The first conferment ceremony at Sweden's only medical university took place in the former teaching staff session room, but has long since been held, along with the following banquet, in the more festive surroundings of the Blue Hall. The ceremony includes the presentation of diplomas, rings and caps as symbols of learning, fidelity and liberty, and a canon salute from outside the City Hall.
Professor Emeritus Robert G. Edwards of Cambridge University is to be awarded an honorary doctorate at Karolinska Institutet for his important scientific contribution to in vitro fertilisation (IVF). During his visit to Sweden, Professor Edwards will be holding a lecture on "IVF, stem cells and embryo genetics today and tomorrow", and Karolinska Institutet and the women's clinic at Karolinska University Hospital will be arranging a "children's party", with appearances by actress Eva Rse and others, in his honour. An estimated 2 million children have been born through IVF since the late 1970s.
Dr Philip Yeo, chairman of Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), is to receive an honorary doctor of medicine degree for, amongst other achievements, his pathfinding efforts to establish researcher exchanges between Karolinska Institutet and several key institutions in Singapore. Perhaps a more familiar name for a broader public in Sweden is former Trade Union Confederation chairman Bertil Jonsson, who is to be honoured for his commitment to research into working environments and public health.