
Main menu
Honorary Degrees
University of Pennsylvania
Honorary degrees are important statements of Penn's values and aspirations and we strongly encourage your participation in this process.
Honorary Degree Process
The Office of the University Secretary manages the honorary degrees process at Penn.
All members of the University community are welcome to submit nominations. All nominations are confidential and potential nominees should not be contacted directly. Review is ongoing and candidates may ultimately be selected several years after their initial nomination.
The University Council Honorary Degrees Committee, with a membership of faculty, staff and graduate and undergraduate students, is charged with reviewing nominations from the fields of scholarship and academic achievement and advising the Trustee Committee on Honorary Degrees and Awards. The Trustee Committee considers recommendations from the Council Committee as well as other sources and makes final selections.
It is University policy not to consider Penn standing faculty, trustees, or school and center advisors for honorary degrees.
Penn emeritus faculty are eligible to receive honorary degrees through a special nomination process by University Deans.
List of previous University of Pennsylvania
Honorary Degree Recipients
Honorary Degree Qualifications
Candidates should exemplify the highest ideals of the University, which seek to educate those who will change the world through innovative scholarship, scientific discovery, artistic creativity and/or societal leadership. Please note that Penn does not offer Honorary Degrees posthumously or in absentia.
Nominations for Honorary Degrees
Nominations should explain how nominees meet the criteria for selection and outline the nominees’ achievements and contributions; Please include as much biographical and other supporting information as possible, but do not contact the nominees. The nomination process is confidential and nominees should not know that they are being considered. We particularly encourage nominations from fields which have not been recognized by the award of honorary degrees in recent years.
For general purposes, field of consideration for honorary degree nominations are as follows:
- Arts and Culture
- Business
- Education
- Entertainment and Media
- Humanities and Social Sciences
- Public Affairs (government, law)
- Scholarship/Academia
- Science, Technology and Medicine
- Other
Ken Burns
American documentary filmmaker
Recipient of 16 Emmy Awards and 2 Academy Award nominations
Commencement Speaker and Honorary Doctor of Arts
Mary Frances Berry
Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Historian, author, public servant, advocate for social justice
Geraldine R. Segal Professor Emerita of American Social Thought, History, and Africana Studies, University of Pennsylvania
Atul Gawande
General and endocrine surgeon, author
Head of Global Health, U.S. Agency for International Development
Honorary Doctor of Sciences
Amy Gutmann
U.S. Ambassador to Germany
President Emerita, University of Pennsylvania
Honorary Doctor of Laws
Carla D. Hayden
Librarian, educator, administrator
14th Librarian of Congress
Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters
George E. Lewis
American composer, musicologist, and trombonist
Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music, Columbia University
Honorary Doctor of Music
Margaret H. Marshall
Lawyer, jurist
Chief Justice, Retired, Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Senior Counsel, Choate Hall & Stewart LLP
Honorary Doctor of Laws
Edward Witten
Physicist, mathematician
Charles Simonyi Professor in the School of Natural Sciences, Institute for Advanced Study
Honorary Doctor of Sciences