in 1981. Recipients of the 2003 Doctor of Science degrees are Persi Diaconis from Stanford University, who has been described as "one of the most influential figures in the development of modern probability theory"; Ryoji Noyori from Nagoya University for his research in organometallic chemistry; and Patrick Thaddeus from Harvard University for his work in molecular astrophysics, a new interdisciplinary field that unifies astronomy and chemistry.

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