Media Releases

Renowned global thinkers and leaders to receive honorary degrees from U of T

June 5, 2014

TORONTO, ON — Over 12,500 stu­dents will grad­u­ate from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to over the next three weeks, and through­out Con­vo­ca­tion, the Uni­ver­si­ty will also cel­e­brate the remark­able accom­plish­ments of a diverse range of hon­orary grad­u­ates: Peter SteinDavid BrillingerRonald DanielsIndi­ra Sama­rasek­eraAnnabel Pat­ter­son; and Mychael Dan­na.

Acad­e­my Award-win­ning film com­pos­er Mychael Dan­na is renowned for his evoca­tive blend­ing of non-west­ern tra­di­tions with orches­tral and elec­tron­ic music. His high­ly award­ed works include the Oscar-win­ning score for Ang Lee’s Life of Pi, and his many Genie ‑win­ning scores for direc­tor, long­time col­lab­o­ra­tor and fel­low U of T alum­nus, Atom Egoy­an. CEREMONY: FRIDAY, JUNE 13, 2:30PM

One of Canada’s lead­ing Met­al­lur­gi­cal Engi­neers, Indi­ra Sama­rasek­era is now in her sec­ond term as pres­i­dent and vice-chan­cel­lor of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Alber­ta. She is a For­eign Asso­ciate of the Nation­al Acad­e­my of Engi­neer­ing, a Fel­low of the Roy­al Soci­ety of Cana­da, the Cana­di­an Acad­e­my of Engi­neer­ing, the Cana­di­an Insti­tute of Min­ing, Met­al­lur­gy and Petro­le­um (CIMM) and an hon­orary mem­ber of AIME (Amer­i­can Insti­tute of Min­ing, Met­al­lur­gi­cal and Petro­le­um Engi­neers) and was award­ed the Order of Cana­da in 2002 for her out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tions to steel process engi­neer­ing. CEREMONY: WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 2:30PM

Yale Ster­ling Pro­fes­sor Annabel Pat­ter­son has writ­ten 16 books and close to 70 ref­er­eed arti­cles on top­ics as var­ied as Holinshed’s Chron­i­cles, 18-cen­tu­ry libel law,  the recep­tion of Virgil’s poet­ry in Europe, edi­tions of Aesop’s fables, cen­sor­ship, lib­er­al­ism, par­lia­men­tary his­to­ry, as well as Shake­speare, Mil­ton, Donne, John Locke, and Andrew Mar­vell, whose canon she has helped to reshape. Among the awards and recog­ni­tions the U of T alum­na has received are: a Guggen­heim Fel­low­ship, a senior fel­low­ship at the Soci­ety of Human­i­ties, Cor­nell Uni­ver­si­ty, the Andrew Mel­lon Chair of the Human­i­ties at Duke, a Mel­lon Fel­low­ship, Nation­al Human­i­ties Cen­ter and a Mel­lon Emer­i­tus Fel­low­ship at Yale.  CEREMONY: TUESDAY, JUNE 17, 2:30 PM

Peter Stein, the crit­i­cal­ly acclaimed Ger­man the­atre, film and opera direc­tor, is known for his land­mark stag­ings of such pro­duc­tions as Edward Bond’s Saved, Schiller’s Wal­len­stein and Shakespeare’s King Lear. While in Toron­to, Stein will take part in a num­ber of pub­lic events, includ­ing a sym­po­sium on the art of direct­ing, with Egoy­an at Uni­ver­si­ty Col­lege: (http://celebratingpeterstein.weebly.com/events.html) CEREMONY: MONDAY, JUNE 9, 2:30PM

David Brillinger, a world-renowned sta­tis­ti­cal sci­en­tist whose work has con­tributed to the fields of ecol­o­gy, forestry, ani­mal and marine biol­o­gy, neu­ro­science, seis­mol­o­gy and engi­neer­ing, attend­ed the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Schools before enrolling at U of T. Dur­ing his cer­e­mo­ny, Brillinger will be hood­ed by his for­mer UTS math teacher and U of T Pro­fes­sor emer­i­tus, Bruce McLean, who is 103 years old. CEREMONY: TUESDAY, JUNE 10, 2:30PM

Ronald Daniels, the pres­i­dent of Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­si­ty and a for­mer Dean of the Fac­ul­ty of Law at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, is the founder or co-founder of such pro­grams as the Pro Bono Stu­dents Cana­da, Law in Action With­in Schools, and the orga­ni­za­tion Inter­na­tion­al Lawyers and Econ­o­mists against Pover­ty. CEREMONY: FRIDAY, JUNE 6, 10:30AM

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For more infor­ma­tion:

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Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
416–978-0100
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