Glittering prizes

Scottish comedian Rikki Fulton, is to recieve the honorary degree of doctor of letters from the University of St Andrews in June. Uta Frith, who pioneered the cognitive explanation of autism and dyslexia, will receive an honorary doctor of science degree at the same ceremony.

Vaneeta-Marie D'Andrea, director of educational development, policy and standards at the Roehampton Institute, has won a Carnegie scholarship, awarded for excellence in learning and teaching in sociology.

Neil Corcoran, head of the school of English at the University of St Andrews, has been invited to sit on the committee for the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. The committee is chaired by the poet laureate, Andrew Motion. Other members are poet and literary editor Alan Ross, poet and ex-Oxford professor of poetry James Fenton, novelist and scholar Marina Warner and critic and biographer Claire Tomalin.

Eric Hawkins, professor emeritus of the University of York, and John Trim, former director of the department of linguistics at Cambridge University, have been awarded Comenius Fellowships from the Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research.

Graham Davies, professor of psychology at the University of Leicester, has been appointed president elect of the European Association of Psychology and Law.

John Berkeley, Rover senior fellow in the department of continuing education at the University of Warwick, has been appointed to serve on the advisory group on citizenship in post-compulsory education and training.

Eric Dunning, emeritus professor of sociology at Leicester, has been awarded the 1999 annual prize of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport for his book about sport, violence and civilisation.

John Alexander, of St. John's College, Cambridge, has been awarded an honorary doctorate of arts by the University of Khartoum, Sudan.

Alison Finch, reader in French and fellow of Merton College, Oxford, has been awarded the Palmes Academiques by the French government, with the rank of officier.