Five to receive honorary doctorates from Rhodes University
Celebrating outstanding achievements and notable contributions to humanity, Rhodes University will be honouring five people from diverse fields during its annual graduation ceremonies.
From the fields of physics and cosmology to social sciences and education transformation, those receiving honorary doctorates had contributed tremendously to humankind, Rhodes vice-chancellor Dr Sizwe Mabizela said.
“It is a signal honour and distinct privilege for us to bring these outstanding people into our family,” Mabizela said.
Receiving this year’s honorary doctorates during the 2019 graduation season starting on Thursday and ending on Friday, are Professor Emeritus George Ellis and professors Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, Glenda Gray and Ian Scott, as well as Chief Okunike Monica Okundaye-Davies of Nigeria.
Ellis, University of Cape Town (UCT) professor of complex systems in the department of mathematics and applied mathematics, will be conferred a doctor of laws (LLD) for his scholarly contributions in general relativity, cosmology, theoretical physics and policy.
Ellis has authored and coauthored 16 books, including The Large Scale Structure of Space Time, which he co-authored with the late renowned physicist Stephen Hawking.
He is also well-known for his exemplary work on the philosophy of cosmology and the philosophy of science and has been one of the main writers on the philosophy of cosmology in recent decades.
Ellis has written or co-authored an estimated 450 papers and 16 books, with more than 36,000 citations.
He has received numerous other awards, including the Templeton Prize and the Order of the Star of South Africa, awarded by former president Nelson Mandela in 1999.
Gobodo-Madikizela, author and research chair for historical trauma and transformation in the faculty of arts and social sciences at Stellenbosch University, will also receive an honorary doctorate of law.
Gobodo-Madikizela is being recognised for her contribution to research topics related to exploring ways in which the impact of the dehumanising experiences of oppression and violent abuse continue to play out in the next generation, as well as remorse and forgiveness in the context of the interconnected relationship between empathy, ubuntu and the embodied African phenomenon of inimba.
She received the Christopher Award in the US in 2003, and the Alan Paton Award in SA in 2004 for her critically-acclaimed book A Human Being Died that Night: A South African Story of Forgiveness.
This book provides a gripping recount of the interviews that Gobodo-Madikizela had with the apartheid-era head of a state-sanctioned assassination unit, Eugene de Kock.
Gray, president of the South African Medical Research Council, will receive an honorary doctorate of law for her unwavering dedication in the field of paediatrics.
Gray is a professor in paediatrics at Wits University and has been instrumental in researching the prevention of postnatal mother-to-child transmission of HIV-1.
For his contribution to higher education, Scott, of the Centre for Higher Education Development and director of Academic Development at UCT, will also be honoured with a doctorate of law.
Affectionately known as “Mama Nike”, Okundaye-Davis, principally a social entrepreneur and a well-known philanthropist championing the cause of the neglected Nigerian rural women through using art as a tool, will be conferred an honorary doctorate in fine arts.
“Humankind is that much the better and human experience is that much the richer for their contribution,” Mabizela said.
“Each is a role model for our students and staff, and we will continue to celebrate and promote their legacy to humanity for many generations to come.”
Rhodes spokesperson Velisile Bukula said that in the six graduation ceremonies in 2019, 2,321 students would receive qualifications ranging from certificates to degrees, down from 2,494 in 2018.