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Renowned Shakespearean actress Jane Lapotaire one of Nine Honorary Warwick Graduates

Jane Lapotaire in Henry VIII
Jane Lapotaire in Henry VIII
Originally published 10 April 2000

The University of Warwick has announced the names of nine people that will be awarded honorary degrees at its Summer Degree Congregations from 11-14th July including renowned Shakespearean actress Jane Lapotaire. Short biographies of the honorary graduands now follow:

Jane Lapotaire Hon DLitt

Internationally renowned Shakespearean actress Jane Lapotaire was educated in England and trained at The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. In 1967 she joined Laurence Olivier's National Theatre Company at the Old Vic and in the years since has starred in many Shakespeare productions there and elsewhere. Viola in Twelfth Night, and Sonya in Uncle Vanya for the RSC in 1974-5, Rosalind in As You Like It, Edinburgh Festival, 1977; Rosaline in Love's Labours Lost RSC, Katherine in the RSC's Henry VIII in 1997.

Other theatre credits include Misalliance and The Archbishop's Ceiling with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and L'Aide Memoire with the Bi-Lingual Theatre. She also played the title role in Piaf (for which she won the 1979 SWT award, the 1980 London Critics and Variety Club Award and a Broadway Tony Award in 1981). In 1990, she played Joy Davidman in Shadowlands in the West End, for which she won the Variety Club Award for best actress. Her film credits include Anthony and Cleopatra, Lady Jane, Napolean and Josephine, Surviving Picasso and, most recently, Shooting Fish. She has made many television appearances as well including Marie Curie 1977, The Big Battalions 1992, Johnny and the Dead 1994, and Blind Justice, 1988 (for which she won the British Guild Best Actress Award).

Baroness Amos Hon LLD


Baroness Amos was appointed a Government Whip in the House of Lords in July 1998. In addition to her role as a spokesperson on International Development, she also speaks on Social Security and Women's Issues. She was created a life peer in August 1997.

She was born in Guyana in 1954, and took her first degree at Warwick graduating with a BA in Sociology in 1976. After working in Equal Opportunities, Training and Management Services in local government in the London boroughs of Lambeth, Camden and Hackney, she became Chief Executive of the Equal Opportunities Commission 1989-94. In 1995 Valerie Amos co-founded Amos Fraser Bernard and was an adviser to the South African Government non public service reform, human rights and employment equity.

She has also been Deputy Chair of the Runnymede Trust 1990-98, a Trustee of the Institute of Public Policy Research, a non-executive Director of the University College London Hospitals Trust, a Trustee of Voluntary Services Overseas, Chair of the Afiya Trust, a director of Hampstead Theatre and Chair of the Board of Governors of the Royal College of Nursing Institute.
Link to picture and details on Baroness Amos on DFID web site

Sir John Browne, FREng, FIMM, FinstP Hon DSc

Sir John joined the then British Petroleum Co in 1966. He became group Treasurer and Chief Exec of BP Finance International in 1984-86, Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer; Standard Oil Co 1986-87, Chief Executive Officer, Standard Oil Production Co 1987-89, and Chief Executive BP Exploration Co 1989-95. He was appointed an executive director of BP in 1991 and Group Chief Executive of what is now BP Amococ in 1995. He received his knighthood in 1998.

He is a non-executive director of Goldman Sachs Group, Intel Corporation, and SmithKline Beecham. He is also trustee of the British Museum, a member of the supervisory board of DaimlerChrysler, Vice President and a member of the board of the Prince of Wales Business Leaders Forum, and a member of the Governing Body of London Business School.

British Petroleum's historical archive is sited at the University of Warwick alongside the University's Modern Records Centre.

Sir Terry Frost Hon DLitt


Sir Terry, Professor of painting at the University of Reading, was educated locally in Leamington Spa Central School, and is now based in Penzance Cornwall. He first began to paint whilst in a POW camp in Germany during the Second World War. He moved to Cornwall in 1946 and studied at Camberwell School of Art 1948-1949 and began experimenting with abstract painting in 1949. He returned to St Ives in 1950 where he worked as an assistant to Barbara Hepworth until 1952. He then taught at Corsham, Leeds, and Reading from 1965. Knighted in 1998 Sir Terry has had numerous one-man exhibitions both here and abroad and is represented in many public collections worldwide including the Tate Gallery, the National Galley of Canada, National Gallery of New South Wales, the Ruskin Library, Victoria and Albert Museum Birmingham City Museum, the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, and locally even in Leamington Spa Art Gallery and on the campus of the University of Warwick. The University also recently purchased some of his work to hang in the University's new London offices in Tufton Street, Westminster.
Link to a web site displaying some of Sir Terry Frost's work

Dr DeAnne Julius Hon LLD


Dr Julius was appointed as a full-time independent member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England in September 1997. Prior to her appointment to the MPC, Dr Julius held a number of positions in the private sector. From 1993-1997 she was Chief Economist of British Airways PLC and Deputy Director of its Strategy Department. She was also Chairman of British Airways Pension Investment Management Ltd and a non-executive director of several other companies. From 1989-1993 she was Chief Economist of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. Her publications during this period include articles on globalisation and corporate governance and a book on The Economics of Natural Gas. From 1986-1989 Dr Julius was Director of the International Economics Programme at the Royal Institute of International Affairs. Dr Julius spent seven years at the World Bank, travelling extensively in East Asia, South Asia and Africa. She worked primarily on energy and infrastructure projects and published books and papers on marginal cost pricing and public sector management.

