Gregory Doran, Chief Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), was described by the Sunday Times as “one of the great Shakespearians of his generation”. Gregory Doran is Notable productions include Macbeth (1999) starring Antony Sher, filmed for Channel 4 and described as “the best production since the Trevor Nunn version” by The Independent, and Hamlet (2008), starring David Tennant and Patrick Stewart, also filmed for television and called ‘mesmerising’ by Time Out. Formerly associate director at Nottingham Playhouse, he joined the acting company of the RSC in 1987. Since 1996 he has directed more than half the canon of Shakespeare’s plays for the RSC. His work includes: Twelfth Night, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Antony and Cleopatra and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He will receive his honorary degree at the ceremony on July 12th at 11am.
Kenneth Alan Taylor became a professional actor at the age of 18 and worked in subsidised repertory theatre all over the UK. In 1974 he was appointed Director of Nottingham Playhouse where he introduced traditional family pantomime – this year he will write and direct his 28th consecutive pantomime at the Playhouse. Kenneth has appeared at Nottingham Lakeside Theatre where he took the role of Krapp in Krapp’s Last Tape, which was the first in-house production at Lakeside and was twice revived and toured the UK, as well as visiting Luxembourg. He also appeared at Lakeside in A Different Way Home, A Visit from Miss Protheroe and Twinkle Little Star, which also toured. Kenneth has made numerous television and radio appearances, including Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Brookside, House of Cards, Hetty Wainthrop, Last of the Summer Wine and Cold Feet. He will receive his honorary degree at the ceremony on July 12th at 3pm.
Jon McGregor was born in 1976 and graduated from the University of Bradford in 1998 with a BSc in Media Technology. Since moving to Nottingham in 1999, he has built a career as a novelist and short story writer, publishing If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things (2002), So Many Ways To Begin (2006), and Even The Dogs (2010), which between them have won the Somerset Maugham Award and been twice longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. He has also written for the Guardian, the Observer, The Times, the New York Times, and Granta Magazine. He was a co-founder, in 2005, of the Nottingham Writers' Studio, and has been a writer-in-residence with the British Antarctic Survey, the Santa Maddalena Foundation, and, through the First Story organisation, Ellis Guilford School in Nottingham. In 2011 he was appointed an Honorary Lecturer in the University of Nottingham’s School of English Studies. He will receive his honorary degree at the ceremony on July 13th at 11am.
Christine Chinkin is Professor in International Law at the London School of Economics, William C Cook Global Law Professor at the University of Michigan Law School, and an academic member of Matrix Chambers. She has degrees from the Universities of London, Yale and Sydney and has held full-time academic posts in the United Kingdom, United States of America, Singapore and Australia. Professor Chinkin's main interests are in public international law, especially international human rights law, with emphasis on the international protection of women's rights. She has been a consultant to the Asian Development Bank, the UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights, the UN Division for the Advancement of Women and UNIFEM. She was scientific expert to the Ad Hoc Committee of the Council of Europe on the drafting of the 2011 Convention on Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, a Member of the UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict 2009 and is a member of the Kosovo Human Rights Advisory Panel. She will receive her honorary degree at the ceremony on July 13th at 3pm.
Stephen Lowe has worked as an actor, director, and playwright. He lives in Nottingham and is artistic director of the experimental theatre company Meeting Ground. His plays have been performed throughout the world, including four premieres at London’s Royal Court, others at the Royal Shakespeare Company, and regional reps including for Nottingham Playhouse (the award-winning Touched) and the fantasy on Brian Clough (Old Big ‘Ead in the Spirit of the Man). His work for the screen includes two films set in Nottingham – Ice Dance starring Warren Clarke and Fleabites with Nigel Hawthorne – the BBC2 adaptation of Stendhal’s Scarlet and Black starring Ewan McGregor and Rachel Weisz, the four-part BBC2 psycho-thriller Tell-Tale Hearts, and more than 100 episodes of Coronation Street. His play on DH Lawrence, Empty Bed Blues, was premiered at Lakeside, where he will open his latest play Séance on a Sunday Afternoon this October. His musical version of his own Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists, set in apartheid South Africa, starts its world tour in 2012. He will receive his honorary degree at the ceremony on July 14th at 11am.
Roger Aubrook was a founder member of Experian, the Nottingham-based information services company. When he retired in 2007, he was the global leader for Experian’s Decision Analytics Division and a member of Experian’s Global Board. His Division developed and delivered Experian’s credit scoring, fraud detection, consultancy and the associated software. He began his career in 1972 in the Operational Research Department of the Mail Order subsidiary of GUS in Manchester, moving to CCN (now Experian) in 1983 to create the first UK-based credit-scoring consultancy. This unique technology lay at the heart of Experian’s Risk Management Services and provided the platform for Decision Analytics to expand overseas. From a small team of mathematicians in 1983 his Division grew to over a thousand, many recruited from The University of Nottingham. Headquartered in Nottingham, the team is distributed across 25 countries and supplies services to more than 60 countries. He will receive his honorary degree at the ceremony on July 14th at 3pm.
