Your majesty, ladies and gentlemen, it’s hard to put into words what this day means
to Imperial College.
We will award the first honorary degrees to our honorary graduates thanks to her Majesty,
who graciously bestows upon the college its new royal charter.
Ladies and gentlemen it is a pleasure to be here today to bestow upon the college its
new charter.
Today you renew your mission of applying your learning, discoveries and innovation to meet
the changing needs of society industry and healthcare.
You will also, of course, continue to carry out the important task of educating the young
people who will become the future inventors, discoverers and leaders of business and society.
And now we come to the conferment of Imperial’s first five degrees.
Professor Winston Wong had a remarkable career in business and is the founder of both the
Grace THW Group and the Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation.
This is his 4th Imperial degree, the highest until now being the PhD he obtained here in
1975 before he joined Nan Ya Plastics - the worlds largest secondary plastics processor
based in Taiwan.
For the last 11 years, professor Wong has been chairman and Chief Executive Officer
of the Grace THW group.
Throughout his career, Professor Wong has kept close links with Imperial
He is a visiting Professor in our Institute of Biomedical Engineering and he sponsors
the Chair in Biomedical Circuits.
He also cofounded Future Waves Limited; a successful Imperial spinout company that provides
some of worlds lowest power digital radio broadcast semiconductor chips.
For his considerable personal contributions to innovation in electronics and in education
and to Imperial, I invite you Rector under the powers granted by the University to confer
on Professor Winston Wong the degree of Doctor of Science.
We have awarded our first Imperial Degrees, setting a remarkably high standard.
All today’s honorary graduates have made major personal contributions, in terms of
commitment and generosity, to the advancement of science and medicine; we thank you all
for joining us in our moment of history.