Honorary Degree Recipients
Honorary degree recipients approved by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees to be recognized at the May 2024 University-wide Commencement ceremony include:
- James D, Anderson, Doctor of Science and Letters
- Jeanne Gang, Doctor of Fine Arts
- I-Min Lee, Doctor of Science
- Larry L. Smarr, Doctor of Engineering
Past Honorary Degree Recipients
2023
- Louis D. Liay, Doctor of Humane Letters
- Ares J. Rosakis, Doctor of Engineering
2022
- Lonnie Bunch, III, Doctor of Humane Letters
- James Delany, Doctor of Humane Letters
- Jill Ellis, Doctor of Humane Letters
- John Lewis, Doctor of Humane Letters (posthumously)
- Mario Molina, Doctor of Science (posthumously)
- Rahul Pandharipande, Doctor of Science
2019
- Michael T. Aiken, Doctor of Science and Letters
- Carla Diane Hayden, Doctor of Humane Letters
2018
- Sheila C. Johnson, Doctor of Fine Arts
- Robert S. Langer, Doctor of Engineering
2017
- Ronald Adrian, Doctor of Engineering
2016
- Narayana Murthy, Doctor of Science
- Jagdish Sheth, Doctor of Science
- Edward Taylor, Doctor of Science
2015
- Ralph J. Cicerone, Doctor of Science
- Risa J. Lavizzo-Mourey, Doctor of Science
- Timothy J. Nugent, Doctor of Humane Letters
2014
- George E. Andrews, Doctor of Science
- Phillip A. Sharp, Doctor of Science
2013
- James Thomson, Doctor of Science
- Fred Volkmar, Doctor of Science
2012
- Raymond Ozzie, Doctor of Engineering
2011
- Gary R. List, Doctor of Science
2010
- Erich Bloch, Doctor of Engineering
- Richard Felder, Doctor of Engineering
- Arnold L. Mitchem, Doctor of Humane Letters
- Betty Chan Po-king, Doctor of Humane Letters
2009
- Suze Orman, Doctor of Humane Letters
- Carl Jude Schramm, Doctor of Business
- Arnold L. Mitchem, Doctor of Humane Letters
- Betty Chan Po-king, Doctor of Humane Letters
2008
- Jay Gates, Doctor of Fine Arts
- Mannie L. Jackson, Doctor of Humane Letters
- James McPherson, Doctor of Letters
- Andrew A. Sorensen, Doctor of University Admin.
- Peter Walker, Doctor of Fine Arts
2007
- William D. Nix, Doctor of Engineering
- Genshitsu Sen, Doctor of Fine Arts
2006
- Julian Bond, Doctor of Humane Letters
- Elaine Fuchs, Doctor of Science
- Burt Rutan, Doctor of Engineering
- Thomas M. Siebel, Doctor of Engineering
2005
- Archie R. Clemins, Doctor of Engineering
- Bill Geist, Doctor of Letters
- Hanke Burghard Gratteau, Doctor of Letters
- John Cornelius Houbolt, Doctor of Engineering
- John W. Hutchinson, Doctor of Engineering
2004
- Frances E. Allen, Doctor of Science
- John Hope Franklin, Doctor of Humane Letters
- Temple Grandin, Doctor of Science
- Lani Guinier, Doctor of Laws
- Freeman A. Hrabowski, Doctor of Education
- Shirley Ann Jackson, Doctor of University Administration
- Christine Marion Korsgaard, Doctor of Humane Letters
- Robert P. Moses, Doctor of Science and Letters
2003
- Irving Lee Azoff, Doctor of Music
- Barry Bearak, Doctor of Literature
- Louise Bourgeois, Doctor of Fine Arts
