Professor Brenner, a pioneer of genetic engineering, was the 2002 winner of the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine.

Professor Alferov, Scientific Director of the Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2000.

The University is also celebrating its strong links with its home city at the ceremonies with prominent local figures being awarded honorary degrees.

Mr Iain Ovens OBE, Principal of Dundee College, Mr Andrew Thomson, chairman of the Dundee-based publishers D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd., and singer Sheena Wellington will all be honoured, as will Dundee-born scientist Dr Christopher Lipinski.

World leaders in fields as diverse as nursing, animation, engineering and life sciences will also have their achievements recognised.

They are—

Dr Suzanne Lacasse, Managing Director of the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute;

Jimmy Murakami, artist and animation director/producer, who played a key role in two of the most important animated features made in the UK — ‘The Snowman’ and ‘When the Wind Blows’;

Mrs Sybill Storz, chairman of the world-leading medical technologies company Karl Storz GmbH & Co;

Dr Catherine Hamlin, nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999 for the work she and her late husband have done in providing free reconstructive surgery to thousands of young African girls and women suffering from fistulas — a severe condition suffered during obstructive labour in childbirth.

The graduation ceremonies this year take place in the Caird Hall on June 22, June 23 and July 11.

They will be presided over by the University’s new Chancellor, Lord Patel of Dunkeld, who was installed in a ceremony in the Marryat Hall last week.

Two of the honorary graduands, Sheena Wellington and Dr Catherine Hamlin, are the personal choices of Lord Patel.