Three prominent Quebecers are among the 11 exemplary individuals to be recognized with honorary degrees from McGill University during this year’s spring convocation.

Michèle Thibodeau-DeGuire, Centraide President and Executive Director; Roy Lacaud Heenan, Chairman, Heenan Blaikie; and Stephen Jarislowsky, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Jarislowsky Fraser Limited. Along with approximately 6,000 graduating students, the honorary degree recipients will take the stage during spring convocation ceremonies from May 26 to June 2.

McGill University honorary degree recipients, spring 2008:
(In order of Presentation)

Roy Lacaud Heenan, Doctor of Laws
Faculty of Law, Monday, May 26, 10 a.m.

Roy Lacaud Heenan is among McGill’s most distinguished alumni. As the long-serving chairman of Heenan Blaikie, he has been largely responsible for the premier position of this law firm within the Canadian legal community. An adjunct professor at McGill for more than 25 years, Heenan held the position of chair of the Faculty of Law’s Advisory Board when a program of transsystemic legal education was adopted and during the construction of the Gelber Law Library. Heenan is also the founding director and current chair of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, which has supported a nationwide network of fellows and scholars in a wide range of disciplines.

Janos Starker, Doctor of Music
Schulich School of Music, Monday, May 26, 2 p.m.

Known as one of the world’s greatest cellists and teachers, Janos Starker made his professional debut at the age of 11. Four years later, he graduated from the famous Franz Liszt Academy. After years as principal cellist of the Budapest Opera Orchestra and the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, Starker emigrated to the United States to become principal cellist of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. He later moved to the same position at the Metropolitan Opera and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. His work: An Organized Method of String Playing is considered to be a seminal resource for cello players and composers. Currently, Starker is a distinguished professor of cello at the Jacobs School of Music.

Ray Kurzweil, Doctor of Science
Centre for Continuing Education, Monday, May 26, 6 p.m.

Founder of Kurzweil Music Systems, Ray Kurzweil created the first computer-based instrument that realistically recreated the musical response of the grand piano and other orchestral instruments. Later, he started a company to develop computer-based speech recognition and introduced the first commercially marketed, large-vocabulary speech recognition system. Combining his breakthroughs, Kurzweil went on to produce the world’s first full print-to-speech reading machine for the visually impaired. In 1996, he started his fourth major company, Kurzweil Educational Systems, to produce comprehensive reading, writing and learning software to help struggling readers. Described by The Wall Street Journal as a “restless genius,” Kurzweil was recently named by PBS as one of 16 “revolutionaries who made America.”

Michèle Thibodeau-DeGuire, Doctor of Letters
Faculty of Education, Tuesday, May 27, 10 a.m.

Michèle Thibodeau-DeGuire has been president and executive director of Centraide of Greater Montreal since 1991. Under her leadership, the Centraide campaign has achieved unprecedented growth, directly improving the lives of more than half a million less-privileged people. In recognition of her accomplishments, the Honourable Maxime Bernier, who was then the federal minister of industry, appointed Thibodeau-DeGuire to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) in 2007. Her accolades include Grande Montréalaise by the Académie des Grands Montréalais, the McGill Management Achievement Award and the Grand prix d’excellence of the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec. A member of the Canadian Engineering Academy and of the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec, Thibodeau-DeGuire was named to the Order of Canada in 2003 and to the Ordre national du Québec in 2005.

Stephen A. Jarislowsky, Doctor of Laws
Desautels Faculty of Management, Tuesday, May 27, 2 p.m.

Stephen A. Jarislowsky is the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of one of Canada’s largest private investment companies, Jarislowsky Fraser Limited. A successful investment counsellor as well as an advocate for improved corporate governance and the rights of minority shareholders, Jarislowsky is the co-founder and director of the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance. A strong supporter of higher education, he has been instrumental in many scholarly and medical research initiatives nationwide and has funded 20 chairs within Canadian universities, including McGill’s Faculty of Medicine. Jarislowsky was named an officer of the Order of Canada in 1993 and a grand officer of the Ordre national du Québec in 2007.

Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, Doctor of Science
Faculty of Engineering, Wednesday, May 28, 10 a.m.