- Rita Rossi Colwell, Doctor of Science
- Peter Gay, Doctor of Letters
- Hermann Zapf, Doctor of Fine Arts
2002
- Maya Angelou, Doctor of Humane Letters
- Peter C. Doherty, Doctor of Science
- Agnes Gunde, Doctor of Fine Arts
- Sheldon Hackney, Doctor of Letters
- Stanley O. Ikenberry, Doctor of University Administration
2001
- Robben Fleming, Doctor of University Administration
- Lukas Foss, Doctor of Music
- Ekaterina Genieva, Doctor of Letters
- Vartan Gregorian, Doctor of Humane Letters
- Judith Heumann, Doctor of Public Administration
- Orion Samuelson, Doctor of Letters
2000
- James Carey, Doctor of Letters
- Susan Daniels, Doctor of Public Administration
- Luis Leal, Doctor of Literature
- Gordon Moore, Doctor of Science
- Paul Simon, Doctor of Public Administration
- Karen Uhlenbeck, Doctor of Science
1999
- Alfred Y. Cho, Doctor of Engineering
- Marianne Grunberg-Manago, Doctor of Science
- Richard Kaplan, Doctor of Letters
- Leo Melamed, Doctor of Letters
- Shozo Sato, Doctor of Fine Arts
1998
- Myron Essex, Doctor of Science
- Donald Kuspit, Doctor of Humane Letters
- Robert D. Novak, Doctor of Letters
- Clyde W. Summers, Doctor of Laws
1997
- William G. Karnes, Doctor of Humane Letters
- Rudolph Arthur Marcus, Doctor of Science
- Robert Lee Metcalf, Doctor of Science
- Diane Sawyer, Doctor of Humane Letters
- Arnold R. Weber, Doctor of Humane Letters
1996
- George Myles Cordell Fisher, Doctor of Science
- Sybil Collins Mobley, Doctor of Science
- Bruno Nettl, Doctor of Humane Letters
- Jeanne Hurley Simon, Doctor of Humane Letters
1995
- John Chancellor, Doctor of Humane Letters
- Hachiro “Buddy” Koyama*, Doctor of Humane Letters
- Edwin G. Krebs, Doctor of Science
- William J. Rutter, Doctor of Science
* Posthumous
1994
- Barbara Everitt Bryant, Doctor of Humane Letters
- Hillary Rodham Clinton, Doctor of Humane Letters
- Katherine Dunham, Doctor of Humane Letters
- Miroslav Marchovic, Doctor of Humane Letters
- Billy Taylor, Doctor of Musical Arts
1993
- Henriette D. Avram, Doctor of Science
- Justin Dart, Doctor of Humane Letters
- Marian Wright Edelman, Doctor of Social Service
- Paul Erdös, Doctor of Social Science
- Akio Morita, Doctor of Engineering
- Allen Stuart Weller, Doctor of Humane Letters
1992
- David Herbert Donald, Doctor of Humane Letters
- Daniel Charles Drucker, Doctor of Science
- Lev P. Gor’kov, Doctor of Science
- Isaac Stern, Doctor of Music
1991
- Paul A. Beck, Doctor of Science
- Gene H. Golub, Doctor of Science
- Mostafa Khalil, Doctor of Laws
- Oscar Arias Sanchez, Doctor of Laws
1990
- Andrew Barr, Doctor of Laws
- Benjamin Burwell Johnston, Jr., Doctor of Music
- Franco Modigliani, Doctor of Science
- Ernest John Christopher Polge, Doctor of Science
- Carl Sagan, Doctor of Science
1989
- Norman Dion Levine, Doctor of Science
- Katherine Tuach Kendall, Doctor of Social Service
- Salvador E. Luria, Doctor of Science
- Jack Walter Peltason, Doctor of University Admin.
