Honorary Degree

The highest award conferred by the University of Minnesota to an individual who has achieved acknowledged eminence in cultural affairs, in public service, or in a field of knowledge and scholarship.

2023

Zdeněk P. Bažant
Walter P. Murphy Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
McCormick School of Engineering 
Northwestern University

2022

Stanley Sandler (ChE Ph.D. '66)
H.B. du Pont Chair of Chemical Engineering, Emeritus
University of Delaware

2011

Chunli Bai 
Professor and Executive Vice President
Chinese Academy of Sciences

2009

Chandra M. Varma (Physics Ph.D. ’68)
Long-time Bell Laboratories researcher and Distinguished Professor of Physics at the University of California-Riverside

Zenon Mroz 
Leader/Scientific Coordinator
Centre of Excellence for Advanced Materials and Structures (AMAS)

2008

Jack Dangermond (Architecture M.S. ’68)
Founder, Environmental Systems Research Institute

2007

Lu Yongxiang
President, Chinese Academy of Sciences

2005

George Bugliarello (CivE M.S. ’54)
Chancellor and former president of Polytechnic University

2004

Jorge Manuel Dengo-Obregon (CivE ’43)
Former vice president, Costa Rica

Marcia K. McNutt 
President of the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Research Institute

Doraiswami Ramkrishna (ChemE Ph.D. '65)
Professor of Chemical Engineering of Purdue University

C.A. "Sy" Syvertson (AeroEng M.S. ’48)
Director, NASA Ames Research Center (retired)

2002

William Bardeen (Physics Ph.D. ’68)
Theoretical Physics Group, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

Jeffrey Harvey (Physics and Math,’77)
Professor of Physics, Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago

2001

Morton Denn (ChemE Ph.D. '64)
Einstein Professor of Science and Engineering
Director, the Levitch Institute for Physico-Chemical Hydrodynamics
The City College of the City University of New York

Theodore Galambos
Professor Emeritus
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minnesota

James Prestegard (Chem ’66)
Professor of Chemistry and Eminent Scholar Professor
University of Georgia

W. Harmon Ray (ChemE Ph.D. ’66)
Vilas Research Professor
Department of Chemical Engineering
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Lee Raymond (ChemE Ph.D. ’63)
Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer
Exxon Mobil Corporation

2000

Andreas Acrivos (ChemE Ph.D. ’54)
Einstein Professor of Science and Engineering
The City College of the City University of New York

Charles Fairhurst
Professor Emeritus
Department of Civil Engineering
University of Minnesota

1999

Guangzhi Tu (Geology Ph.D. ’49)
Professor, Institute of Geochemistry
Chinese Academy of Sciences, People's Republic of China

1995

Ernst R.G. Eckert
Regents Professor Emeritus
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Minnesota