The LittD and ScD are highest level of degrees given by the University and only a handful of them are awarded each year

The President of St John’s and Professor Eske Willerslev both received the highest possible academic accolade from the University of Cambridge at a ceremony on Saturday.

Dr Frank Salmon, President of St John’s, and Professor Eske Willerslev, College Supervisor in Zoology, were awarded a Doctor of Letters (LittD) and a Doctor of Science degree (ScD) respectively.

The LittD and ScD are highest level of degrees given by the University and only a handful of them are awarded each year.

^{Dr Frank Salmon. Photo credit: Ben Lister}

Dr Salmon was awarded a LittD for his contribution to the field of Architecture and History of Art. Since beginning his academic career as a lecturer at the University of Manchester in 1989, he has published several significant papers and books on post-medieval British architecture including his prize-winning first book Building on Ruins: The Rediscovery of Rome and English Architecture.

Dr Salmon was previously Assistant Director for Academic Activities at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art in London, and he was adjunct Associate Professor of the History of Art at the Mellon Centre's mother institution, Yale University. He recently served as a member of the national Historic England Advisory Committee which advises the Government's statutory body on the impact of high-profile cases such as the proposed HS2 rail link, the A303 road tunnel near Stonehenge, and the third runway at Heathrow Airport.

^{Professor Eske Willerslev stands in front of Senate House after receiving his ScD}

Professor Willerslev received his ScD degree in recognition of his significant contributions to the field of Zoology. He has spent the last 20 years researching the genetics of insects, plants, mammals and humans and now focuses on understanding human genetic diversity and distribution. He has had more than 200-peer-reviewed papers - more than 40 of them have been published in the journals Nature and Science.

He was recently the lead scientist on a project which identified the Spirit Cave remains, the world’s oldest natural mummy, as a Native American ending a decades-long legal battle over the ownership of the ancient skeleton. Professor Willerslev is currently working on recovering lost genetic strains of rice which could make the rice grown today more resilient to disease.

Alongside his Fellowship at St John’s, Professor Willerslev holds the Prince Philip Professorship at University of Cambridge and the Lundbeck Foundation Professorship at University of Copenhagen. He is also a Chair at The Danish Institute for Advanced Study at The University of Southern Denmark.

Published: 28/02/19

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