Attenborough, Pratchett to receive TCD degrees

Naturalist Sir David Attenborough and popular writer Terry Pratchett are among a number of recipients who will be awarded honorary degrees at Trinity College Dublin later today.

Sir David will be conferred with a Doctor in Letters (Litt. D) for his significant contribution to natural history and broadcasting over the past 50 years.

Terry Prachett, the author of the famous Discworld series of books, is also to be conferred with a Doctor in Letters (Litt. D). His work has sold more than 55 million copies worldwide and has been translated into 33 languages.

The other recipients of degrees at Trinity today include Dame Ann Dowling, professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Cambridge, and David P. Farrington professor of Psychological Criminology, also at the University of Cambridge.

Astrophysicist Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, who is professor of Physics at the Open University, will also be awarded an honorary degree.

Dame Jocelyn, who is also serving as president of the Institute of Physics in Britain, is renowned for having discovered the first four radio pulsars or rapidly rotating neutron stars while still a postgraduate in Cambridge.