- Lewis Thomas, Doctor of Science
1988
- Nakamura Kanzaburo XVII*, Doctor of Fine Arts
- Jack St. Clair Kilby, Doctor of Science
- Nelson J. Leonard, Doctor of Science
- George F. Will, Doctor of Letters
- Ruth Maslow Lewis, Doctor of Humane Letters
* Posthumous
1987
- Charles Merieux, Doctor of Science
- Chester G. Starr, Doctor of Humane Letters
- Donald William Kerst, Doctor of Science
1986
- Richard C. Atkinson, Doctor of Science
- Stanley L. Elkin, Doctor of Humane Letters
- Frank H. T. Rhodes, Doctor of Science
- Dongsheng Yan, Doctor of Science
1985
- E. J. Corey, Doctor of Science
- Norman J. Latker, Doctor of Laws
- Alwin Nikolais, Doctor of Fine Arts
- Manfred Mayrhofer, Doctor of Letters
1984
- Ralph Early Grim, Doctor of Science
- Loo-Keng Hua, Doctor of Science
1983
- Shih-Liang Chien, Doctor of Science
- Einar Haugen, Doctor of Letters
- Samuel A. Kirk, Doctor of Letters
1982
- Arnold O. Beckman, Doctor of Science
- Lee J. Cronbach, Doctor of Humane Letters
- Walter Isard, Doctor of Science
- Hideo Sasaki, Doctor of Fine Arts
1981
- Joseph L. Doob, Doctor of Science
- Albert E. Jenner, Jr., Doctor of Laws
- John Henry Sinfelt, Doctor of Science
1980
- Willibald K. Jentschke, Doctor of Science
- Rene Koenig, Doctor of Humane Letters
- Folke Skoog, Doctor of Science
1979
- Philip Handler, Doctor of Science
- Hamilton Othanel Smith, Doctor of Science
- Eudora Welty, Doctor of Letters
1978
- Philip W. Anderson, Doctor of Science
- Hans J. Morgenthau, Doctor of Laws
- Nathan M. Newmark, Doctor of Science
1977
- Hendrik W. Bode, Doctor of Science
- Reneé T. Kahane, Doctor of Letters
- Lyle H. Lanier, Doctor of Letters
- Deane Montgomery, Doctor of Science
1976
- Karl W. Deutsch, Doctor of Laws
- David Dodds Henry, Doctor of Laws
- Yakov Malkiel, Doctor of Letters
- Dragan Plamenac, Doctor of Music
1975
- Howard R. Bowen, Doctor of Letters
- Sol Spiegelman, Doctor of Science
1974
- John Bardeen, Doctor of Science
- Herbert E. Carter, Doctor of Science
- Leon Cooper, Doctor of Science
- Robert B. Downs, Doctor of Letters
- J. Robert Schrieffer, Doctor of Science
1973
- Karl A. Folkers, Doctor of Science
- William Maxwell, Doctor of Science
- Thomas Park, Doctor of Science
1972
- Merce Cunningham, Doctor of Letters
- Mina S. Rees, Doctor of Science
- Frederick Seitz, Doctor of Science
1971
- Don Cameron Allen, Doctor of Letters
- Paul J. Cohen, Doctor of Science
- Kinglsey C. Dunham, Doctor of Science
- D. P. Singh, Doctor of Laws
- Derek Curtis Bok, Doctor of Laws
1970
- Max Abramovitz, Doctor of Fine Arts
- Robert W. Holley, Doctor of Science
- S. McNeil Lowry, Doctor of Letters
- Roger L. Stevens, Doctor of Letters
1969
- William Littell Everitt, Doctor of Science
- Francis Wheeler Loomis, Doctor of Science
- Jay Laurence Lush, Doctor of Science
- James Tobin, Doctor of Laws
- Josef Albers, Doctor of Fine Arts
- Eugene Ormandy, Doctor of Musical Arts
1968
- Murray Gell-Man, Doctor of Science
- Gunther Schuller, Doctor of Music
- John G. Thompson, Doctor of Science
- Karl M. Dallenbach, Doctor of Science
- J. George Harrar, Doctor of Science
- Eugene Paul Wigner, Doctor of Science
- Gordon N. Ray, Doctor of Letters
- Theodore William Schultz, Doctor of Laws
- George Dinsmore Stoddard, Doctor of Laws
- Walter A. Gropius, Doctor of Fine Arts
1967
- David E. Lilienthal Doctor of Public Administration
- Allan Sandage, Doctor of Science
- Emmanuel C. Amoroso, Doctor of Science
- Quincy Wright, Doctor of Laws
- Ananias Charles Littleton, Doctor of Laws
- James A. Perkins, Doctor of Laws
1966
- David Harold Blackwell, Doctor of Science
- Kenneth John Conant, Doctor of Literature
- Raynold Clayton Fuson, Doctor of Science
- Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., Doctor of Laws
