HONORARY DEGREE CONFERRED

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23947, 14 May 1943, Page 4

HONORARY DEGREE CONFERRED

OTAGO GRADUATION CEREMONY (P.S.S.) DUNEDIN, May 12. The honorary degree of Doctor 0 Science was conferred in absentia on Dr. Alexander Craig Aitken at the. graduation ceremony of the University of Otago. The degree was gran * ed by virtue of a statute passed in w ■ giving the University of New Zeaian power to confer honorary degrees persons who have made notable con* tributions to learning or culture. Only seven such degrees been conferred, said the Chancellor Otago University (Mr W. J. Morre ■ who performed the ceremony. * year the Senate, on the recornmen _ tion of the Academic Board, had cided to honour in this way achievements of Dr. Aitken, who . an Otago graduate. It was Dr. Alike desire that the degree should be a ally conferred at the graduation c mony of his old university. . b i» “Dr. Aitken has shown remandan powers as a mathematician, an “. .. made many contributions to the n : ture of mathematics,” Mr Mor said. “He now holds the position reader in statistics and actua mathematics in the University Edinburgh. The value of one of the foremost living Bntisn a k braists was recognised by his eiecyv* to the fellowship of the RoyaLnls, of Edinburgh in 1925. and to-.By 7 lowship of the Royal Society oi don in 1936.”