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Published 24 July 2009

BBC's Question Time presenter David Dimbleby and best-selling crime author Peter James are among the honorary doctorates to be awarded at the University of Brighton graduation ceremonies which take place over four days from 28 to 31 July at the Dome in Brighton.

The other honorary doctorates to share the stage with nearly 5,000 graduands at the ceremonies will be:

• Sir Christopher Frayling, previously Chair of the Arts Council for England and the longest serving trustee of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
• Keith Clarke, Chief Executive of Atkins, the multinational engineering and design consultancy.
• Professor Richard Vincent, the founding head of the university's Postgraduate Medical School.
• David Farmer, who served as an independent member of the university's Board of Governors from August 1999 until July 2008.  
• Professor Gregory Ashworth's, whose extensive research in heritage management, tourism and place marketing has led the field in innovation and have set trends for others to follow.
• Economist Lord Stern, who was behind the first detailed economic assessment of the impact of climate change.

Keith Clarke, Doctor of Technology, Tuesday 28 July

Keith Clarke is the Chief Executive of Atkins, the multinational engineering and design consultancy. Born in Brixton, South London, Keith Clarke graduated from Brighton Polytechnic in the 1970s and completed his qualifications as an architect at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York.

He has had a 30 year career in the construction and engineering industries culminating in his leadership of Atkins, the largest engineering consultancy in the UK and the world's eighth largest global design company.

Keith also serves as Chairman of the Construction Industry Council (CIC) and previously served as Chair of the National Platform High Level Steering Group for Constructing Excellence.

Keith is an environmental champion and was responsible for overseeing the development of carbon-critical design as part of Atkins' response to climate change. He said: "We cannot simply design a road, a building or a town then ask key questions about energy use or environmental impact afterwards. Carbon-critical design is about asking the right questions right from the start."

Professor Sir Christopher Frayling, Doctor of Letters, Tuesday 28 July

Sir Christopher began his academic career teaching history at the University of Bath. In 1979, he was appointed Professor of Cultural History at the Royal College of Art. In 2001, Sir Christopher was awarded a Knighthood for services to art and design education. He was Chair of the Arts Council for England for five years until January 2009 and the longest serving trustee of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Sir Christopher is an eminent academic and broadcaster, and a champion of popular culture. Among his best-known works are a history of spaghetti westerns, and critical biographies of Clint Eastwood and Sergio Leone.

In summer 2009, Sir Christopher will step down as Rector and Vice-Provost of the Royal College of Art, following a long and distinguished period of office. Sir Neil Cossons, Chair of the RCA Council, described Sir Christopher's contribution to the College as "beyond measure".

Professor Richard Vincent, Fellowship of the University of Brighton, Wednesday 29 July

Professor Richard Vincent was the founding head of the University of Brighton's Postgraduate Medical School and led its development from the 1990s onwards. He was the leading clinician in constructing the bid for the Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) and became its Associate Dean until his retirement last summer.

He is a distinguished cardiologist who gained a BSc in Pharmacology from King's College London and a medical doctorate from the University of London. He has served as director of the Trafford Centre for Medical Education and Research at the University of Sussex and as director of the Cardiology Research Unit of Brighton Health Care NHS Trust. Professor Vincent's recent research interests include ischaemic heart disease and signal processing in cardiology.

Professor Vincent has been a member of the university's Board of Governors as well as the Academic Board and over the past 10 years he has played a leading role in linking the work of the University of Brighton to medical teaching and research.

Professor Vincent has also been commended for communicating his speciality and the science of modern medicine to the community at large and has given lectures in a wide range of establishments from The Royal Institution to golf clubs with audiences from women's groups to school children.

David Farmer, Fellowship of the University of Brighton, Wednesday 29 July

David Farmer served as an independent member of the University of Brighton's Board of Governors from August 1999 until July 2008. For most of his membership of the Board he was Chairman of its Finance and Employment Committee, a role he filled with distinction. David was educated at Chelmsford and Colchester colleges, the British Institute of Management, Oxford, the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne and the University of Bergen.

At the time of joining the Board of Governors he was Chairman of Industrial Rubber plc, a leading UK engineering company moulding rubber components for a wide range of industries. His first role in industry was as a graduate apprentice at Marconi Co Ltd, subsequently becoming Production Manager. In 1984 he joined Schlumberger Ltd, a company with a turnover of $6bn and 65,000 employees, and became its Vice President, based in New York. In 1987 he became Group General Manager of Bowthorpe plc based in Crawley. From 1990 to 1997 he was Executive Director of Clayhithe plc and Managing Director of Horstmann Timers and Controls Ltd.

He has also been non-Executive Director of Bowman Power Systems Ltd, a governor of Plumpton College, a governor of Northbrook College, a director and council member of the British Electrotechnical and Allied Manufacturers' Association, a member of OFFER Co-ordination Group and a member of the Electricity Consumers’ Metering Working Group.

