Honorary Graduates announced for Graduation 2018

Honorary Graduates announced for Graduation 2018

The leader of the first Scottish expedition to the South Pole will join a top flooding engineer and a leading expert on fungi as this year’s Abertay University Honorary Graduates.

More than 700 students will attend the annual morning and afternoon Graduation ceremonies at the Caird Hall, Dundee on July 5, marking an array of achievements from Abertay’s four academic schools – Design & Informatics; Science, Engineering and Technology; Social and Health Sciences and Dundee Business School.

Graduates will be joined by those receiving honorary degrees, including (left to right above) polar adventurer Craig Mathieson, Professor of Mycology Lynne Boddy of Cardiff University and former president of the Institution of Civil Engineers Dr Jean Venables.

Professor Nigel Seaton, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Abertay, said the Honorary Graduates had been chosen in recognition of outstanding achievements in their own fields.

He added: “Our Honorary Graduates represent the values we strive for at Abertay and their personal, academic and professional achievements will be a source of inspiration for our students as they graduate this summer.”

Craig Mathieson has extensive expedition experience in both Arctic and Antarctic regions and led the first ever dedicated Scottish expedition to the South Pole, hauling his sledge 730 miles.

With both military and mountaineering expertise, he now operates the ‘Polar Academy’ project, taking secondary school children aged 14-17 with low self-esteem on life-changing expeditions through the wilds of Greenland, navigating through some of the world’s most remote and hostile terrain.

Dr Jean Venables is a leading expert in flood risk and water level management and was the first woman to be President of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

Over a distinguished career, she has been awarded the MBE for services to civil engineering, the OBE for services to flood defence and the CBE for services to the civil engineering profession.

Lynne Boddy is a Professor of Mycology and leads teaching and research into fungal ecology.

A prolific author, she has written or edited seven books, written well over 250 scientific papers, and is chief editor of the journal Fungal Ecology.

For information on Abertay Graduation 2018 visit https://www.abertay.ac.uk/life/graduation/