Tanni Grey-ThompsonAHOY CENTRE

The University of Cambridge has revealed it will be awarding eight honorary doctorates on 20th February, with Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson and Apple designer Sir Jonathan Ive among the recipients.

Competing as a wheelchair racer, Grey-Thompson – who will receive an honorary law doctorate – won 11 gold medals, four silver medals and a bronze medal across five Paralympic Games between 1988 and 2004.

She has since gone on to have a career as a television presenter. Having been made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for “services to sport” in 1993, she was promoted to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2005. Since 2010, she has sat in the House of Lords as a crossbench life peer.

Grey-Thompson has already received honours from the University of Oxford, the University of Bath, and Cardiff University.

Sir Jonathan Ive, Apple’s Chief Design Officer, will be awarded the title of Doctor of Science. A graduate of Newcastle Polytechnic (now Northumbria University), and a full-time Apple employee since 1992, the close design partnership he formed with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs led to a revival of Apple’s fortunes through products including the first iMac, the iPod, and the iPad.

Since Jobs’s death, Ive’s elevation from Senior Vice President for Industrial Design to Chief Design Officer has seen both an expansion in Ive’s role across the company and Apple’s continued success with products, including the Apple Watch.

There will also be an honorary doctorate of letters for the film and theatre director Sir Nicholas Hytner, formerly Director of the National Theatre in London, where he had major successes with Miss Saigon, The History Boys and One Man, Two Guvnors.

Among other recipients of doctorates will be the physician Sir David Keith Peters, businesswoman and champion for women in boardrooms Helena Morrissey, neofuturistic architect Dame Zaha Hadid, and the Royal Academy of Music pianist Joanna McGregor.