Pressmeddelande 2007-02-13.

Uppsala University’s Honorary Doctorates in Commemoration of Linnaeus

Uppsala University announces selected Honorary Doctors commemorating Carl Linnaeus within all faculties. They will receive their honorary degrees in conjunction with the Linnaeus Celebrations this spring.

Uppsala University, the oldest university in the Nordic countries, established in 1477, counts among its most famous scientists the botanist and physician Carolus Linnaeus, born in 1707. In connection with the Tercentenary of the birth of Linnaeus, all of the University’s faculties have decided to invite a number of special honorary doctors to this spring’s Conferment Ceremonies in May, as part of the Linnaeus Festival in Uppsala. This underscores the comprehensiveness and diversity of the University, in that disparate disciplines celebrate the memory of Linnaeus by adjoining prominent new honorary doctors to their research community, especially as part of the festivities. Together with this year’s jubilee doctors (doctors whose degrees were conferred fifty years ago) and this spring’s newly examined doctors, they will be receiving their doctoral insignia at the May Conferment.

Now all faculties have singled out their honorary doctors for the Linnaeus Conferment—there may be one or two more—and Vice-Chancellor Anders Hallberg, joined by the faculty deans, has invited them to the Tercentenary Week and the Spring Conferment.

“It is truly an honor to welcome so many prominent individuals to our University during the Linnaeus Tercentenary this spring,” says Vice-Chancellor Anders Hallberg.

The Spring Conferment will take place on Saturday, May 26, 2007, as part of the high point of Linnaeus Year in Uppsala, the Festival Week of May 20–27.

More about Linnaeus: http://www.uu.se/linne2007/

Below are the Linnaeus honorary doctors invited thus far, by faculty:

Faculty of Theology:

Cardinal Walter Kasper, Rome, is one of the world’s most highly acclaimed theologians. His academic theological work has been of great relevance to the self-understanding of churches and religious communities. As a scholar and church leader, Kasper has also contributed to efforts to promote unity and reconciliation in the world, for instance, in the ecumenical dialogs between Lutherans and Catholics and in talks between Jews and Christians. Born in Germany, Walter Kasper took his doctorate in 1961 and was appointed professor at the University of Münster in 1964 and at Tübingen in 1970. In 1989 he was ordained as bishop of Rottenburg-Stuttgart and was summoned to Rome by Pope John Paul II in 1999 as secretary to the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. He was appointed its president in 2001. That same year he was also elevated to cardinal.
Host: Dean Sven-Erik Brodd, phone: +46 18-471 26 97; Sven-Erik.Brodd@teol.uu.se

Faculty of Law:

Professor Christian von Bar has held a chair at the University of Osnabrück, Germany, since 1981 in the subjects of civil law, European private law, international private law, and comparative law. He is being honored for “his outstanding scholarly oeuvre in several fields of law and for unparalleled initiatives to promote legal cooperation in Europe. He has organized and led an incredibly demanding joint effort regarding a European Civil Code. The project, which comprises virtually all property law, will be a significant model for the further integration of European civil law in the future and constitutes by all measures a compelling contribution to comparative scholarship.”
Host: Dean Maarit Jänterä-Jareborg, phone: +46 18-471 26 28; Maarit.Jantera-Jareborg@jur.uu.se

Faculty of Medicine:

Professor James Watson is one of the best-known and most respected scientists of the twentieth century and one of the discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule. He is also the author of the best-selling book The Double Helix, which describes the discovery of the DNA spiral. Watson graduated in zoology from the University of Chicago in 1947 and took his doctorate at Indiana University in 1950. He met Francis Crick at Cambridge. Together they proposed the helix structure for DNA, publishing it in Nature in 1953. The two of them, together with Maurice Wilkins, were awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1962. James Watson led the Human Genome Project at the National Institutes of Health between 1988 and 1992. He has also participated in the public debate on genetically modified products. At present he is head of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Cold Spring Harbor, New York.
Host: Vice-Rector Ulf Pettersson, phone: +46 18-471 45 04; cell phone: +46 70-425 04 97; Ulf.Pettersson@genpat.uu.se

Professor Robert A. Weinberg of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is one the most prominent tumor biologists of our time. His work has been absolutely crucial to our understanding of the mechanisms that lead to the appearance and growth of cancer tumors and the formation of metastases. The entire research field was transformed by his 1982 discovery that the malignant property of human bladder cancer cells could be transmitted to normal mouse cells via isolated DNA. This signaled the start of a new field that led to unparalleled advances in research into tumor biology. Since then he has continued to be highly productive, making new discoveries of great significance. Among other things, he showed that a perfectly normal human cell can be transformed into a malignant variant through a few genetic changes. Robert A. Weinberg has also recently published, as sole author, a text book in the subject that will be the standard work in the field for many years to come. Just as Linnaeus’ work led the systematization of the plant kingdom, Weinberg’s research has led to an understanding of the system of genes involved in the genesis of cancer.
Host: Professor Bengt Westermark; phone: +46 18-611 38 21; cell phone: +46 70-818 18 44; Bengt.Westermark@genpat.uu.se

