Honorary degrees awarded at Encaenia 2024

Six widely-esteemed recipients were awarded honorary degrees from Oxford University at Encaenia.

The honorands were actor, comedian, writer, and television presenter Sir Michael Palin; Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the first woman and first African to become Director General of the World Trade Organization; computer scientist, artificial intelligence researcher and entrepreneur Sir Demis Hassabis; Professor Salim Yusuf, an internationally renowned cardiologist and epidemiologist; musician, sitarist, composer and producer, Anoushka Shankar; and engineer and businessperson Warren East who was CEO for Rolls-Royce Holdings.

From AI, engineering and economics, to music, medicine and the world of television and travel writing, our honorands have impacted our world in so many different ways

Professor Irene Tracey

Encaenia is held annually and is the ceremony at which honorary degrees are conferred by the University to distinguished individuals, and its benefactors are commemorated.

In the morning, recipients signed their names in the Honorary Degrees Book before moving to the Sheldonian Theatre where the Encaenia ceremony has been held in some form since 1670.

Professor Irene Tracey, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University and Chair of the Committee on Honorary Degrees, said: ‘We are delighted to mark this special day in the University's calendar and to recognise the outstanding contribution that our six honorands have made to their respective fields.

'From AI, engineering and economics, to music, medicine and the world of television and travel writing, our honorands have impacted our world in so many different ways, and we are thrilled to welcome them to Oxford.’

Sir Michael Palin

Image: Oxford University Images / John Cairns

Honorands in 2024

At the Encaenia ceremony on Wednesday 19 June 2024, degrees were awarded to: 

• Warren East is a British engineer and businessperson who was CEO for Rolls-Royce Holdings from 2015 to 2022. He is an Executive in Residence at the Saïd Business School at Oxford University and an Honorary Fellow at Wadham College, Oxford.
• Sir Demis Hassabis is a British computer scientist, artificial intelligence researcher and entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind.
• Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is a Nigerian economist and the seventh Director General of the World Trade Organisation – the first woman and the first African to hold the position.
• Sir Michael Palin is an actor, comedian, writer and television presenter. He has written and starred in numerous TV programmes, including ‘Monty Python’, and has made several much-acclaimed travel documentaries. Sir Michael read modern history at Brasenose College, Oxford.
• Anoushka Shankar is a British-Indian-American musician, sitarist, composer and producer who made her performing debut at the age of 13. Among her accolades are nine Grammy nominations and Ivor Novello Award nomination.
• Professor Salim Yusuf is an internationally renowned Canadian cardiologist and epidemiologist, whose work over 40 years has substantially influenced prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease.

Find out more about the Encaenia ceremony and Honorary Degrees - Early History.

Full biographies

(David) Warren East CBE, FRS, FREng, FIET, FRAeS, FBCS is a British engineer and businessperson. He was appointed CBE in the 2014 New Year Honours ‘for services to the technology industry’. After studying Engineering Science at Oxford University, Warren earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Cranfield University. He spent 11 years with Texas Instruments before joining ARM Holdings, where he was made CEO in 2001. Warren was then appointed to lead Rolls-Royce Holdings as CEO from 2015–2022. He is currently a non-executive director at Tokamak Energy, a member of the supervisory board at ASML NV, chair of C-Capture, and serves on the advisory board for Avina Clean Hydrogen. Warren is an Executive in Residence at the Saïd Business School at Oxford and an Honorary Fellow at Wadham College, Oxford.

Sir Demis Hassabis, CBE, PhD, FRS, FREng, is a British computer scientist, artificial intelligence researcher and entrepreneur. In 2024, Demis was awarded a knighthood for services to Artificial Intelligence. Demis is the co-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind, which has been responsible for numerous landmark AI breakthroughs such as AlphaGo, the first program to beat the world champion at the complex game of Go. In 2020, DeepMind’s AI system AlphaFold solved the 50-year grand challenge of protein structure prediction by accurately predicting the 3D shape of proteins. Aged 17, Demis co-designed the multi-million selling AI simulation video game Theme Park. After graduating from Cambridge University in Computer Science, he founded videogames developer Elixir Studios. Demis completed a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience at UCL and continued his postdoctoral studies at MIT and Harvard before founding DeepMind. Demis has won many international awards for his research and is a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Left to right: Warren East, Sir Demis Hassabis and Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

Photo credit for Sir Demis Hassabis - Angela Moore

Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is a Nigerian economist and the seventh Director General of the World Trade Organization. She took office in 2021, becoming the first woman and the first African to hold the position. In 2022, Dr Okonjo-Iweala became the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON), Nigeria's second highest honour. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the World Economic Forum and co-chairs the Global Commission on the Economics of Water. Previously, Dr Okonjo-Iweala became the first woman to serve as Nigeria’s Finance Minister, a post she held for seven years in two terms, and also served briefly as the first female Foreign Affairs Minister. A 25-year career at the World Bank culminated in Dr Okonjo-Iweala being appointed Managing Director in 2007. She is the recipient of numerous honours and in 2019 was inducted as an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Sir Michael Palin, KCMG, CBE, FRGS, FRSGS, FRSL is an actor, comedian, writer, and television presenter. He was knighted in 2019 for ‘services to travel, culture and geography’. Sir Michael has written and starred in numerous TV programmes and films, from Monty Python and Ripping Yarns to A Fish Called Wanda and The Death of Stalin. He has also made several much-acclaimed travel documentaries; his journeys taking him to the North and South Poles, the Sahara Desert, the Himalayas, Eastern Europe and Brazil. From 2009 to 2012 he was president of the Royal Geographical Society. His writing includes accounts of his journeys, fiction, non-fiction, children’s books, plays and several volumes of diaries. Sir Michael is the recipient of a number of BAFTA Awards and received the National Television Award for Special Recognition in 2020. He was also recognised with a BAFTA fellowship in 2013.

Left to right: Sir Michael Palin, Anoushka Shankar and Professor Salim Yusuf

Photo credit - for Michael Palin - John Swannell; for Anoushka Shankar - Laura Lewis

Anoushka Shankar is a British-Indian-American musician, sitarist, composer and producer. Anoushka began studying the sitar as a child under her father, Ravi Shankar, and made her performing debut aged 13. Since releasing her first solo album at 17, she has made ten studio albums, three live albums and numerous collaborative recordings. Among her accolades are nine Grammy nominations, an Ivor Novello Award nomination, a number of Eastern Eye ACTA awards and a Songlines Best Artist Award. Anoushka frequently works with organisations such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and Choose Love, to raise funds and awareness for the refugee crisis. She has also been outspoken about her own experiences, supporting campaigns such as One Billion Rising. Anoushka is an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music and was one of the first female composers to be added to the A-Level music syllabus by one of Britain’s biggest exam boards.

Professor Salim Yusuf, OC, FRSC, FRCPC is an internationally renowned Canadian cardiologist and epidemiologist, whose work over 40 years has substantially influenced prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease. Among his current affiliations, Professor Yusuf is Distinguished University Professor of Medicine at McMaster University and Executive Director of the Population Health Research Institute, Canada. He holds a Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario Research Chair and in 2023 was elected as an Honorary Fellow of St John’s College, Oxford. He was President of the World Heart Federation, 2015–16. Professor Yusuf was born in India and studied medicine at St John’s Medical College in Bangalore, before earning a DPhil at Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar. Professor Yusuf has received more than 75 international and national awards for his research including a World Heart Federation Lifetime Achievement Award. He was the 2020 recipient of the McLaughlin Medal from the Royal Society of Canada and appointed an Officer in the Order of Canada in 2013.