He has been a tireless and active supporter of the University of Brighton and remains a member of the Business and Community Committee and now chairs the Board of trustees of the University of Brighton Foundation

Peter James, Doctor of Letters, Thursday 30 July

The award-winning writer and film producer is to become a Doctor of Letters in recognition of his ongoing contribution to the arts and to the status, infrastructure and culture of Brighton and Hove.

Born and raised in Brighton, Peter James has made 26 movies and is one of Brighton's biggest-selling authors with 12 international best sellers translated into 27 languages. He was educated at Charterhouse School, and then took a directing diploma at Ravensbourne Film School.

In 1993, Peter co-founded Pavilion Internet plc, one of the first internet service providers in the UK, which was sold to Easynet in 1998. In 1997 he co-founded Ministry of Vision Ltd, a film development company. In 2001 he co-founded Movision Entertainment Ltd and was Managing Director until 2004. In the past three years, Movision has produced 13 films with Peter as the executive director.

In 1974 his horror movie Dead of Night won Best Foreign Film at Sitges International Horror Film Festival. The Merchant of Venice was nominated for a Bafta in 2004.

James' first Roy Grace novel, Dead Simple, was published in 2005, selling more than 230,000 copies and winning the Krimi-Blitz Award for Crime Novelist of the Year in Germany. In 2006 it won France’s Le Prix Polar International for best crime novel. The follow-up Looking Good Dead became the ninth bestselling fiction title in the UK, and has recently been shortlisted for Crime Thriller of the Year at the Richard and Judy Galaxy British book awards.

Professor Gregory Ashworth, Doctor of Science, Thursday 30 July

Professor Gregory Ashworth was educated St. John's College, Cambridge; his M.Phil was from the University of Reading and his PhD from Birkbeck College, University of London. He has taught at the universities of Wales, and Portsmouth and since 1979 at the University of Groningen in Holland. Here he has been the Professor of heritage management and urban tourism in the Department of Planning, Faculty of Spatial Sciences since 1994. Professor Ashworth's main research interests include heritage management, tourism and place marketing.

In a career spanning over 30 years he has produced hundreds of publications many of which are required reading for those in heritage, tourism and associated disciplines. Many of his books have led the field in innovation and have set trends for others to follow. Professor Ashworth has always been on the cutting edge of thinking, questioning long accepted values, and consistently generating new and innovative works.

Since 2005 Professor Ashworth has been a keynote speaker and scientific advisor for EPOCH's Heritage Impact conferences at the University of Brighton. These highly successful conferences have been greatly enhanced by the contributions of Professor Ashworth.

David Dimbleby, Doctor of Letters, Friday 31 July

David Dimbleby is a long standing presenter of current affairs programmes and documentaries for the BBC television. Educated at Glengorse School, Battle and Charterhouse, he studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Christ Church College, Oxford. He joined the BBC as a news reporter in Bristol after leaving university and during his career has presented Panorama, 24 Hours, People and Power and Dimbleby Talk-in. He has been a commentator for a wide range of special outside broadcast events including the State Opening of Parliament and has presented the BBC's general election programmes for the last two decades. Since 1994 he has chaired Question Time, the BBC's flagship topic programme debate.

He has written and presented a number of award-winning film series, including; The White Tribe of Africa (1979 Royal TV Society Supreme Documentary Award) and The Struggle for South Africa (Emmy Award 1991). In 1998 he received a BAFTA (Richard Dimbleby Award) for the most important personal contribution to factual television.

In 2005, he hosted a major BBC series, A Picture of Britain, celebrating British and Irish paintings, poetry, music, and landscapes. In June 2007 he wrote and presented a follow-up, the BBC series, How We Built Britain, in which he travelled thousands of miles exploring the buildings that define a nation and how one particular period of architecture gave each region its unique character.

Lord Nicholas Stern, Doctor of Science, Friday 31 July

Lord Nicholas Stern began his academic career at Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he gained a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics. He studied for his Doctor of Philosophy in Economics at Nuffield College, Oxford, and lectured at the university from 1970 to 1977.

From 1978 to 1987 he served as Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick, and then as the Sir John Hicks Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics. He is now back at the London School of Economics as IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government.

Lord Stern was Chief Economist and Senior Vice-President of the World Bank from 2000 to 2003, before being recruited by Gordon Brown to work for HM Treasury. In July 2005, he was appointed to conduct a review of the economics of climate change.

The Stern Review was released in 2006, and gained global media attention. The review concluded that if climate change continues unabated, average temperatures could rise by more than five degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels by early next century with profound consequences for the physical and human geography of the planet, and economic costs, where an alternative low-carbon path was attractive and could be achieved at reasonable cost.