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Back row, left to right: Sir Alan Wilson, Vice-Chancellor, Lord Bragg of Wigton, Melvyn Bragg, Chancellor, David Ansbro, Pro-Chancellor, a Student, who had an official function in the degrees ceremony. Front row, left to right: Sir Roderic Lyne, Ambassador to Russia, Honorary Doctor of Laws, Dame Judi Dench, Honorary Doctor of Letters, Sir Paul Nurse, Nobel prize in physiology/medicine, Honorary Doctor of Science
Thanks to
Stefan for these Photos
Scan of a
Notecard from the "York Against Cancer" Charity
Organization
Thanks to Delda W. for sending this to me
Judith Olivia Dench Presentation address by Professor Joyce Hill Chancellor, Dame Judi began her career with our leading companies: the Old Vic, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the Royal National Theatre. She has also appeared in many commercial productions in the West End; she is a familiar figure in television series and plays; and, as if this were not enough, she has made her mark as a director. The itemisation of her achievements is an impossible task, for they are far too many to list. The same is true of her achievements in film, where the roll-call for the past six or seven years would be a roll-call of the outstanding films - and outstanding performances - of our time. Her role in Iris can serve as an examplar for them all: for it she has received no fewer than three Best Actress awards: from the Critics Circle, the Variety Club and BAFTA. Yet there are many other performances, sometimes in the lead and sometimes in a supporting role, for which she has received multiple awards in the international arena. She has been recognised too in ways which transcend particular performances: she became a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1988, and as we ushered in the new millennium she was recognised by the York Millennium Person Award, the Benjamin Franklyn Medal from the Royal Society of Arts and, across the Atlantic, by the Walpole Medal for Excellence. It is no wonder that, in a recent international award ceremony, she was referred to as a 'national treasure' - a phrase which recognises her remarkable distinction, but which also, I think, captures the warm affection in which she is held. Chancellor, it is in that spirit of commonly shared affection as well as celebration that I have the pleasure to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, Judith Olivia Dench.
Leeds University Press Release 12
July 2002 She will be joined on Wednesday 17 July by Nobel laureate and cancer research pioneer Sir Paul Nurse, UK ambassador to Russia Sir Roderic Lyne and gold-medal winning long jumper Fiona May. The honorary degrees will be conferred by University Chancellor Melvyn Bragg. Dame Judi Dench was born in York, and both her parents had a great love of the theatre. They took her to her first performance when she was four, and she laughed so hard they feared she would make herself ill, and so left early, but returned the following night to see the whole show. Her own passion for the theatre first led Judi Dench to try for a career in theatre design, but believing she lacked the necessary vision, she opted to follow her brother Jeffery into acting. She has won an Oscar, Baftas, and numerous other awards, and won the hearts of the UK public through her many roles on stage, screen and television. She will be honoured at Leeds as an honorary Doctor of Letters for her lifelong dedication to the arts. The Sun calls him the 'David Beckham of science', and the BBC thinks he looks like Robin Williams, calling Sir Paul Nurse 'an unconventional Nobel Laureate'. He was the first of his family to attend university, his interest in science having been awakened by the gift of a telescope at the age of eight. He loves big motorbikes, astronomy and gliding, and is interim chief executive of Cancer Research UK. His 2001 Nobel prize in physiology/medicine was awarded - jointly with Tim Hunt and Leland Hartwell - for finding the mechanism that controls cell division in most living organisms, a discovery which radically altered our understanding of how cancer develops, opening new opportunities for cancer treatments. Sir Paul Nurse's acceptance of the honorary degree of Doctor of Science will mean that, in three of the last four years, the University has awarded honorary degrees to Nobel prize winners: John Walker (1997 Nobel prize for chemistry) was made a Doctor of Science in 1999 and Seamus Heaney (1995 Nobel prize for literature) Doctor of Literature in 2001. While still an undergraduate at the University of Leeds (Trinity & All Saints College), Fiona May was already excelling in athletics, winning bronze in the 1990 Commonwealth Games in her first year and competing in the Olympics in her final year. She now competes for Italy, having moved to that country following her marriage to Italian pole-vaulter and long-jumper Gianni Iapichino - also her coach - and out of frustration with funding and facilities in the UK. Now Italy's most popular female athlete, she has won a gold for them in the 1995 and 2001 World Athletics, and silver in the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games. She is expecting her first child as we go to press and will be honoured by the University as a Doctor of Laws. The conferment of Sir Roderic Lyne's honorary degree will also be a family affair, as his youngest daughter Sasha graduates from the University with a BA in English the same day. Roderic Lyne is also a Leeds graduate, having gained his BA in history in 1970. He has followed a distinguished diplomatic and civil service career, serving as private secretary to John Major during his term as prime minister from 1993-96, holding Foreign Office posts in Moscow in the 1970s and 80s, and also in Senegal and New York. From 1997 to 2000 he served in Geneva as the Ambassador to the United Nations office, the WTO and other international organisations there, before returning two years ago to Moscow as the British Ambassador to the Russian Federation. Sir Roderic Lyne will be awarded a Doctor of Laws.
Here's a bit of trivia ...
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