ANNUAL CELEBRATION
Honorary Doctors 2026
An honorary doctorate can be awarded without the recipient having previously defended a doctoral dissertation. It is awarded to researchers whom the university wishes to honour for their scientific work.
The Faculty of Humanities
The Faculty of Humanities has nominated Amanda Lagerkvist for an honorary doctorate.
Amanda Lagerkvist is a professor of media and communication studies at Uppsala University.
She is internationally recognised for her original contributions to research on digital media and has been the driving force behind the development of existential media studies as a prominent international field of research. Through her work, Lagerkvist has developed a theoretical framework that connects media theory with existential philosophy and sheds light on how digital technologies shape people’s experiences of vulnerability, meaning, relationships and life’s limit situations.
The Faculty of Science
The Faculty of Science has nominated Kimberly Ann Kline for an honorary doctorate.
Kimberly Ann Kline is a professor of microbiology at the University of Geneva.
Kline’s research focuses on bacterial infections, biofilms and the interactions between microorganisms and their hosts. She has received numerous research and teaching awards, including the ICAAC Young Investigator Award in 2014 and the Nanyang Teaching Award in 2016. In 2025, she was elected as a member of the American Academy of Microbiology and in 2026 as a member of the European Academy of Microbiology.
The Faculty of Social Sciences
The Faculty of Social Sciences has nominated Scott L. Cummings for an honorary doctorate.
Scott L. Cummings is a professor at the UCLA School of Law.
Through his research, he has made a significant contribution to the understanding of the role of the legal profession in democratic societies and the importance of legal ethics for the functioning of the rule of law. His work has pioneered the study of lawyers’ professional responsibility, access to justice and the interaction between law, democracy and social movements.
SDU Business School
SDU Business School has nominated Bernard Cova for an honorary doctorate.
Bernard Cova is a professor of marketing at the ESCE International Business School. Bernard Cova is internationally recognised for his research on collective modes of consumption and the communities that create value in and around markets.
His research has been widely published and cited in leading journals such as the Journal of Consumer Research, Marketing Theory and Industrial Marketing Management. His research has had an impact on several of the international research environments at SDU Business School.
The Faculty of Health Sciences
The Faculty of Health Sciences has nominated Deanna L. Kroetz for an honorary doctorate.
Deanna L. Kroetz is a professor of pharmacy at Ohio State University. Her pioneering research has been crucial to our understanding of adverse drug reactions. Deanna Kroetz has significantly strengthened pharmacy education at several leading universities in the US, and as head of the College of Pharmacy at Ohio State University, she leads one of the nation’s most prestigious centres of pharmacy education. Her remarkable contributions have earned her a number of honours, most recently her election to the National Academy of Medicine.
The Faculty of Engineering
The Faculty of Engineering has nominated Lorie Hamelin for an honorary doctorate.
Lorie Hamelin is a professor at the Toulouse Biotechnology Institute. She is an internationally recognised expert in the field of environmental systems analysis, with a strong research profile in life cycle assessment (LCA), circular bioeconomic systems and the sustainable management of biomass and waste resources. In 2017, she was selected as a recipient under the French government’s Make Our Planet Great Again programme in recognition of the international significance of her research on climate mitigation and sustainable transitions in the bioeconomy.