She also holds positions in the DfEE Skills Task Force, the Governing Council of the Institute of Development Studies, the Council of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, and the Royal Economic Society Committee on Women in the Economics Profession.

She is a Visiting Professor of Economics and Business Management at the University of Durham, and a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for the Study of Globalisation at the University of Warwick.
Link to Bio Details on Dr Julius on the Bank of England Web site

Professor Sir John Krebs FRS Hon DSc


A renowned zoologist Sir John most recently made the headlines when he was appointed as the first head of the new Food Standards Agency. Previously Chief Executive of the Natural Environment Research Council (since 1994), and Royal Society Research Professor in the Department of Zoology of Oxford University, since 1988. He began his academic career as an Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia (1970-73). He became a Lecturer in Zoology in UCNW 1973-75, and joined Oxford in 1976 as a Lecturer in Zoology.

He has been Director of the AFRC Unit of Ecology and Behaviour, the NERC Unit of Behavioural Ecology 1989-94, a Storer Lecturer at the University of California, President of the International Society for Behavioural Ecology, 1988-90, President of the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour since 1993, a Scientifica Member of the Max Planck Society, since 1985, and a member of the Council of the Zoological Society of London 1991-92. He was awarded the Scientific Medal of the Zoological Society in 1981, the Bicentenary Medal of the Linnaean Society in 1983, and Frink Medal of the Zoological Society in 1997.

Professor Jacob Palis Hon DSc

Director of the Instituto Matemàtica Pura e Aplicada (IMPA) in Brazil and a specialist in dynamical systems, differential equations. He was secretary of the International Mathematical Union 1991-98 and is now the president of the IMU. Professor Palis's first association with The University of Warwick was as a visiting researcher in 1969. He moved on to take positions at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques, France and the University of California, Berkeley in 1973; returning for a short time in 1980 to Warwick. He has held many other visiting appointments in a range of prestigious international universities. His awards and honours include: made a Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences in 1973; The Moinho Santista Prize (highest Brazilian prize for science at the time) 1976; the Third World Academy of Sciences for Mathematics in 1988; Brazil's National Prize for Science and Technology in 1990; and the InterAmerican Prize for Science, Organisation of the American States in 1995. His published books include Geometric Theory of Dynamical Systems and Hyperbolicity and Sensitive-Chaotic Dynamics and Homoclinic Bifurcations, Fractal Dimensions and Infinitely Many Attractors.

Professor Barry Supple, FRHistS FBA Hon DLitt


Director of the Leverhulme Trust since 1993, he began his academic career as an Assistant Professor of Business History at Harvard from 1955-60; he became Associate Professor of Economic History at McGill University 1960-62; he joined the University of Sussex in 1962 as a Lecturer, later Professor, of Economics and served twice as a Pro-Vice-Chancellor at Sussex.

He moved to Oxford as a Reader in 1978-81; and as a Professorial Fellow in Nuffield College. In 1978 he moved to Cambridge as a Professorial Fellow and was Professor of Economic History at Cambridge from 1981 to 93 (now Professor Emeritus) during that time he was Master of St Catharine's Coll., Cambridge, 1984-93.

He has also served as Chairman of the Consultative Committee of Assessment of Performance Unit at the then Department of Education and Science 1975-80; and as President of the Economic History Society, 1992-95; and as Foreign Secretary of the British Academy 1995-99. He was also Co-editor, Economic History Review 1973-82.

His publications include: Commercial Crisis and Change in England, 1600-42, 1959; (ed) The Experience of Economic Growth, 1963; Boston Capitalists and Western Railroads, 1967; The Royal Exchange Assurance: a history of British insurance, 1720-1970, 1970; (ed) Essays in Business History, 1997; History of the British Coal Industry: vol. 4, 1914-46, The Political Economy of Decline, 1987 (ed) The State and Economic Knowledge: the American and British experience, 1990; (ed) The Rise of Big Business.


Professor Julian Hunt, CB FRS Hon DSc


Professor in Climate Modelling at the Department of Space and Climate Physics of University College London, since 1999. In March of this year he was nominated to be a working Peer by the Prime Minister.

His first contact with the University of Warwick was as a Post-doctoral researcher at Warwick in 1967. He later carried out some postdoctoral research at Cornell and in 1968 became a Research Officer for Central Electricity Research Labs, (1968-70).

He has held a succession of academic positions at Cambridge becoming a Professor there in 1990. In 1992 he was appointed Chief Executive of the Meteorological Office, a post he held until 1997 when he became Director of Cambridge Environmental Research Consultants Ltd (he had been the founder Director of this organisation from 1986-91).

He has also held visiting research posts in Cerfacs, Toulouse, Colorado State University, NC State University, the University of Colorado, the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, Arizona State University, Stanford University, and the Technical University of Delft.

He has been a member of the Management Board of the European Research Community for Flow Turbulence and Combustion, 1988-95 and a Member of NERC, 1994-96. He has also served as a Councillor for Cambridge County Council, 1971-74 (Leader, Labour Group, 1972).