1965
- Leland John Haworth, Doctor of Science
- Herman Charles Krannert, Doctor of Laws
- Harold Dwight Lasswell, Doctor of Laws
- Joseph Tykocinski Tykociner, Doctor of Engineering
1964
- Abram Leon Sachar, Doctor of Literature
- Marian Anderson, Doctor of Music
- W. Albert Noyes, Jr., Doctor of Science
- Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Doctor of Fine Arts
- Adlai Ewing Stevenson, Doctor of Humane Letters
1963
- George Wells Beadle, Doctor of Science
- Henry Townley Heald, Doctor of Laws
- Carl Snipp Marvel, Doctor of Science
- Clarence Samuel Ross, Doctor of Science
1962
- Albert James Marno, Doctor of Laws
- James Barrett Reton, Doctor of Laws
- William Cumming Rose, Doctor of Science
1961
- Martin Paul Catherwood, Doctor of Laws
- Harris Francis Flethcer, Doctor of Letters
- Lawrence A. Kimpton, Doctor of Laws
- Polykarp Kusch, M.S., Ph.D., Doctor of Science
- Sewall Wright, M.S. Ph.D.
1960
- Edward Adelbert Doisy, Ph.D. Doctor of Science, Docteur Honoris Causa, Doctor of Laws
- Vincent Du Vigneaud, Ph.D. Doctor of Science
- James Rayne Killian, Jr., B.S. Doctor of Science, Doctor of Laws, Doctor of Applied Science, Doctor of Engineering
1959
- Thomas Whitfield Baldwin, Doctor of Letters
- Arthur Sherwood Flemming, Doctor of Laws
- John Ira Parcel, Doctor of Engineering.
- Wendell Meredith Stanley, Doctor of Science
1958
- Agnes Onase, Doctor of Science
- Mark Van Doren, Doctor of Letters
1957
- Roger Adams, Doctor of Science
1956
- Walter Charles Lindley, Doctor of Laws
- Earl Warren, Doctor of Laws
1953
- Allan Nevins, Doctor of Laws
- Carl Sandburg, Doctor of Letters
1947
- Omar N. Bradley, Doctor of Laws
- Anton J. Carlson, Doctor of Science
- James B. Conant, Doctor of Laws
- Robert M. Hutchins, Doctor of Letters
- Archibald MacLeish, Doctor of Letters
1946
- Raymond Bernard Allen, Doctor of Laws
- Arthur Cutts Willard, Doctor of Laws
1931
- Eugene Davenport, Doctor of Laws
- Evarts Boutell Greene, Doctor of Laws
- Charles Henry Rammelkamp, Doctor of Laws
- Arthur Howell Talbot, Doctor of Laws
1929
- William Lamont Abbott, Doctor of Laws
- Robert Franklin Carr, Doctor of Laws
- Lorado Taft, Doctor of Laws
1912
- Thomas Jonathan Burrill, Doctor of Laws
- Samuel Walker Sahttuck, Doctor of Laws
1911
- William Eleroy Curtis, Doctor of Laws
- Ralph Modjeski, Doctor of Engineering
1910
- Lester Paige Breckenridge, Doctor of Engineering
- Ella Flagg-Younf, Doctor of Laws
- Isham Randolph, Doctor of Engineering
1908
- Henry Churchill King, Doctor of Laws
- Wu Ting-Fang, Doctor of Laws
- Frederick Jackson Turner, Doctor of Laws
1907
- Rt. Hon. Viscount James Bryce, Doctor of Laws
- George Cary Comstock, Doctor of Laws
- Katherine Lucinda Sharp, Master of Arts
1906
- Baron Herman von Specksternburg, Doctor of Laws
- Daniel Atkinson King Steele, Doctor of Laws
1905
- James Elder Armstrong, Master of Arts
- Henry Mahan Beardsley, Master of Arts
- Daniel Hudson Burnham, Doctor of Laws
- McKendree Hypes Chamberlin, Doctor of Laws
- Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin, Doctor of Science
- Octave Chanute, Doctor of Engineering
- Norman Jay Colman, Doctor of Agriculture
- Edwin Gilbert Cooley, Doctor of Laws
- George Bruce Cortelyou, Doctor of Laws
- Charles Henry Dennis, Master of Arts
- Jacob McGavock Dickinson, Doctor of Laws
- Andrew Sloan Draper, Doctor of Laws
- David Felmley, Doctor of Laws
- Stephen Alfred Forbes, Doctor of Laws
- Alfred T. Gregory, Master of Arts
- Thomas Franklin Holgate, Doctor of Laws
- Abbott Lawrence Lowell, Doctor of Laws
- Thomas McClelland, Doctor of Laws
- John Benjamin Murphy, Doctor of Laws
- Simon Nelson Patten, Doctor of Laws
- Alvin Howard Sanders, Doctor of Agriculture
- John Victor Emanuel Schaefer M.E.
