Glittering prizes

Former United States senator George Mitchell, 66, chair of the commission that produced the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland and recently appointed chancellor of Queen's, Belfast, has received the honorary degree of doctor of law from the University of Liverpool.

Michael Milne, biomedical scientist at Hammersmith Hospital, London, has been awarded the Pounds 1,000 1998 Princess Royal Scholarship for travel by the Institution of Electrical Engineers.

The University of London is to award honorary degrees to the following: author Doris Lessing (DLit); Sir Evelyn de Rothschild (DSc (Econ)), chairman of N. M. Rothschild and Sons Limited; Richard Peto, professor of medical statistics at the University of Oxford; Lord Slynn of Hadley, Lord of Appeal, and Sir William Taylor, formerly director of the Institute of Education (DLit (Ed)).

The University of Cambridge has nominated for honorary degrees writer A. S.

Byatt; philosopher and social theorist Jurgen Habermas; Li Ka-Shing, chairman of Cheung Kong Ltd; Cesar Milstein, winner of the Nobel prize for medicine; Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel Corporation; Sadako Ogata, United Nations high commissioner for refugees; entomologist Miriam Rothschild; Desmond Tutu, emeritus archbishop of Cape Town and winner of the Nobel peace prize and Sir Colin St John Wilson, architect of the new British Library. If approved by the university staff, the degrees will be conferred in June.

The University of Durham will award honorary degrees to the following: Charles Putman, professor of medicine and radiology and senior vice-president Duke University, Durham, North Carolina; Jonathan Miller, psychologist, writer and director; John Polikinghorne, fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge, and a canon theologian of Liverpool Cathedral; Marjorie Mowlem, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland; Cynthia Connolly, master's secretary at Hatfield College, Durham; Lord Laming, retired chief inspector of the Social Services Inspectorate; Sir Martin Rees, Royal Society research professor at Durham; and Audrey Warner, meteorologist.

14 peopleThe Times HigherJfebruary 19J1999