Faculty of Pharmacy
Bengt Samuelsson, professor emeritus at the Karolinska Institute and former chair of the Nobel Foundation, was born in Halmstad and studied at Lund and the Karolinska Institute, where he took his doctorate in 1960. Bengt Samuelsson was appointed professor of medicinal chemistry at the College of Veterinary Medicine in Stockholm in 1967, and of medicinal and physiological chemistry at KI in 1973, where he also became dean of the Faculty of Medicine in 1978 and vice-chancellor from 1983 to 1995. Together with Sir John Vance and Professor Sune Bergström, he was awarded the 1982 Nobel Prize for Medicine for his epoch-making studies of prostaglandins, hormones that occur in the body and are released when pain is experienced, and leukotrines (inflammation mediators in asthma and allergies).
Host: Professor Ernst Oliw, phone: +46 18-471 44 55; cell phone: +46 70-955 72 69; Ernst.Oliw@farmbio.uu.se

Faculty of History and Philosophy:

Doctor Lisbet Rausing, intellectual historian, London, was born in Lund but was educated primarily at UC Berkeley and Harvard in the U.S. In 1999 she took her doctorate at Harvard, with a dissertation on Linnaeus’ economic thinking in which she shows how consciously he promulgated the idea of the placing the resources and findings of science at the service of society. The thesis is the first in-depth study of the connection between economy and science in one the leading figures of the Enlightenment and is an outstanding contribution to the intellectual history of the eighteenth century. Since then she has published a number of studies on Linnaeus and the Enlightenment, including work on Linnaeus and scientific journeys, and on science and mineralogy in the Baltic region. Alongside her scholarly efforts, Lisbet Rausing has made major contributions as a philanthropist, donating considerable sums to charity and research. Among other things, she has endowed chairs at Harvard, Cambridge, Imperial College in London, and Uppsala University, thereby launching significant initiatives to promote her own discipline, intellectual history.
Host: Professor Karin Johannisson, phone: +46 18-471 15 81; Karin.Johannisson@idehist.uu.se

Faculty of Languages:

Professor Noam Chomsky took his doctorate in 1955, with a dissertation on formal grammar that laid the foundation for his groundbreaking work in linguistics. Since then he has been at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as professor since 1961, and has fundamentally transformed the methods and theory of the subject of linguistics. By opposing explanations of language based on behaviorist psychology and emphasizing instead the innateness of the basic components of grammar as unique to the human species, his rejuvenation of linguistics constituted a paradigm shift. Chomsky’s work with formal grammar also established the research field of mathematical linguistics, which became the foundation of a major component in modern computational science. Few scholars have dominated their research fields the way Chomsky has, and as a leftist-oriented critic of U.S. foreign policy he has also attained a considerable reputation outside academic circles, standing out as one of the most outreaching and truly creative humanists in history.
Host: Dean Anna Sågvall Hein, phone: +46 18-471 14 12; cell phone: +46 70-425 05 44; Anna.Sagvall_Hein@lingfil.uu.se

Faculty of Social Sciences:

Doctor Kofi Annan, secretary-general of the U.N. from 1996 to December 31, 2006, and recipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize for Peace, was born in Ghana, where he started his studies before continuing in the U.S, taking a master’s degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was then already in the employ of WHO in Geneva. He has had a number of U.N. assignments, including peace-keeping operations, and in 1987 was appointed deputy secretary-general for Human Resources Management and Security Coordinator. Kofi Annan has stressed human rights more than any other secretary-general. Among the foremost measures he took during his two terms is the reformation of the U.N. system, to which the Department of Peace and Conflict Research contributed, in the form of proposals and material on conflict development. During his time as secretary-general he visited Uppsala University, once as the 2001 Dag Hammarskjöld Lecturer.
Host: Professor Peter Wallensteen, phone: +46 18-471 23 52; Peter.Wallensteen@pcr.uu.se

Elinor Ostrom, professor of political science at Indiana University, is one of the world’s foremost social scientists and has contributed first-class theory to the disciplinary borderland between political science and economic sciences. Her theory of how the commonage should be governed, where the key concept is trust, is fundamental in several social sciences. It can be used, for example, to describe the survival of the welfare state with a social welfare system and a tax system that are not improperly used. Without cooperation and trust, on the other hand, the system works poorly, according to this theory. Her most important contribution, however, is in the application of the theory in the sphere of the environment, among others, such as what happens when fish stocks are depleted by excessive fishing. When some recommend governmental control and others private initiative, Elinor Ostrom is skeptical to both, stressing instead that change must come from within the industry itself. She has studied many successful and unsuccessful cooperative efforts around the world, with the aim of identifying what factors are beneficial and detrimental to results. Clear regulations and clear responsibility, effective mechanisms for conflict resolution, and phased objectives are beneficial, whereas excessive numbers of users, heterogeneous groups, and poverty all hamper collaboration. In 1999 Elinor Ostrom was the recipient of the Skytte Prize at Uppsala University.
Host: Professor Leif Lewin, phone: +46 18-471 34 12; Leif.Lewin@statsvet.uu.se

