The University of Oxford confers honorary degree on Apple’s Sir Jony Ive

The University of Oxford conferred honorary degrees on nine distinguished figures at the annual Encaenia ceremony on 22 June 2016, among them, Apple’s Chief Designer, Sir Jony Ive.

• Doctor of Divinity, honoris causa: Monsignor Professor Tomáš Halík is a Czech priest, theologian and author, and winner of the 2014 Templeton Prize.
• Doctor of Civil Law, honoris causa: The Right Hon the Lord Mance, PC, is a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and High Steward of the University of Oxford.
• Doctor of Letters, honoris causa: Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar
• Doctor of Letters, honoris causa: Professor Paul Krugman
• Doctor of Letters, honoris causa: Japanese architect Professor Kazuyo Sejima
• Doctor of Music, honoris causa: The Estonian composer Arvo Pärt
• Doctor of Science, honoris causa: Dr Cornelia Bargmann is a neurobiologist, Torsten N Wiesel Professor at Rockefeller University and winner of the Benjamin Franklin Medal.
• Doctor of Science, honoris causa:Professor Mildred Dresselhaus is a physicist and Institute Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she is also Professor Emerita of Physics and Electrical Engineering.

• Doctor of Science, honoris causa: Sir Jonathan Ive is Chief Design Officer of Apple Inc and designer of the iMac, PowerBook, iBook, iPod, iPhone, iPad, AppleWatch and MacBook. Six of his products appear in the permanent collections of New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). In 2012, he received San Francisco MoMA’s Lifetime Achievement Award and in 2013 he was awarded a gold Blue Peter Badge. His others accolades include an Inaugural Medal (1999) and Benjamin Franklin Medal (2004) of the Royal Society of Arts, the Design Museum London’s first Designer of the Year award (2003), the Design and Art Direction (D&AD) President’s Award and the Royal Academy of Engineering’s President’s Medal (both 2005), and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum’s Product Design Award (2007). In 2012, D&AD named Sir Jonathan’s team at Apple the Best Design Studio of the past 50 years. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

MacDailyNews Take: Congratulations to Sir Jony and all those upon whom honorary degrees were conferred!