A NOBEL Prize-winning scientist, the inventor of DNA genetic fingerprinting, and world leaders in the fields of architecture and nutritional health will be among the honorary graduates at Dundee University next week.

The university will award honorary doctorates to Professor Edmond Fischer, Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys, Lord Norman Foster and Dr Walter Willett at ceremonies in the Caird Hall.

“We are delighted to have such a distinguished range of honorary graduands this year, leaders in their respective fields who can offer great inspiration to our students at Dundee,” said Sir Alan Langlands, principal of the university.

Professor Edmond Fischer was the co-recipient, with Edwin G. Krebs, of the 1992 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine for their discoveries concerning reversible phosphorylation, a biochemical mechanism that governs the activities of cell proteins.

Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys is a geneticist, based at Leicester University, who developed the techniques used for DNA fingerprinting and DNA profiling, tools that have become keystones of modern forensic analysis.

Lord Foster of Thames Bank is one of the world’s most renowned architects, responsible for a huge array of striking buildings over the past four decades.

Among the many notable buildings he has designed are the restored Reichstag in Berlin, the “Gherkin” building in London and the new Wembley Stadium with its distinctive arch.

Dr Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition and chairman of the department of nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health, is the most cited nutritionist internationally, and stands among the five most cited persons in all fields of clinical science.

Lord Foster, Professor Jeffreys and Professor Fischer will all receive their honorary degrees at the graduation ceremony on the morning of Friday, June 20. Dr Willett will be honoured at the afternoon ceremony that day.

Dr Willett will also deliver the Greatest Minds Lecture at the university next Wednesday.

His lecture is titled The Pursuit Of Health: Is Contemporary Medicine Taking Us Down The Wrong Path? and will examine how a more balanced approach between medical research and dietary and lifestyle modifications could have a much greater impact on the health of our societies.

The lecture takes places at 6pm in the New Teaching Block, Old Hawkhill, Dundee University.

Admission is free.