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Three honorary doctorates will be awarded by the University of Bolton at its winter Degree Congregation Ceremony on Friday 27 November 2009.

Receiving honorary awards will be academic, Professor Dr Berthold Bitzer; businessman, Imran Hakim and astronomer, Sir Arnold Wolfendale.

University of Bolton Vice-Chancellor, Dr George Holmes, will confer their honorary awards at the University's fifth Degree Congregation Ceremony this year.

The honorary award recipients join almost 500 celebrating graduands, family members and friends at the Victoria Hall in Bolton. In total, more than 2,660 graduands who studied for degrees or diplomas will have graduated from the University in 2009.

Professor Dr Berthold Bitzer receives his award for his outstanding contribution to the University.
Prof Bitzer has been at the University of South Westphalia in Soest since 1987 having been Dean of Faculty and holding a number of senior management positions within the consortium of Universities forming the University of South Westphalia. Prior to joining the University he held positions at the University of Paderborn, the Technical University, Darmstadt and AEG. His background is in power systems and control engineering. In 1994 he was responsible for leading the development of masters education at his university and working in conjunction with Prof Danny Morton of the University of Bolton he launched the first masters programme in Electronic systems in 1995. This programme was one of the first masters degrees to be delivered in Germany and his work paved the way for the development of masters programmes throughout the German education system.

Imran Hakim receives his award for his outstanding contribution to business and innovation.
Bolton businessman Imran Hakim has a close association with the University of Bolton. He is the University's Fellow of Entrepreneurship. Possibly best known as a winner of BBC TV programme Dragons' Den, Imran Hakim's winning iTeddy product was part-developed with the University. Having launched his business career at the age of 15, Mr Hakim graduated from UMIST in 2001 with a BSc in Optometry and Vision Science. He now successfully runs a group of independent practices.

Sir Arnold Wolfendale receives his award for his outstanding contribution to science.
Sir Arnold Wolfendale is a British astronomer who served as Astronomer Royal from 1991 to 1995. He graduated with a BSc in Physics from the University of Manchester in 1948, followed by a PhD in 1953 and a DSc in 1970. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1973, and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1977. He retired from teaching in 1992 and was knighted in 1995. In 1996 he became Professor of Experimental Physics with the Royal Institution of Great Britain. During his career he held academic posts at the universities of Manchester, Durham, Ceylon and Hong Kong and was head of department at Durham where he remains an emeritus professor.