Honorary doctorate for Professor Jonathan Dorfan

Dr Max Price with Professor Jonathan Dorfan, who received an honorary doctorate from UCT on Monday, 8 December, at the first of the Faculty of Science's two graduation ceremonies this week.

Dorfan was presented with a Doctor of Science (honoris causa).

Dorfan obtained a BSc degree in physics and applied mathematics from UCT in 1969, and later obtained a PhD in experimental particle physics from the University of California, US.

Upon acquiring his doctorate in 1976, he joined the Stanford Linear Accelerator Centre (SLAC) as a postdoc, and two years later as a staff scientist. He was promoted to associate professor in 1984, full professor in 1989, and associate director in 1994.

As SLAC director, Dorfan managed the most important transition in the history of the laboratory. Traditionally a single-purpose particle physics research centre, SLAC has become a multi-programme laboratory, whose largest programme in 2009 will be in photon science.

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