Norman Foster, President of the Norman Foster Foundation (NFF), was invested as Doctor Honoris Causa by the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) in a ceremony that placed humanism and the importance of building a better world through our actions at its centre.

The ceremony was presided over by UAM’s Rector, Ms Amaya Mendikoetxea, and was attended by a broad representation of the university’s community.

This recognition—the institution’s highest academic distinction—has been conferred upon Norman Foster for his ‘ability to imagine spaces that dignify life’, his ‘profoundly humanistic perspective on how we inhabit the world’ and because ‘his work is a lesson in humanity’, as the Rector stated in her address.

The UAM’s Secretary-General, Domingo Jesús Jiménez-Valladolid, read out the resolution of the Governing Council granting Norman Foster the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa. Following the laudatio delivered by his sponsor, Professor Diego Barrado, the Rector bestowed upon Lord Foster the symbols that accompany the University’s highest academic distinction: the laurelled cap, the University ring, the white gloves and the Book of Science. Once the medal had been conferred, he formally became a member of the College of Doctors of the Autonomous University of Madrid.