The formalities of nomination and approval of honorary doctorates at UCPH.
Honorary doctorates

Honorary doctorates are the highest academic accolade that the University confers without the recipient first having defended a doctoral thesis in Denmark.
Honorary doctorates in 2019
At the Annual Commemoration on 8 November 2019, the University of Copenhagen conferred honorary doctorates on:
Willemien Otten
The Divinity School
University of Chicago, USA
Professor
Paul Gilroy
Department of English, Faculty of Arts & Humanities
King's College London, England
Prof. Dr.
Zhang Xihua
Department of Humanities
Beijing International Studies University, China
Doctor
Charles H. Bennett
IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, USA
Professor
David Ernest James
School of Life & Environmental Science and School of Medicine
University of Sydney, Australia
About Honorary Doctorates
The vast majority of honorary doctorates are conferred on non-Danish scientists who, as visiting teachers or through international research collaboration, have played a significant role in research and researcher training at the University of Copenhagen.
Researchers and research environments at the University of Copenhagen nominate candidates for honorary doctorates. The academic councils of the faculties concerned then recommend selected nominees to the Rector for final approval.
To qualify for consideration, it is a prerequisite that the individual concerned has conducted extensive and significant research of high international quality.
Honorary doctorates 2006-2018
At the Annual Commemoration on 16 November 2018, the University of Copenhagen confers honorary doctorates on:
Professor, Director, Head of Department
Deirdre Curtin
Law Department
European University Institute, Italy
Law
Professor, dr.juris
Inger-Johanne Sand
Department of Public and International Law
University of Oslo, Norway
Law
Centenary Research Professor
Deborah Lupton
Faculty of Arts and Design
University of Canberra, Australia
Sociology
Professor of Political Science
Kathleen Thelen
Department of Political Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA
Political Science
Professor of Muscle Metabolism
Paul Greenhaff
Division of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience
Nottingham University, UK
Medicine
Professor, DDS, PhD
Thomas E. Van Dyke
The Forsyth Institute
Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM), Boston, USA
Odontology
Professor Risto Saarinen
Faculty of Theology
University of Helsinki
Finland
Theology
Professor Johannes Schilling
Institute of Church History
Kiel University
Germany
Theology
Director of Research, Professor Cécile Michel
The National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS)
France
Philosophy
Professor Sonia Livingstone
Department of Media and Communications
London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
UK
Philosophy
Professor Gonzalo Giribet
Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
Harvard University
USA
Science
Professor Karen Vogtmann
Department of Mathematics
University of Warwick
UK
Science
University Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. Michael Lang
Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria
Law
Distinguished Professor of World Religions Michael D. Jackson
Divinity School, Harvard University, USA
Anthropology
Professor Dr. med. Michael A. Nauck
Medical Department I Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany
Medicine
Professor Dame Janet Thornton
The European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), UK
Medicine
Professor Dale B. Martin
Department of Religious Studies, Yale University, USA
Theology
Professor Gilles Kepel
Paris Institute of Political Studies, France
Philosophy
Professor Sianne Ngai
Department of English, Stanford University, USA
Philosophy
Professor Amira Klip
The Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Canada
Science
Professor Cathie R. Martin
John Innes Center, UK
Science
Senior Professor Laurence Helfer
Duke Law School, Duke University, USA
Law
Professor Eivind Smith
Faculty of Law, University of Oslo, Norway
Law
Professor Quentin Skinner
School of History, University of London, UK
Political Science
Senior Scientist Eric Gouaux
Vollum Institute, Oregon Health & Science University, USA
Pharmaceutical science
Professor Camilla Stoltenberg
Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care
University of Bergen, Norway
Medicine
Ronald M. Kaplan
Senior Director and Distinguished Scientist at Nuance Communications and Consulting Professor of Linguistics at Stanford University
Palo Alto, USA
Philosophy
Professor Will Kymlicka
Department of Philosophy
Queen’s University, Ontario, Canada
Philosophy
Rector Lisa Sennerby Forsse
Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet (SLU), Uppsala, Sweden
Science
Dr. Peter Jenni
Physics Department
CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
Science
Professor Asbjørn Kjønstad
Institutt for offentlig rett
Universitetet i Oslo, Norway
Law
Professor William A. Schabas
Department of Law Middlesex
University of London, UK
Law
Professor Gøsta Esping-Andersen
Departamento de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spanien
Sociology
Professor Shitij Kapur
Institute of Psychiatry
King´s College London, UK
Medicine
Professor Gunnar Lindahl
Department of Laboratory Medicine
Lund University, Sweden
Medicine
Professor Eike Wolgast
Historisches Seminar,
Universität Heidelberg, Germany
Theology
Professor Peter Burke
Emmanuel College
University of Cambridge, UK
Philosophy
Professor Nikolas Coupland
Cardiff Scholl of English, Communication
University of Wales, Cardiff, UK
Philosophy
Professor Doris Jorde
Institutt for lærerutdanning og skoleforskning
Universitetet i Oslo, Norway
Science
Professor Lars Mathiassen
Department of Computer Information Systems
Georgia State University, USA
Science
Professor Hans Joachim Schellnhuber
Potsdam-Institut für Klimafolgenforschung, Potsdam, Germany
Science
Professor Nico P. E. Vermeulen
Faculteit der Exacte Wetenschappen Vrije
Universiteit Amsterdam, Holland
Pharmaceutical science
Professor Harold Steve White
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology
University of Utah, USA
Pharmaceutical science
Professor Bernard N. Grofman
Department of Political Science & Center for the Study of Democracy
University of California, Irvine, USA
Political Science
Professor Norman Sartorius
Association for the Improvement of Mental Health Programmes
University of Zagreb, Kroatien
Psychology
Professor Wendy L. Havran
Department of Immunology
The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, USA
Medicine
Professor James Matthew Robins
Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Harvard School of Public Health
Harvard University, USA
Medicine
Professor Donald F. Steiner
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
University of Chicago, USA
Medicine
Professor Anne Cooke
Department of Pathology
University of Cambridge, UK
Veterinary science
Professor Wangari Muta Maathai
Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies
University of Nairobi, Kenya
Agricultural science
Professor Gunnar Öquist
Institutionen för fysiologisk botanik
Umeå universitet, Sweden
Science
Professor Carol A. Newsom
Candler School of Theology
Emory University, Atlanta, USA
Theology
Professor Alister Cumming
Modern Language Centre
University of Toronto, Canada
Philosophy
Professor Patricia Crone
School of Historical Studies
Institute for Advanced Study
Princeton, USA
Philosophy
Professor Ingvild Sælid Gilhus
Institutt for arkeologi, historie, kulturvitenskap og religionsvitenskap
Universitetet i Bergen, Norway
Philosophy
Professor Jane Lubchenco
Under Secretary of Commerce National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Washington D.C., USA
Science
Professor Mark A. Ratner
Department of Chemistry
Northwestern University, Evanston, USA
Science
Professor Richard W. Olsen
Department of Molecular & Medical Pharmacology
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, USA
Pharmaceutical Science
Professor emeritus Frances Raday
Faculty of Law
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Law
Professor emeritus Thomas J. Scheff
Department of Sociology
University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
Sociology
Professor Peter Bordier Høj
The University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
Science
Professor C. Ronald Kahn
Joslin Diabetes Center, Boston, USA
Medicine
Professor Anne-Lise Børresen-Dale
Institute for Cancer Research
Norwegian Radium Hospital, Norway
Medicine
Professor Jayaprakash Muliyil
Christian Medical College & Hospital, Vellore, India
Medicine
Jens Birch Lyster (dr.theol. h.c.)
M. A. Mohamed Salih (dr.theol. h.c.)
Gustav Konrad von Schultess (dr.med. h.c.)
John W. Lynch (dr.med. h.c.)
Kirsten Sandvig (dr.med. h.c.)
Paolo Matthiae (dr.phil. h.c.)
Orvar Löfgren (dr.phil. h.c.)
Nicoletta Calzolari Zamorani (dr.phil. h.c.)
H. Jeff Kimble (dr.scient. h.c.)
Michael Clark (dr.scient. h.c.)
Professor Patricia Vertinsky (dr.scient. h.c.)
Karin Birte Svensson (dr.scient. h.c.)
Katrin Hinrichs (dr.scient. h.c.)
Magni Martens (dr.scient. h.c.)
Graham A.R. Johnston (dr.scient. h.c.)
Ingolf U. Dalferth, (dr.theol. h.c.)
Viggo Hagstrøm, (dr.jur. h.c.)
Kaarlo Tuori (dr.jur. h.c.)
Yihai Cao (dr.med. h.c.)
Benjamin Rampton (dr.phil. h.c.)
Erika Fischer-Lichte (dr.phil. h.c.)
Riccardo Giacconi (dr.scient. h.c.)
Timothy Wallington (dr.scient. h.c.)