Known as one of Canada’s most accomplished landscape architects, Cornelia Hahn Oberlander has shaped our understanding of landscape architecture in relation to the city and the natural environment. Her many projects include: Vancouver’s Robson Square; the Museum of Anthropology and the Liu Centre at the University of British Columbia; and the Canadian Chancery in Washington, D.C., with Arthur Erickson. Her projects with Moshe Safdie include Canada’s National Gallery, with its signature garden inspired by A.Y. Jackson’s Terre Sauvage, Ottawa City Hall, and the Vancouver Public Library.

Victor J. Dzau, Doctor of Science
Health Sciences – Faculties of Medicine and Dentistry, Wednesday, May 28, 2 p.m.

Dr. Victor J. Dzau is the chancellor for Health Affairs at Duke University, president and chief executive officer of Duke University Health System and James B. Duke Professor of Medicine. He is one of the most influential physicians, scientists and leaders in the field of medicine. A pioneer in research targeting renin angiotensin for cardiovascular therapy, Dzau founded the discipline of Vascular Medicine and has been a leader in addressing the issue of global health inequalities. Dzau has received numerous awards and honours and much recognition. He was recently honoured by Harvard with the establishment of the Victor J. Dzau Lectureship in Global Health and the Victor J. Dzau Professorship in Medicine.

Jean-Pierre Serre, Doctor of Science
Faculty of Science ‘A’, Thursday, May 29, 10 a.m.

Considered one of the leading thinkers in the field of contemporary mathematics, Jean-Pierre Serre has transformed mathematical analysis and topology to algebraic geometry, group theory, and number theory. In 1968, Serre’s McGill lectures on Abelian l-adic representations were the precursor for dramatic developments in number theory in the past decades, building up to the recent proof of the fundamental "Serre conjectures" relating modular forms and Galois representations. Through the clarity, elegance and universal character of his beautifully written papers, Serre has shaped the way generations of mathematicians think.

Kurt Gottfried, Doctor of Science
Faculty of Science “B”, Thursday, May 29, 2 p.m.

Kurt Gottfried’s work on the subatomic structure of matter and the foundations of quantum mechanics are legendary. His publications in nuclear and particle physics are regularly cited. Gottfried was elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Physical Society, the Guggenheim Foundation and the American Association for the Advancement of Science in recognition of his contributions to physics. Currently an emeritus professor of physics at Cornell University, Professor Gottfried also holds the position of chair of the board of directors of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Elinor Ostrom, Doctor of Letters
Faculty of Arts, “B”, Friday, May 30, 2 p.m.

Dr. Elinor Ostrom, is the Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science and holds an appointment in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University. In addition, she is the co-Director of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, and Founding Director, Center for the Study of Institutional Diversity at Arizona State University (Tempe). Ostrom is well-known for her work in both developed and developing countries and for her contributions to policy studies and political economy. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Ostrom has made significant and lasting contributions to the fields of economics, political science, sociology and anthropology.

Peter Doherty, Doctor of Science
Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences – Monday, June 2, 2008, 2:30 p.m. (Macdonald campus)

Peter Doherty received a Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1996 for his research that led to discovering how cells of the immune system, know as “killer T cells” recognize both self molecules and foreign molecules and work to eliminate virus-infected cells. This discovery changed the direction of research into diseases such as cancer, autoimmune diseases and organ transplantation. In his book The Beginner's Guide to Winning the Nobel Prize, Doherty broadens our understanding of how science and scientists work. Recently, he published A Light History of Hot Air, in which he signals the need for action on climate change. Since 2002, he has shared his time between his laboratory at St. Jude’s and as laureate professor at the University of Melbourne in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology.

The above recipients join a pantheon of McGill honorary degree recipients that includes, among others: Sir Frederick Banting (1939); British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1944); President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1944); UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld (1956); politician and diplomat Adlai Stevenson (1959); Mayor Jean Drapeau (1965); painter Jean-Paul Riopelle (1968), writer Saul Bellow (1973), writer and human rights activist Elie Wiesel (1994), linguist and public intellectual Noam Chomsky (1998), writer Mordechai Richler (2000), director Atom Egoyan (2003), singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell (2004); Governor-General Michaëlle Jean (2006) and Bibliothèque et Archives nationales president Lise Bissonnette (2007).

Convocation ceremonies will be held on McGill’s lower campus, with the exception of the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences ceremonies, which will be held at the Macdonald campus in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue.