Honorary doctorates
The awarding of an honorary doctorate is an expression of the University's appreciation of outstanding contributions in one or more of the University's areas of academic activity.
An honorary doctorate is an expression of the University’s appreciation of outstanding contributions in one or more of the University’s areas of academic activity. The awarded honorary doctor should be affiliated with Stockholm University or have contributed to the University’s activities in some way.
The Deputy Vice President appoints the honorary doctors for the academic area after proposals from and discussions within the faculties.
Honorary doctorates 2025
Law
Mats Melin
Mats Melin has had a long and successful career as a lawyer and judge, making important contributions to the Swedish legal community. He holds a Master of Laws degree from Uppsala University and has, among other, served as Legal Secretary and Head of Chamber at the Court of Justice of the European Union, as judge at the Svea Court of Appeal, as Chief Justice Ombudsman, and as a Justice and President of the Supreme Administrative Court. He has participated in several public inquiries and chaired the Corona Commission. During the years 2020–2024, Mats Melin was chair of the University Board at Stockholm University.
Humanities
Patrizia Calefato
Patrizia Calefato is a professor of cultural sociology and communication at the University of Bari Aldo Moro, Italy. Her broad research field covers philosophy, cultural studies and linguistics, but since the early 2000s she has primarily been a leader in the international field of fashion research. Through semiotics, she became interested in fashion theory in the 1980s, focusing on the body’s relationship to fashion and clothing, and in fashion as its own language system. Books such as Luxury: Fashion, Lifestyle and Excess (2014) and The Clothed Body (2004) are constant references in fashion research, and she has continued to publish at a high rate since then.
Åsa Simma
Åsa Simma is a performing artist, director, playwright and activist and has been a leading voice in both the Sami and international performing arts for several decades. With her roots in the Sami culture and language, Åsa Simma has created space for decolonial and indigenous-centered perspectives. Her theatrical works, directing and lectures have given voice to questions of identity, cultural heritage and linguistic justice. Åsa Simma received her performing arts education at Tuukkaq Teater in Denmark, which is the world’s oldest theatre school for indigenous artists. There, she drew inspiration from both Western avant-garde and indigenous forms such as yoik, ritual, shamanism and mythology. Since 2015, Åsa Simma has been CEO and artistic director of Giron Sámi Teáhter.
Social Sciences
Philippe Aghion
Philippe Aghion is a professor of economics at the Collège de France and the London School of Economics, among others. His research focuses on understanding technological development and innovation. In a 1992 paper with economist Peter Howitt, he launched a modern version of Joseph Schumpeter’s ideas about creative destruction from the 1940s. Creative destruction, according to Schumpeter, meant that established companies must give way because of new technological advances. The paper has had enormous influence in the field. Joseph Schumpeter’s analysis concluded with concerns about stagnation, while Philippe Aghion’s conclusions are more optimistic: it is possible to combine long-term growth with an equitable distribution of resources and high welfare.
Gita Mishra
Gita Mishra is professor at the University of Queensland, Australia, and a world-leading researcher in life-course epidemiology and women’s health. Life-course epidemiology studies, among other things, the long-term effects of various physical and social exposures during childhood, adolescence and adulthood and how this affects health later in life.
Mishra’s expert work for the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSWUN) has been very significant for the health and rights of women and girls around the world. She has previously worked at University College London, UK. Since 2012, she has led a large cohort study in Australia and the research network InterLACE, which combines data from more than 1.2 million women in 19 countries – a leading global resource for reproductive health.
Science
Thomas von Heijne
Thomas von Heijne is a former Swedish science journalist. During the 1980s, he studied at the School of Journalism (Journalisthögskolan in Swedish) and Stockholm University, in the latter case he pursued studies in Japanese, Nordic languages and economics. After a contract position at Japan’s NHK radio, he was hired by SVT in 1990. He worked there until his retirement, as the central figure in a number of news reports and programs about technology and science, not least astronomy and space travel.
Conferment ceremony on 26 September 2025
The honorary doctorates are conferred at the coming Inauguration and Conferment Ceremony in Stockholm City Hall, Friday 26 September at 17.00.
Inauguration of New Professors and Conferment of Doctoral Degrees
Who can be appointed honorary doctor?
The proposed person should be affiliated with the University as an honorary doctorate is an expression of the appreciation of outstanding contributions in one of the university's academic areas. Honorary doctorates may not be awarded in return for financial contributions, gifts and the like.
A person who has already been awarded a PhD in Sweden within a certain academic area may not be awarded an honorary doctorate in the same area. It is, however, quite possible to appoint a doctor of philosophy, for example, to an honorary doctor of Laws and vice versa. It is not usual that someone be appointed an honorary doctorate at the same university that he or she graduated from.There is no requirement that an honorary doctor has obtained an academic degree.
In the case of foreign nationals with a foreign degree, there is no obstacle to awarding an honorary doctorate in the same area as the foreign degree.
The proposed person should not be an honorary doctor in the same field at another university or higher education institution in Sweden. However, a person may, for example, be an honorary doctor of philosophy at one university and honorary doctor of medicine at another.
An honorary doctorate cannot be awarded posthumously.
Honorary doctors, previous years
The first honorary doctors were appointed at Stockholm University, then Stockholm University College, in 1909. All honorary doctors from this year onwards will be compiled and published on this web page.
Here is a list of Stockholm University's honorary doctors from 1994 onwards (published on the Swedish website).
Honorary doctorates at Stockholm University 1994-2024
Contact
Email: doktorspromotion@su.se
Ingrid Harris, Master of Ceremonies
Phone: +46-8-164908
Visiting Address:
Spökslottet, Drottninggatan 116
Postal address:
Stockholm University
Office of the President
SE-106 91 Stockholm
Last updated: April 25, 2025
Source: Office of the President (MCW)
