Two world-renowned Simon Fraser University Pipe Band brothers, a former SFU president, an Olympic soccer medalist, and a cardiology trailblazer are among 10 distinguished people SFU is recognizing with honourary degrees at its spring (June 11-14) and fall (Oct. 10-11) Convocation ceremonies.
The spring Convocation recipients are:
• Shabana Azmi, an Indian actor, member of Parliament and Gandhi International Peace Prize winner who is a passionate advocate for the rights of women, minorities and displaced slum dwellers, and a vocal supporter of India’s secular liberal values.
• Barry Downs, a Vancouver architect and pioneer of the West Coast modernist architectural style whose more than five-decade career includes projects such as Pearson and Kwantlen colleges, Beatty Mews, the Champlain Heights and False Creek communities and the Expo 86 site.
• Michael Ingham, Bishop of the Diocese of New Westminster, who in 2002 became the first bishop in the worldwide Anglican Communion to authorize the blessing of same-sex unions.
• Brothers Jack and Terry Lee, two of the world’s most accomplished bagpipers, who have spent the past 30 years developing and leading the SFU Pipe Band to six world championships.
• Andy MacKinnon, a B.C. Forest Service research ecologist, SFU adjunct professor of resource and environmental management and the author of six best-selling field guides to plants of western North America.
• Kelvin Ogilvie, a Canadian senator, past president of Acadia University and award-winning biotechnology, bio-organic chemistry and genetic engineering innovator who developed an automated DNA manufacturing process and invented the antiviral drug Ganciclovir, used to fight infections in weakened immune systems.
The three fall convocation recipients are:
• Christine Sinclair, a two-time Olympian who led the Canadian women’s soccer team to a bronze medal in the 2012 Olympics and has been named as one of the 25 most influential people in Canadian sport.
• Michael Stevenson, political scientist and president emeritus of Simon Fraser University, who led an ambitious program of organizational change and development at SFU that included a $500-million expansion of campus facilities.
• John Webb, a physician and director of interventional cardiology at St. Paul’s Hospital, who pioneered one of the most important advances in heart disease in the last 25 years—the non-surgical transcatheter replacement of diseased heart valves.
Simon Fraser University has campuses in Vancouver, Burnaby and Surrey.
