Graduation Sensation

The biggest academic celebration Dundee has witnessed starts this Thursday when 2,400 students graduate from the University of Dundee and eleven honorary graduates from space explorer Bonnie Dunbar to philanthropist pop star Bob Geldof are dubbed with the Dundee bonnet.

Students will graduate traditionally in the Caird Hall on Thursday 11 and Friday 12 July before moving on to the new graduation celebrations - Graduation Sensation in a tented village beside the Sensation Science Centre for the garden parties and a programme of public events establishing graduation as a festival for the whole City. As part of this programme professor Charles McKean will deliver a public lecture on the forgotten history of Dundee in the Sensation tented village on Thursday 12 July followed by a concert from the Dundee International Guitar Festival.

On Saturday 13 July, David Mach will deliver the annual Discovery lecture entitled Hell Bent reflecting on his art and his career. This is also a public lecture, is free and will take place at 12 noon in the Bonar Hall, University of Dundee.

Friday afternoon's graduation ceremony at 2.15pm will be presided over by Vice Principal Professor David Swinfen - his last graduation after nearly 40 years service to the University. This is a privilege usually reserved for the Principal of the University. Professor Swinfen will oversee the graduation of students from the two faculties which he has been most closely involved with - Arts and Social Sciences and Education and Social Work.

Details of the ceremonies are as follows:
Thursday 11 July
Photo opportunity 10am Robing Room, City Chambers. Opportunity to photograph honorary graduates David Mach, Bob Seaton, Bonnie Dunbar, Herbert Haxton.

Mr Robert Seaton
Bob Seaton served the University of Dundee for 28 years under three chancellors, six chairmen of court and five principals. Having signed some 50,000 diplomas over the years he was hailed as "the supreme example of the best type of university registrar" on his retirement. Born in Clarkston, he attended Glasgow University, Balliol College Oxford then Edinburgh University acquiring MA and LLB degrees. He joined the University of Dundee in 1973 from Edinburgh University where he had quickly risen through the administrative ranks to become assistant secretary.

Dr Bonnie Dunbar
Bonnie Dunbar, Deputy Director of NASA started work for Boeing as a systems analyst in 1971 and then in 1975 moved to Oxford, England as a visiting scientist investigating the wetting behaviour of liquids on solid substrates. She then became a senior research engineer with Rockwell International Space Division in California developing equipment and processes for the manufacture of the space shuttle thermal protection system. In 1981 Dr Dunbar became an astronaut and flew 5 missions logging over 50 days in space.

Mr Herbert Haxton
Herbert Haxton taught Sir James Black anatomy when a student at Queen's college. To mark Sir James' tenth year as Chancellor of the University of Dundee, the University is honouring the inspirational teaching of Herbert Haxton which spurred his protégé on to the discovery of Beta Blockers and drugs which treat ulcers.

Photo opportunity: 1.45pm, Robing Room, City Chambers. Opportunity to photograph Professor Margaret Alexander

Professor Margaret Alexander
Margaret Alexander is visiting professor of nursing and director of the World Health Organisation collaborating centre for nursing practice, education, research and management at Glasgow Caledonian University. Professor Alexander is current chairman of the National Board for Nursing Midwifery and Health Visiting for Scotland and delivers an educational consultancy with WHO Nursing in Europe. She started out as a registered general nurse in 1955 before taking a degree at Edinburgh and moving into nursing education.

Friday 12 July
Photo opportunity 10am, Robing Room, City Chambers. Opportunity to photograph Dr Tim Hunt, Professor Wilson Sibbett, Professor Sheridan Snyder and Lady Strathmore.

10.30am Graduation ceremony for the Faculties of Law & Accountancy and Science and Engineering.

The University will confer honorary degrees upon

Dr Tim Hunt
Dr Tim Hunt was one of the recipients of the Nobel prize last year for the discovery of 'key regulators of the cell cycle' - the mechanism that controls cell division in living organisms. Dr Hunt first discovered cyclins, proteins that regulate the CDK function in the early 1980s. He has headed Imperial Cancer Research Fund's Cell Cycle Control Laboratory for ten years. Prior to this he was based at the University of Cambridge. He became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1991 and has won numerous awards for his research.

Professor Wilson Sibbett
Scotland's first chief scientific adviser, educated at Queens University in Belfast, Professor Sibbett as Wardlaw Professor of Physics and Director of Research in the school of physics and astronomy at the University of St Andrews, leads a team of researchers working on ultra fast optical science and technology. He was appointed Scotland's first chief science advisor by the Royal Society of Edinburgh in December and will chair the science advisory committee providing independent advice where science and government overlap. He is a co-director of the photonics innovation centre and director of the new interdisciplinary research collaboration on ultrafast photonics involving Universities and industry across the UK.

Professor Sheridan Snyder
Sherry Snyder is an entrepreneur in the biotechnology industry. In 1981 he established Genzyme, the world's third biggest biotechnology company. In 1999 he founded Upstate Discovery Ltd in Dundee which has had a significant impact on the biotech industry in Tayside. Snyder was also a sportsman in his day, reaching the final sixteen at Wimbledon during the 1950s. He has since, with his friend Arthur Ashe, gone on to invest millions in setting up tennis facilities for underprivileged children in the US.

Lady Strathmore
Lady Strathmore, as the patron of the Queen Mother Research Centre campaign introduced the idea of the centre to the Queen Mother and was instrumental in gaining her support for the project. Throughout her life she has worked with people with severe disabilities. She was patron of the Dundee based charity Brittle Bone Society and is currently patron of Sense Scotland.

Photo opportunity 1.45pm, Robing Rooms, City Chambers. Opportunity to photograph Sir Bob Geldof and Professor Donald McIntyre.

Graduation ceremony for the faculties of Arts & Social Sciences ad Education and Social Work.

The University will confer honorary degrees upon

Sir Bob Geldof
In 1985 Bob Geldof organised Live Aid for the starving millions in Africa. The song which he released with a host of famous musicians "Do they know it's Christmas" was recorded under the Band Aid campaign and was the best selling British single to date then - raising £8 million for Ethiopia's hungry. A member of the Boomtown Rats, he had a major acting role in Pink Floyd's "The Wall".

Professor Donald McIntyre
Donald McIntyre took his degree in Edinburgh, went on to become a maths teacher at Dunfermline High School and then a lecturer in education at Moray House before moving to Hull University to become a tutor in maths. Between 1969 and 1985 he was a senior lecturer and teacher in education at Stirling University and then between 1986 and 1995 he was reader in educational studies at Oxford University before moving to Cambridge in 1996.

Summary of media opportunities for University of Dundee Graduations
Opportunities for photos of honorary grads will take place in the Robing Room, City Chambers, City Square, Dundee, half an hour before each ceremony on Thursday 11 and Friday 12 July. (details of individual ceremonies below)

Opportunities to photograph graduates featured in previous press releases after each ceremony at the Press Stand on the steps of the Caird Hall.

Opportunity to photograph the Graduation Sensation tented village 8.30pm, Friday 12 July. Sensation Science Centre, Greenmarket, Dundee.

Opportunity to photograph David Mach with group of University of Dundee alumni 11.45am, Saturday 13 July, Bonar Hall, Park Place, University of Dundee.