Four new honorary doctors at the Arctic University of Norway
As part of the celebrations marking the fact that it has been 50 years since the Arctic University of Norway officially opened, the University Board has appointed four new honorary doctors.
“These honorary doctors have all excelled in areas in which the University has a strong profile and assumes special academic responsibilities. Their work spans from Sami art, open science and polar research to sustainable management,” says Arctic University of Norway Rector, Dag Rune Olsen.
The four honorary doctors are:
Katherine Richardson, Professor in Biological Oceanography at the University of Copenhagen and Head of the Sustainability Science Centre at the University of Copenhagen.
Awarded an honorary doctorate for her years of research within biological oceanography, climate change and sustainability. Richardson is a prominent polar researcher with a particular interest in the link between the climate, ocean ecosystems and biodiversity. She has been interested in the carbon cycle in the ocean and has put this research into an Earth-system context. Derived from this work, she has also looked at how to define safe boundaries within which people can operate from a sustainability perspective.
Richardson has been a female role model during a period of change in which women were given little opportunity to participate in voyages and field campaigns within polar and marine research and is considered a pioneer within the field of sustainability science.
Dame Veronica Ann Courtice, founder of the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, where she was a director between 1989 and 2021.
Awarded an honorary doctorate for her work in developing leadership and sustainable financial development through the Institute for Sustainability Leadership. The Institute has an interdisciplinary approach and focuses on six priority areas that are considered critical to the work on achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): sustainable financing, economic innovation, inclusion and diversity, natural resources, cities of the future and leadership for sustainable development.
She has received a number of accolades for her efforts and has been appointed Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth and Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order (LVO). She has also been awarded the Stanford Bright Award for Environmental Sustainability.
Hans Ragnar Mathisen / Elle-Hánsa / Keviselie, artist
Awarded an honorary doctorate for his overall work as an artist, his work on Sami maps and the mapping of Sami place names, his focus on preserving and developing Sami drums, his authorship and his efforts to organise, develop and preserve Sami culture in Norway, the Nordic region and Sápmi.
Through more than 50 years of artistic work, Mathisen has highlighted Sápmi as a separate geographical area within the Arctic and has shed light on previously invisible Sami culture in Norway. His artistic work is based on a broad scientific approach. Since the burgeoning start of the University, Mathisen has collaborated with researchers in various fields and his many artistic expressions have helped influence and shape the Arctic University of Norway.
Johan Rooryck, Professor in French Linguistics at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands.
Awarded an honorary doctorate for his work on open publishing and science. He was the Editor-in-Chief of the leading international language journal, Lingua, at Elsevier from 1999 to 2015. He gained global fame within Open Access circles when he and his entire editorial team broke away from Elsevier. They went on to found the Glossa journal at the Open Library of Humanities in 2015. Overnight, linguists started submitting their articles to Glossa rather than Lingua. Glossa is now the undisputed number one journal in its feel and Rooryck remains the Editor-in-Chief.
Rooryck founded the umbrella organisation Fair Open Access Alliance in 2016 with the aim of encouraging researchers to change the publishing landscape within their fields.
“We are extremely proud that these outstanding individuals have chosen to accept their appointments. Our hope is that both the University and the honorary doctors will find mutual enjoyment and benefit from one another in the time to come,” Olsen says.
The honorary doctorate ceremony will take place in Aud 3 in Tromsø on Thursday 1 September at 14:00. The ceremony will be streamed and can be watched here. Seminars will be held earlier in the day for each honorary doctor and these are all open to the general public:
- Dame Veronica Ann Courtice og Katherine Richardson (Auditorium Perspektivet, Handelshøgskolen)
- Hans Ragnar Mathisen (Konsertsalen, Musikkonservatoriet)
- Johan Rooryck (Kultur- og samfunnsbiblioteket)