Mike McNamara was born and brought up in a small village in Durham and won a National Coal Board (NCB) scholarship to read Politics at Nottingham between 1968-1971. Returning to the NCB in 1972 as a graduate trainee, Mike then spent the next 25 years in the UK coal mining industry, living and working in most coalfields and across many business functions. In 1996, after 30 years in the coal industry, Mike joined and later led a management consultancy company in Nottingham, specialising in business restructuring, strategy renewal and senior staff recruitment services. In 1999 he became a member of Council, the governing body of The University of Nottingham, and in 2004 was elected as Vice-President until his retirement in 2010. He now chairs the University's local pension scheme CPAS. Over the past three years Mike, his wife Freda, their family and many friends (including the University of Nottingham and its students) have raised almost £100,000 for Cardiac Risk in the Young following the untimely death of their younger son Simon from Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome in 2008. Mike will receive his honorary degree at the ceremony on July 15th at 11am.
John Holmes graduated from Nottingham with an honours degree in Mining Engineering in 1968, and joined the BBC in 1969. His career began at the home of British radio, Broadcasting House in London, working alongside household names like Humphrey Lyttelton and Status Quo. He also did a spell in Birmingham on spot effects for The Archers. He worked at BBC Radio Nottingham as a sports reporter in the halcyon days of the late 1970s – when Forest were winning European Cups under Clough and Taylor, Rice and Hadlee were playing cricket for Nottinghamshire, and Torvill and Dean were conquering the world. He also spent some time in Bristol producing Down Your Way, Any Questions and alongside Jonathan Dimbleby, launching Any Answers as a phone-in. His TV work began on ‘Look! Hear!’ a youth show with Toyah Wilcox. He also presented one of the BBC’s first consumer series, BBC2’s Inside Information. John is now back at Radio Nottingham presenting The Sunday Show from 9am to midday. He is also working on a documentary, to be filmed at Rampton Top Security Hospital this summer. He is also a founder and Chairman of the national skin cancer charity, SKCIN. John will receive his honorary degree at the ceremony on July 15th at 3pm.
John Rishton was appointed to the Board of Rolls-Royce as a Non-Executive Director in 2007. He served as Chairman of the Audit Committee and a member of the Ethics and Nominations Committees until September 30, 2010, when the Board announced that he had been appointed to succeed Sir John Rose as Chief Executive Officer. He took up that role on March 31, 2011. Prior to joining Rolls-Royce, John was Chief Executive Officer of Royal Ahold. He is a Nottingham graduate and began his career in 1979 at Ford Motor Company, holding a variety of positions both in the UK and in Europe. In 1994, he joined British Airways Plc where he was Chief Financial Officer from 2001 to 2005. John is a former Non-Executive Director of Allied Domecq. He will receive his honorary degree at the ceremony on July 18th at 11am.
Peter Jarvis is Emeritus Professor of Continuing Education at the University of Surrey, which he joined in 1976. He has been studying adult education and lifelong learning for many years and has published many books and papers on the subject, some of which have been translated into a number of different languages and some have won international prizes. He has just completed editing The Routledge International Handbook on Learning, a companion volume to The Routledge International Handbook on Lifelong Learning published in 2009. He is also founding editor of The International Journal of Lifelong Education – now in its 30th year. Throughout its 30-year life the journal has always had a member of the adult education staff of The University of Nottingham as a co-editor. He has been honorary and guest professor at many universities, including Nottingham, Pecs University in Hungary and Tianjin Radio and Television University in China. He is a member of the American Hall of Fame for Adult and Continuing Education, an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He will receive his honorary degree at the ceremony on July 19th at 3pm.
Robert Mair CBE is Professor of Geotechnical Engineering and Head of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cambridge University. He is also Master of Jesus College and Senior Vice-President of the Royal Academy of Engineering. Prior to his appointment at Cambridge in 1998 he spent 27 years in industry. Throughout his career he has specialised principally in underground construction, providing advice on projects worldwide involving soft ground tunnelling, retaining structures, deep excavations and foundations. In addition to leading a research group at Cambridge, he is an active consultant on tunnelling projects worldwide. He has been responsible for geotechnical aspects of many projects for London Underground. He is a member of the Engineering Expert Panel for the Crossrail Project and gave evidence on the project to the House of Lords Select Committee. Recent international projects on which he has provided advice have included tunnels in the cities of Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bologna, Florence, Rome and Warsaw. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2007, and awarded the CBE for services to Engineering in the 2010 New Year Honours. He will receive his honorary degree at the ceremony on July 20th at 11am.