- Avis Alyda Smith, Master of Arts
- Frederick Eugene Turneaure, Doctor of Engineering
- Frank Arthur Vanderlip, Master of Arts
- Henry Clay White, Doctor of Laws
- August Ziesing C.E.
1904
- Willis J. Bailey, Doctor of Laws
- Lincoln Bush, Doctor of Engineering
- John Williston Cook, Doctor of Laws
- William Freeman Myrick Goss, Doctor of Engineering
- William Arnon Henry, Doctor of Agriculture
- Livingston Chester Lord, Doctor of Laws
- Simon Newton Dexter North, Doctor of Laws
- William E. Quine, Doctor of Laws
- Frank White, Doctor of Laws
1903
- Ira Osborn Baker, Doctor of Engineering
- Joseph Gurney Cannon, Doctor of Laws
- Shelby Moore Cullom, Doctor of Laws
- Mary Tracy Earne (Horne), Master of Arts
- Thomas Forsythe Hunt, Doctor of Agriculture
- James Robert Mann, Doctor of Laws
- Richard Price Morgan, Doctor of Engineering
- John Augustus Ockerson, Doctor of Engineering
- Herbert Putnam, Doctor of Laws
- Samuel Wesley Stratton, Doctor of Engineering
- John Edwards Wright, Master of Arts
1900
- Nathan Clifford Ricker, Doctor of Architecture
1895
- Isaac Stuart Raymond M.L.
1894
- Ralph Allen M.S.
- Ebenezer Lewis Drury M.L.
- Charles Perry Jeffers M.S.
- Parley Agrippa Phillips M.L.
- Elijah Newton Porterfield C.E.
- Willis Albert Reiss M.S.
- Howard Silver M.L.
- George Story C.E.
- Alonzo Lyons Whitcomb M.L.
1893
- John P. Campbell M.L.
- Harvey C. Estep C.E.
- Charles Peyton Graham M.L.
- Louise Catherine Allen Gregory M.S.
- Miles Fayette Hatch M.S.
- Walter Elliott Kniblee M.L.
- Henry Weston Mahan M.L.
- Amanda Campbell (Moore) M.L.
- Franklin Carpenter Platt M.L.
- Thomas Edwin Rickard M.S.
- Elna Alphonso Robinson M.E.
1892
- Dillon Sidney Brown M.S.
- Alice Cheever (Bryan) M.L.
- James Edward Bumstead M.S.
- Charles Wright Clark C.E.
- William C. Ells C.E.
- Henry Mackay M.L.
- Andrew T. Morrow C.E.
- Watson Pickrell M.S.
1891
- Roland Ray Conklin M.L.
- Henry M. Dunlap M.L.
- Charles Gleason Elliott C.E.
- Winfield Scott Everhart M.L.
- Frederic Lewis Hatch M.S.
- James Newton Matthews M.L.
- Henry Edwin Robbins M.S.
- Clarence Orlando Scudder M.L.
- Frank August Ellis Starr M.L.