Honorary Doctorate Award

RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences established an Honorary Doctorate Award in 2011 to recognise excellence and to provide an inspiration to students on their graduation day. All awardees are exceptional people who have made a difference to the world through education, research or service.

The following inspirational people have received this prestigious award:

2025

• Professor Luke O’Neill, Chair of Biochemistry, School of Biochemistry and Immunology, Trinity College Dublin
• Ms Mary Mitchell O’Connor, former TD and Cabinet Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation as well as Minister of State for Higher Education
• Professor Tim Spector, Professor of Epidemiology, King’s College London; founder and Director of the TwinsUK Registry; co-founder of ZOE
• Professor Dame Elizabeth Nneka Anionwu OM DBE FRCN FQICN, Emeritus Professor of Nursing, University of West London

2024

• Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter FRS OBE, Emeritus Professor of Statistics in the Centre for Mathematical Sciences, University of Cambridge
• Professor Dorothy Roberts, 14th Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor and George A. Weiss University Professor of Law and Sociology, University of Pennsylvania
• Professor Mary Dixon-Woods, Health Foundation Professor of Healthcare Improvement Studies, Director of THIS Institute, University of Cambridge
• Dr Mohamed A. El-Erian, President of Queens’ College at Cambridge University

2023

• Professor Dame Clare Gerada DBE, General Practitioner and President of the Royal College of General Practitioners
• Ms Emer Cooke, Executive Director, European Medicines Agency
• Ms Margaret Murphy, Patient Safety Advocate and External Lead Advisor Emeritus for the World Health Organization, Patients for Patient Safety Programme
• Ms Noeline Blackwell, former CEO, Dublin Rape Crisis Centre

2022

• Dr Trish Scanlan, Director of TLM Paediatric Oncology Programme in Dar es Salaam Tanzania; Interim Director of Global Health at Children’s Health Ireland
• Professor Patrick McGorry AO, Executive Director, Orygen; Professor of Youth Mental Health, Centre for Youth Mental Health, University of Melbourne
• Dr David Donoghue, former senior Irish diplomat; co-facilitator of the Sustainable Development Goals and other UN agreements; Distinguished Fellow of Overseas Development Institute
• Professor Rose Anne Kenny, Regius Professor of Physic, Professor of Medical Gerontology, Trinity College Dublin and Mercer’s Institute for Successful Ageing, St James’s Hospital Dublin

2021

• Professor Martin E.P. Seligman, Zellerbach Family Professor of Psychology and Director of the Positive Psychology Center, University of Pennsylvania
• Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Visiting Academic and Professorial Fellow, Mansfield College, University of Oxford
• Ms Cindy Eckert, CEO at The Pink Ceiling and Sprout Pharmaceuticals
• Dr Roshi Joan Halifax, Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist and pioneer in the field of end-of-life care

2020

• Dr Mary E. D’Alton, Obstetrician and Gynecologist-in-Chief, Willard C. Rappleye Professor and Chair, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center
• Dr Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief and publisher of The Lancet
• Ms Katie Elizabeth Piper, best-selling international author, TV presenter and charity campaigner

2019

• Professor Garret A. Fitzgerald, Professor of Medicine and Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics. Director, Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, Perelman School of Medicine University of Pennsylvania
• Professor Dame Sally C. Davies, Chief Medical Officer for England and Chief Medical Advisor to the UK Government Department of Health and Social Care, UK
• Professor Adrienne M. Flanagan, RCSI, Medicine, Class of 1981; National Institute for Health Research Senior Investigator; Head of Academic Pathology and Professor of Musculoskeletal Pathology, University College London; Clinical Lead for the London Sarcoma Service and the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital
• Dr David Ansell, Associate Provost for Community Affairs, Rush University; The Michael E. Kelly, MD, Presidential Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Rush Medical College; Senior Vice President for Community Health Equity, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago

2018

• Dr Barbara Murphy, RCSI, Medicine, Class of 1989; Chair, Department of Medicine, Murray M. Rosenberg Professor of Medicine; Dean for Clinical Integration and Population Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York
• Dr Siddhartha Mukherjee, Associate Professor of Medicine, Columbia University Medical Centre, New York and best-selling author
• Professor Sir Stephen O’Rahilly, Co-Director, Wellcome-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science; Director, Wellcome-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science-Metabolic Research Laboratories; Director, MRC Metabolic Diseases Unit; Professor of Clinical Biochemistry and Medicine, University of Cambridge

2017

• Dr Bennet Omalu, forensic pathologist/neuropathologist; Chief Medical Examiner, San Joaquin County, California and Clinical Professor of Medical Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of California, Davis
• The Honourable Mrs Catherine McGuinness, Member of Council of State; Patron of the Irish Refugee Council; Patron of the Irish Fostercare Association and Chair of Údarás NUI Gaillimh

2016

• Dr Nezam H. Afdhal, RCSI, Medicine, Class of 1981; Chief of Hepatology and Director of the Liver Centre, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre, Boston; Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, USA
• Professor Áine Hyland, Emeritus Professor of Education and Vice-President Emeritus, University College Cork

2015

• Mr Mark Pollock, adventure athlete, motivational speaker, collaboration catalyst, explorer and author

2014

• Professor Abraham Verghese, Professor and Vice Chair for the Theory and Practice of Medicine at the School of Medicine, Standford University and best-selling author

2013

• The Right Honourable Professor the Lord Darzi of Denham KBE, RCSI, Medicine, Class of 1984; FRCSI 1990; Professor and Chair of Surgery, Imperial College, London

2012

• Professor Father Michael Kelly, internationally renowned educationalist and advocate for the role of education in combatting HIV/AIDS

2011

• President Mary McAleese, eighth President of Ireland from 1997–2011