Matthew Bannister is a broadcaster and former senior executive at the BBC. He currently presents Radio 4’s obituary programme ‘Last Word’ and the daily human interest programme ‘Outlook’ on the BBC World Service. After reading law at The University of Nottingham, he began his career at BBC Radio Nottingham where he presented the breakfast show. During the 1980s he was a presenter of Radio 1’s Newsbeat programme and then Head of News and Talk at London’s Capital Radio. Matthew’s BBC management career began in 1989 when he re-launched the BBC’s London radio station as GLR, where he was first associated with Chris Evans, Chris Morris, Danny Baker and Emma Freud. All four presenters later joined him when he became Controller of BBC Radio 1 in 1993 and began the controversial, but ultimately successful, re-positioning of the station to cater for a younger audience. As Director of BBC Radio from 1996, he was responsible for the BBC’s national radio strategy and as Chief Executive of BBC Production from 1999, he led all the corporation’s television, radio and online staff in England. He was a candidate for the job of Director General of the BBC, but lost out to Greg Dyke – who appointed him as the BBC’s first board level Director of Marketing and Communication. At the end of the year 2000, Matthew decided to leave management and return to his first love, radio broadcasting. He is a Fellow of the Radio Academy. Matthew will receive his honorary degree at the ceremony on July 20th at 3pm.
Nigel Shadbolt is Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Southampton. He joined the Department of Psychology at Nottingham in 1983, where he established and led a vibrant AI (artificial intelligence) group. In 1992 he became the Allan Standen Professor of Intelligent Systems, before moving to Southampton’s School of Electronics and Computer Science in 2000. At Southampton he researches the next generation of the World Wide Web and leads the Web and Internet Science Group. In 2009 the Prime Minister appointed him and Sir Tim Berners-Lee as Information Advisors to the UK Government to transform access to Public Sector Information. This work led to the highly acclaimed data.gov.uk site that now provides a portal to over 7,000 datasets. In 2010 the Coalition Government appointed him to the UK Public Sector Transparency Board that oversees the continuing release of Government data. He also advises Government in a number of other roles and was one of the originators of the interdisciplinary field of Web Science. He was overall series consultant to the BBC’s landmark documentary series The Virtual Revolution. In its 50th Anniversary year 2006-2007, Nigel was President of the British Computer Society. He is a Fellow of both the Royal Academy of Engineering and the British Computer Society. Nigel will receive his honorary degree at the ceremony on July 21st at 11am.
Sir Stephen Moss has spent his entire career in the NHS, mainly in acute and teaching hospitals. After qualifying in both general and ophthalmic nursing he went on to train in intensive care where he spent the bulk of his clinical practice. He has held senior nursing posts in Birmingham, Derby and latterly, Nottingham, where he spent 20 years as Director of Nursing at Queens Medical Centre before taking on the role of Chief Executive for the last two years, prior to his early retirement. During his time in Nottingham, Sir Stephen was appointed by the Secretary of State for Health as a Commissioner on the Board of the Commission for Health Improvement. He was Vice-Chairman of the Committee responsible for developing and establishing the first ever reviews of clinical governance throughout England and Wales. Sir Stephen was Chairman of the Nurse Directors Association for five years and, in this role, provided advice to the Secretary of State on nursing and health policy. In August 2009, Sir Stephen was asked to take on the role of Chairman at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, following the highly critical investigation by the Healthcare Commission. Sir Stephen will receive his honorary degree at the ceremony on July 21st at 3pm.
David Noakes is Emeritus Professor of the Royal Veterinary College. He entered the Royal Veterinary College in 1955 and graduated in 1960 with BVetMed (honours). After working in mixed practice as an assistant in Coventry from 1961 to 1963, he joined Unilever Research at Colworth House, Bedfordshire as a research scientist in a physiology/biochemistry/metabolism department, working on the physiology of the neonatal pig and calf in relation to gastrointestinal disease. In 1971 he was appointed Lecturer in Veterinary Obstetrics and Reproduction in the Department of Surgery and Obstetrics at the Royal Veterinary College, and was awarded an external PhD from the University of London the following year. He was promoted to Reader in 1975 and Professor of Veterinary Obstetrics and Diseases of Reproduction in 1977. He has published more than 130 full research papers in refereed journals, and was a visiting professor at veterinary schools in ten countries. He retired in November 2002. Professor Noakes was Vice–Principal of the Royal Veterinary College from 1991 to 1996. He was appointed Special Professor of Veterinary Reproduction at the University of Nottingham in 2005, and made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Veterinary College last year. He will receive his honorary degree at the ceremony on July 22nd at 11am.
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Notes to editors: The University of Nottingham, described by The Sunday Times University Guide 2011 as ‘the embodiment of the modern international university’, has award-winning campuses in the United Kingdom, China and Malaysia. It is ranked in the UK's Top 10 and the World's Top 75 universities by the Shanghai Jiao Tong (SJTU) and the QS World University Rankings. It was named ‘Europe’s greenest university’ in the UI GreenMetric World University Ranking, a league table of the world’s most environmentally-friendly higher education institutions, which ranked Nottingham second in the world overall.
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