Honorary doctors Dag Larsson and Lynne Taylor have received the doctoral insignia

The atmosphere was solemn as Vice-Chancellor Anders Hagfeldt welcomed the audience to Uppsala University’s Grand Auditorium and the Winter Conferment Ceremony 2025. The Faculty of Pharmacy, today represented by Professor Anja Sandström, conferring four new doctoral graduates – Yassir Al-Tikriti, Jenny Johannesson, Frida Stam and Marcus Wanselius – also presented the doctoral insignia to the Faculty's new honorary doctors in Pharmacy: Dag Larsson, Senior expert policy at Lif, and Lynne Taylor, Professor of Industrial and Molecular Pharmaceutics at Purdue University

“I have had time to get familiar with the great honor that comes with an honorary doctorate, but standing on the stage of the Grand Auditorium in this amazing setting brought such strong feelings that I cannot put them into words. I first came to Uppsala University as a young student of pharmacy, and to return today with my family and to be greeted in this wonderful way at the Faculty of Pharmacy is a moment I will forever carry with me,” says Dag Larsson.

In Uppsala, the Doctoral Degree Conferment Ceremony – a tradition celebrating its 425th anniversary – begins at 7:00 am when the Jämtland Field Artillery fires a cannon salute at Uppsala castle's northern tower. The Conferment Ceremony starts a quarter past noon with a procession entering the university Grand Auditorium. After the faculty conferrer's have presented the tokens of honour to doctoral graduates and honorary doctors, there is time for mingle in the University Main Building before the festivities continue with a banquet in the Hall of State at Uppsala Castle.

“My family and I are delighted to visit Sweden. For my daughters, this is their first stay in your country, and they have already seen the Cathedral and the Museum Gustavianum and it is wonderful to see how much they appreciate your rich cultural heritage. To, in addition, be part of this beautiful ceremony with its historical origins is a once in a lifetime experience and a memory I will cherish for life,” says Lynne Taylor.

With their appointments, Dag Larsson and Lynne Taylor join a highly exclusive group reaching from Yokohama in the east to San Francisco in the west. Here, world-leading researchers, the high ranks of Big Pharma and several Nobel Prize winners meet. The list is best described as a Who's Who of global pharmacy, which with today's ceremony gained even more luster.

“A good foundation when choosing a new honorary doctor is an already established och fruitful alliance where both parties identify great added value in continued developed collaboration. With Dag Larsson, and Lynne Taylor, we are convinced that we have made a very good choice, and as of today having officially welcomed them to our faculty, we look forward to continued close collaboration,” states Mathias Hallberg, Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy.

text: Magnus Alsne, photo: Mikael Wallerstedt