Graduation Ceremonies 12, 25, 26, 27 and 28 July 2018 The honorary Graduands The Honorary Graduands Every year the University of Professor Dame Anne M Johnson MD, FMedSci, FFPH, FRCP, FRCGP York confers the honorary Dame Anne Johnson is Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at University College London (UCL). After degree of Doctor of the training in medicine at the Universities of Cambridge and University honoris causa Newcastle, she specialised in Epidemiology and Public on distinguished people. Health. For over 30 years, she has worked in research on the epidemiology and prevention of HIV and sexually The recipients come from transmitted infections as well as other infectious diseases many walks of life and all such as influenza, Ebola, and antimicrobial resistance. have made a significant She co-directed the Medical Research Council UK Centre for Co-ordinating Epidemiological Studies of HIV and contribution to society. AIDS from 1985 until 1999 and was principal investigator on the National Survey Honorary graduands are of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal), through which she maps the extent of selected from nominations the HIV epidemic and tracks changes in behaviour over time. She co-founded UCL’s Institute for Global Health and has advised many by members of the University national and international science organisations. She is currently Vice- and very often have links with President International of the Academy of Medical Sciences and a Governor of departments or alumni. the Wellcome Trust. Professor Monica McWilliams Monica McWilliams was a delegate to the multi-party peace negotiations leading to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. She co-founded the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition and was elected to the Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly from 1998 to 2003. Monica chaired the sub-committee on human rights and was subsequently appointed as Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and helped to draft the advice on a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland. She is currently appointed to the four-person Independent Reporting Commission on the disbandment of paramilitary organisations set up by the British and Irish governments and the Northern Ireland Executive. Monica is Emeritus Professor at Ulster University and has recently completed a large-scale research project on the impact of conflict on women’s lives spanning the past 25 years. Left: York’s medieval Minster in the heart of the city is a stunning backdrop for major performances by the University Choir and Symphony Orchestra Graduation Ceremonies 12, 25, 26, 27 and 28 July 2018 The honorary Graduands Dr Stephen Cleobury CBE Professor Dame Athene Donald DBE FRS Stephen Cleobury has been Director Dame Athene Donald is Professor of of Music at King’s College, Cambridge, Experimental Physics at the University since 1982. His work there has brought of Cambridge and Master of Churchill him into fruitful relationships with College, Cambridge. leading orchestras and soloists. Her research is in the field of soft At King’s he has sought to enhance matter and physics at the interface of the reputation of the world-famous Grover Paul biology and she has published over Choir, broadening its repertoire, 250 papers in these fields. She is a commissioning new music and member of the Scientific Council of developing its activities in broadcasting, the European Research Council and a recording and touring. He nurtured generations of young former Trustee of the Science Museum. musicians throughout the University of Cambridge during his She was Director of the University of Cambridge’s Women many years as Conductor of the Cambridge Music Society. in Science, Engineering and Technology Initiative, and the Beyond Cambridge he is in demand as a conductor. From 1995 University’s first Gender Equality Champion. She also chaired to 2007 he was Chief Conductor of the BBC Singers and is now the Athena Forum, an organisation which provides oversight of Conductor Laureate. developments that seek to advance the career progression and He is an active organ recitalist. A past President of the Royal representation of women in science, technology, mathematics College of Organists and of the Incorporated Association of and medicine in UK higher education. Organists, he is currently President of the Friends of Cathedral As well as various prizes from the Institute of Physics and the Music and of the Herbert Howells Society. He was appointed Royal Society, she won the 2009 L’Oréal/Unesco Laureate for CBE in 2009. Europe award. Professor Alastair J Minnis Professor Helen M Blau Professor Alastair Minnis is one of University of York graduate Professor the leading professors of medieval Helen Blau is Director of the Baxter literature in the world. Since 2008 Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology at he has been Douglas Tracy Smith Stanford University. Her research Professor of English at Yale University, focuses on regenerative medicine. and has achieved