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Robert Gordon University Announces Honorary Awards

Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, will confer seven honorary degrees at its graduation ceremonies on 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th July 2011 to Dr Ben Goldacre, John Halliday, Lord Robertson, Hamish Dodds, Sir Bill Gammell, Michael Clark and Professor Kevin Warwick.

Dr Ben Goldacre will be awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Science on Tuesday 12th July at 10.30am. Ben studied at Magdalen College Oxford where he obtained a first class degree in 1995. He is perhaps best known for his weekly column, Bad Science, published in the Saturday edition of The Guardian newspaper, and expanded upon on in his popular website badscience.net. Ben's journalistic work is largely devoted to criticism of scientific inaccuracy, health scares, pseudoscience and quackery, focusing especially on examples from the mass media, consumer product marketing, and complementary and alternative medicine in Britain. He has won several prestigious awards for his journalism, including the Association of British Science Writers award for Best Feature

(2003 and 2005), Freelance of 2006 at the Medical Journalism Awards, Statistical Excellence In Journalism Award of the Royal Statistical Society and the HealthWatch Award for "significant steps in improving the public's understanding of health issues".

John Halliday will be awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Design on Tuesday 12th July at 2.30pm. John studied architecture at Robert Gordon Institute of Technology (RGIT) in 1965. After graduating, 40 years ago this month, John completed his practical training before joining the Aberdeen office of the national architects Baxter Clarke and Paul. This was the start of the North Sea oil era and associated boom in the local construction sector. In 1983 he was offered a partnership with the firm and eventually became joint senior partner in 1990. In 1993 John led a management buyout of the Aberdeen office with his business partners Ian Fraser and Hamish Munro, to form Halliday Fraser Munro. The following year the company opened offices in Edinburgh and Dundee, followed by Belfast and Dublin in 1995 and Glasgow in 2000. Now one of the largest architecture and town planning practices in Scotland, Halliday Fraser and Munro have been awarded over 30 local, national and international awards and commendations for excellence for architectural design. John has been involved with Robert Gordon University since 1995 in the teaching of entrepreneurship. He has lectured and led seminars in entrepreneurship in all faculties and has continued to do so in recent years at the Scott Sutherland School of Architecture.

Lord Robertson will be awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws on Wednesday 13th July at 10.30am. Lord Robertson has a reputation as a focused and committed public servant. He has sustained a high profile political career for over thirty years and is recognised as one of the most influential Scotsmen in global politics. Following Labour's General Election success in 1997 George Robertson was appointed Secretary of State for Defence. During this year he was also appointed to her Majesty's Privy Council and raised to the Peerage, where he took the title Lord Robertson of Port Ellen. As Secretary of State for Defence, he led a series of reforms and modernisation of the British Forces that were regarded as the most radical for a generation and recognised as a model for modernising the military. He also oversaw the UK's role in the Kosovo Conflict, managed the UK's participation in East Timor and in the air strikes in Iraq in 1989.

In August 1999 Lord Robertson was appointed as the 10th Secretary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, one of the most important jobs in the world. Lord Robertson's leadership and achievements have been recognised both within the UK and internationally and he has received the highest national honours from numerous countries including the United States of America.

Hamish Dodds will be presented with the honorary award of Doctor of Business Administration on Thursday 14th July at 10.30am. Hamish, as President and Chief Executive Officer of Hard Rock International, oversees all aspects of the organisation's worldwide businesses and is responsible for the strategic development and operational results of all Hard Rock's activities across 52 countries. In both his personal and professional capacity, Hamish has championed many philanthropic initiatives and is particularly focused on efforts to address worldwide children and women's causes through his association with WHY Hunger, Global Angels, the BCRF and the Campaign to Stop Sexual Slavery.

Sir Bill Gammell will be presented with the honorary award of doctor of Business Administration on Thursday 14th July at 2.30pm. Sir Bill founded Cairn in 1980.

Under his direction, Cairn has grown in value from $10 million in 1992 to over

$10 billion today.

Sir Bill is passionate about developing people and instills a winning attitude in both business and sport. This has developed from his own entrepreneurial

career and his experience as a Scottish rugby internationalist (1977-1980). In

2006 Sir Bill founded Winning Scotland Foundation, which aims to raise aspirations and self-belief among young people and coaches in Scotland.

Sir Bill holds many directorships which reflect his twin passions for sport and business. In addition to his leadership of Cairn, he is involved with Sportscotland, the Artemis VCT Trust, the UK Indian Business Council, the Government Asia Task Force, British Olympic Advisory Board, Founder and Chairman of the Scottish Institute of Sport Foundation, The Scottish Institute of Sport and the Board for the Commonwealth Games to be held in Glasgow in 2014.

Sir Bill has won many accolades and awards in his business career - including his Knighthood for services to industry in Scotland. He has also been admitted to the Entrepreneurial Exchange Hall of Fame and was the Institute of Directors Scotland Director of the Year in 2006, the Ernst and Young UK Entrepreneur of the Year and the Business Insider Elite Leader of the Year.

Michael Clark will be presented with the honorary award of Doctor of Art on Friday 15th July at 10.30am. Aberdonian Michael Clark is a dancer and choreographer whose originality and inventiveness have both challenged and inspired his audiences. Described once as "the man who put punk into modern dance is now choreographing Stravinsky" his work was described as "turning into something amazing, a sustained and gorgeous wave of weaving bodies, working together like they are the most intricate of cogs in a heavenly machine".

Michael began taking dancing lessons at the Seivwright School of Dancing at the age of four and eventually entered the Royal Ballet School. He became the school's star pupil and throughout his career has won many plaudits and commissions. Most recently his company was endowed with a residency at the Tate Modern, which allowed visitors to witness the artistic process that enables his innovative choreography. Michael Clark has not only brought his dancing and choreography talent to the world's stage, but has had the very process of his creativity and artistry exhibited at the Tate Modern. In doing so, he also joins the world's who's who of contemporary art.

Professor Kevin Warwick will be presented with the honorary award of Doctor of Technology on Friday 15th July at 2.30pm. Kevin Warwick is Professor of Cybernetics at the University of Reading where his research combines Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Biomedical Engineering. His ground-breaking Cyborg Project caught the world's attention. Through the neuro-surgical implantation of a device into his arm, he became the world's first Cyborg, a being with both biological and artificial parts. Using this neural interface, Kevin was able to operate an intelligent artificial hand. Connected to the Internet, he was able to control the hand when located in a different continent, and obtain feedback from sensors in the finger tips. The Cyborg Project has featured in many documentaries, most notably Tomorrow's World and 20th Century Fox's "The Making of I Robot", and he was one of the UK's Top 6 Scientists in Channel 4's "Living Science". The innovation and impact of his research, together with his significant contribution to the public understanding of science, make Kevin Warwick a passionate and highly inspirational promoter of leading-edge technologies.

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