Faculty of Educational Sciences:

Douglas Roberts, Professor emeritus at the University of Calgary, Canada, took his doctorate in 1965, with a dissertation partly based on a detailed qualitative analysis of text books and classroom dialogs, a method that was extremely uncommon at the time. Since then he has developed research methodology and teaching methodology for the learning of science. He has also developed new curricula for science that have been disseminated all across Canada. Douglas Roberts started his career as a science teacher and experienced that the launch of Sputnik brought great confusion to the teaching of science in the U.S., which led to efforts to train teachers and create new teaching materials. Roberts struggled with this material and a curriculum that paid attention only to those students planning a career in science. This was the springboard for his entire research career, which made him the world leader in the field.
Host: Professor Leif Östman, phone: +46 18-471 23 97; Leif.Ostman@did.uu.se

Professor Gaalen Erickson, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, is one of two main speakers at a conference on the didactics of science at Uppsala University during the Linnaeus Tercentenary Year. He has been a leading scholar in this field of knowledge for the past 25 years. His special contribution has been insights into how students understand science. He has also developed course material and strategies for teachers and supervised many younger researchers all over the world. Erickson’s dissertation, where he showed that children construct knowledge by understanding the world around them and that by the age of ten they have acquired a general perspective, laid the groundwork for an entirely new perspective on learning. Since then he has developed theories on how scientific concepts such as temperature and force can be explored by students, how instruction can be adapted to the students’ increasing levels of knowledge, and how teachers learn to teach. In recent times he has also developed collaboration with scholars in China and Thailand.
Host: Professor Cedric Linder, phone: +46 18-471 35 39; cell phone: +46 70-425 05 84; Cedric.Linder@fysik.uu.se

Faculty of Science and Technology¬:

Sir David Attenborough is unquestionably one of the most well-known and widely travelled individuals of our time. Through his many thoroughly researched and pedagogically presented TV series, Sir David has done invaluable work to promote the natural sciences among the general public. Like a latter-day disciple of Linnaeus, he has travelled to all corners of the world and then shared his experiences. Sir David’s achievements have been dedicated to Linnaeus’s maxim ”Omnia mirari etiam tritissima: Find wonder in all things, even the most commonplace” and with unceasing enthusiasm and curiosity he has carried out his work in the service of science at large.
Host: Professor Per Ahlberg, phone: +46 18 471 26 41, Per.Ahlberg@ebc.uu.se

Dr Jane Goodall, DBE, holds a PhD in ethology from Cambridge University, UK. In 1960, encouraged by the famous paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey, she started a field project with the aim of elucidating the life and behaviour of a population of free-living chimpanzees at Gombe on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, now in Tanzania. This project has become a model and is still continuing, now with scores of participants from numerous countries. Her discoveries have erased the borderline between primatology and anthropology. Many parallels were discovered between the social behaviour of chimpanzees and that of humans, and new light was thrown on the evolution of the psyche of the human species. Chimpanzees are "political animals" that form and split alliances, manufacture tools, shape long-lasting personal relationships and possess special reconciliation behaviours with the function of preventing serious conflict within the flock and keeping it fit for fight. In recent years, Jane Goodall has devoted her time to international wildlife conservation and humanitarian organisations. In addition, she has written a number of best-selling books on her research at Gombe.
Host: Professor Staffan Ulfstrand; +46 18-471 26 75; Staffan.Ulfstrand@ebc.uu.se

Professor Michel Mayor is professor of astronomy at the University of Geneva and the discoverer of many planets outside the solar system. He took his doctorate at the observatory in Geneva in 1971 and has worked since then at observatories in Cambridge, ESO in Chile, and Hawaii. In 1995 a research team directed by Mayor discovered the first planet outside the solar system, circling around a sun-like star, 51 Pegasi. He also developed new high-precision techniques for measuring variations in velocity, which ultimately led to fantastic scientific breakthroughs. A whole new generation of astronomical instruments based on this technology were installed in the observatory in Chile, leading to the discovery of nearly half of the 208 planets outside the solar system that we know of today. The great differences that became apparent between our solar system and others have also resulted in extensive changes in theoretical models.
Host: Professor Nikolai Piskunov, phone: +46 18-471 59 58; Nikolai.Piskunov@astro.uu.se

Anneli Waara