Six new honorary doctorates at Stockholm University

Humanities

Magnus Florin

Magnus Florin is a writer, essayist and critic. He has a deep and long-term commitment to theater and musical drama, and has written librettos for several contemporary composers. He has also been director of the Radio Theater at Sveriges Radio and chief dramaturg at Dramaten. His dreamlike novels about historical figures such as Linné and Descartes are characterized by a linguistic concreteness and precision that is unusual in Swedish literature. Several of his novels have been translated into different languages, and the authorship has been awarded with a number of prestigious prizes. Florin has often collaborated with researchers in, for example, the Dialogue Seminar and the journal Dialoger. As an essayist, he has repeatedly devoted himself to August Strindberg’s writing, with the acclaimed essay The lantern lighter (2021) as the main publication – something that has particular relevance given Stockholm University’s central role in Swedish Strindberg research.

– Through his breadth, his curiosity and openness, but also through his proximity to science in various forms, Magnus Florin is an ideal honorary doctorate. His uniquely versatile writing represents the humanities and the human sciences in their breadth and richness to an unusually high degree, which makes him an unequivocally worthy representative of a modern university, says Thomas Götselius, professor at the Department of Culture and Aesthetics.

Law

Phoebe Okowa

Phoebe Okowa is Professor of International Law at Queen Mary, University of London and a member of the UN International Law Commission and Chair of its Editorial Committee. She was educated at the Universities of Nairobi and Oxford where she obtained a Bachelor of Law (1987), a Bachelor of Civil Law (1990) and a Doctor of Philosophy (1994) respectively. Okowa has written extensively in several different areas of international law, including on state responsibility, responsibility for international crimes and environmental justice. In addition to her academic work, she has been an adviser to governments on international law issues and participated as a representative in several cases before the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. As a long-standing member of the Stockholm Center for International Law and Justice, she has collaborated with the Department of Law in several projects.

– For 20 years, Professor Phoebe Okowa has been involved in research and activities on international law, not least international environmental law at the Stockholm Center for International Law and Justice (SCILJ) and the Stockholm Environmental Law Center. Among other things, she has contributed to publications on international law, environmental law and justice that were initiated and edited at Stockholm University and she has participated in program committees for conferences and is a member of SCILJ’s international academic council, says Pål Wrange, professor at the Department of Law.

Social science

Katja Franko

Katja Franko is a professor of criminology at the University of Oslo. Her works concern issues around migration, border control, surveillance and international policing in a globalized world. The research is both empirically curious and theoretically outstanding. In her research, she is pioneering and is becoming increasingly relevant in the light of political changes in the Nordic region. Franko works at the University of Oslo and has published several influential books as well as articles in the leading criminological scientific journals. Katja Franko is not afraid to tackle complex subjects, which contributes to a deeper understanding of criminological issues. Her texts have influenced criminological research at Stockholm University, and she has had an impact on the entire subject of criminology. Her commitment to exploring and questioning contemporary criminological subject areas is also an inspiration for the next generation of researchers.

– Professor Katja Franko’s research is innovative and constantly relevant, which we at the department find inspiring both for today’s academics and future researchers in criminology. She is rooted in a critical criminological approach and builds on a tradition of collaboration between Oslo and Stockholm University, says Anita Heber, professor at the Department of Criminology.

Natural Science

Zhaojun Bai

Zhaojun Bai is a professor in the Departments of Computer Science and Mathematics, University of California, Davis, USA, and researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Bai’s research interests are mainly in numerical linear algebra, mathematical software development, and in computer science and engineering. He is Editor-in-Chief of ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software and Fellow of SIAM. Bai is well known for his work in LAPACK, a standard code library for numerical linear algebra, used by researchers in many research fields.

– He has been a generous guest professor at the Department of Mathematics during the years 2019–2021 when he taught both on campus and via zoom during the pandemic, gave lectures and organized workshops. In particular, he contributed to the development of the activity in scientific calculation at the department, says Yishao Zhou, professor at the Department of Mathematics.

Camille Parmesan

Camille Parmesan is a professor at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), France. She is a highly respected evolutionary ecologist and a pioneer in research on how biodiversity is affected by global climate change. One of her early research papers was one of the first biological examples to document a changing distribution pattern due to a changing climate. Since then, many highly ranked studies and awards have followed her career. She has also made important contributions and has been strongly involved in the work within the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

– Camille Parmesan showed early on that species change their natural distribution areas in response to temperature changes. The intensified international debate about climate change and its causes led her into the interface between science and society. She has a great commitment within several international bodies, for example the IPCC, but also here at Stockholm University, within the Bolin Center and with several fruitful collaborations with individual researchers. She is very good at bringing her knowledge to the public, communicating her passion for biodiversity and drawing attention to the threats from ongoing climate change, says Bengt Karlsson, professor at the Department of Zoology.

Matthias Tschöp

Matthias Tschöp is Alexander von Humboldt professor at the Technical University of Munich as well as CEO of Helmholtz Munich and vice chairman of the Helmholtz Association in Germany. He is an internationally recognized researcher in obesity and diabetes. He demonstrated that the stomach peptide ghrelin is the human hunger hormone. In his quest to find effective drugs to treat obesity, he discovered interacting gut hormones; some of the substances he has developed offer safe weight loss for the first time. His research has thus paved the way to overcoming the global obesity pandemic and preventing most future cases of type 2 diabetes. He has continuously shared his expertise with researchers at Stockholm University. This has been of great importance in the establishment of the sophisticated metabolic equipment that makes Stockholm University’s metabolic research infrastructure unique and internationally competitive.

– Professor Tschöp has always encouraged scientific collaboration by generously sharing his expertise with colleagues at Stockholm University, says Martin Jastroch, professor at the Department of Molecular Biosciences, Wenner-Gren Institute.

What does an honorary doctorate mean?

An honorary doctorate is an expression of the university’s appreciation of outstanding contributions within one of the university’s fields of activity. The appointed honorary doctor must be connected to Stockholm University or have contributed to the university’s activities in some respect.

More information about who can be appointed as an honorary doctor at Stockholm University and previous years’ honorary doctors.

Installation and promotion ceremony in Stockholm City Hall on 27 September 2024

The new honorary doctorates will be promoted at the university’s installation and graduation ceremony in Stockholm City Hall on Friday, September 27 at 5 p.m.

More information about the installation and graduation ceremony at Stockholm University.