Alfred Nobel’s honorary doctorate at Uppsala University

Alfred Nobel was awarded an honorary doctorate at a grand ceremony at Uppsala University in 1893. The University was celebrating the 300th anniversary of its reopening in connection with the Uppsala Meeting.

The jubilee celebrations engaged all of Uppsala, and the city was festooned with myriad decorations, including triumphal arches of spruce branches and illuminations. Alfred Nobel received his honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Philosophy, but he was granted the honour in absentia and thus never experienced the festive arrangements or the conferment banquet at the Gillet restaurant.

Nevertheless, the bonds that were established in the autumn of 1893 live on today in the form of the traditional visits of Nobel laureates to the University in connection with their prize ceremony in Stockholm.