Congratulations to Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz

Professor Jane Clarke and the Governing Body were delighted to welcome Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz to Wolfson to celebrate the awarding of his honorary degree from Cambridge University.

The degree was awarded at a congregation at the Senate House which was presided over by the University Chancellor, Lord Sainsbury of Turville.

The Doctorate of Law was conferred on Sir Leszek for a lifetime's contribution to academic leadership, both nationally and to collegiate Cambridge as Vice-Chancellor. Sir Leszek has also had an outstanding career as a physician and clinical researcher, including undertaking Europe's first trial of a vaccine against human papillomavirus to prevent cervical cancer.

The day of the Honorary Degree Congregation is a 'scarlet day', so called because doctors wear scarlet instead of black gowns. Flags were flown to mark the occasion and the bells of the University Church rang out as processions walked around Senate-House Yard.

The University has been conferring honorary degrees for some 500 years. One of the earliest recorded was in 1493, when the poet John Skelton was honoured.

Sir Leszek has a long association with Wolfson, first becoming a Fellow in 1989 and being an Honorary Fellow since 2002. Congratulations once more to Sir Leszek.