international She is world-renowned for her work recognition for his work on literary on nuclear reprogramming and the criticism and the history of ideas, and demonstration of the plasticity of the on medieval philosophy and theology. differentiated state using cell fusion. He is the author of seven books and Her revolutionary studies provided over 70 articles, and the editor of 17 collections of essays. He the scientific underpinnings for the has been elected a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America, modern era of stem cell biology. as well as President of the New Chaucer Society. She is also internationally recognised for her discovery of Alastair was a professor in the Department of English at the regulators that rejuvenate muscle stem cell function and University of York from 1987 to 2000. During his time at York, identification of strategies for the treatment of muscle atrophy he was Director of the Centre for Medieval Studies and helped due to disease, injury or aging. to found the York Medieval Press which enjoys an international Helen served as President of the American Society for reputation as the publisher of outstanding monographs and Developmental Biology and President of the International books on medieval studies. Society of Differentiation, and as a member of the Harvard Board of Overseers. Her awards and honours include an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Nijmegen, Holland, and election to the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences. Graduation Ceremonies 12, 25, 26, 27 and 28 July 2018 The honorary Graduands Dr David Lawrence Sacks Gregory Doran Dr David Lawrence Sacks is one of the Gregory Doran is Artistic Director of world’s foremost experts in the field the Royal Shakespeare Company. He of leishmaniasis, a poverty-related joined the RSC in 1987 and directed parasitic disease. his first production in 1992, Derek Dr Sacks is Head of the Intracellular Walcott’s adaptation of Homer’s Parasite Biology Section at the Odyssey for The Other Place in Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, part Stratford-upon-Avon. He has directed Ellie Kurttz of the National Institute of Allergy and over two thirds of the canon, including Infectious Diseases, USA. His research All’s Well That Ends Well with Judi focuses on the vector biology and Dench, Macbeth with Antony Sher, immunology of leishmaniasis, including vaccine development. Hamlet with David Tennant and Patrick Stewart, and Julius Caesar set in contemporary Africa. He is one of the most influential figures in helping to develop the research base in leishmaniasis disease-endemics, notably To mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in 2016, in India. He was a founding investigator for a tropical medicine his productions of Richard II, Henry IV Parts I & II and Henry V research centre in India and leads a project funded by the undertook the RSC’s first major tour to China and Hong Kong. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to establish sandfly colonies He also directed Shakespeare Live! From the RSC which was in India. This will facilitate critical research on disease broadcast worldwide and received a BAFTA nomination for Best transmission in support of the national visceral leishmaniasis Live Event. elimination campaign. His work as an expert advisor for the Awards include the 2002 Olivier Award for Outstanding World Health Organisation Tropical Disease Research led to an Achievement of the Year and the 2012 Sam Wanamaker Award, influential vaccine development programme in Iran. recognising his work in increasing the understanding and enjoyment of Shakespeare. Gavin Esler Simon Stephens Gavin Esler, currently Chancellor of the University of Kent, is known for University of York graduate Simon his journalistic work on the wrongful Stephens is a playwright. For 20 years convictions of the so-called ‘Guildford his work has been widely translated and Four’ and ‘Maguire Seven’. Their stories produced throughout the world. eventually became the basis of the film, He has won several awards including In the Name of the Father. Olivier and Tony Awards for new Cummins Kevin Jeff Overs Esler became the BBC’s Chief North plays. His work ranges from the deeply America Correspondent, based in political, considering subjects such as Washington and covering the Bush and the 7/7 London bombings (Pornography) Clinton White House. Over the past two decades Gavin Esler or the possibility of school shootings has interviewed world leaders including Margaret Thatcher, in the UK (Punk Rock) to the more accessible. His most famous King Abdullah of Jordan and President Carter. play is his adaptation of Mark Haddon’s best-selling novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. In the arts and culture programmes he anchors for BBC World Service he has also interviewed writers and artists such He has written new English-language versions of masterpieces as Seamus Heaney, Angelina Jolie and Penelope Cruz, plus by Chekhov, Ibsen and Brecht, collaborated with the world’s numerous film-makers.