UNB to present six honorary degrees at spring convocations

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The University of New Brunswick will hand out six honorary degrees at its upcoming spring convocations in May.

Honorary doctorates of letters will be presented Thursday in Fredericton to Fred Beairsto, Sandy Kitchen-Brewer and Earl Brewer. Dr. Darrell Duffie and Dr. Hans Kierstead will receive their honorary doctorates Wednesday in Fredericton, and Dr. Margaret MacMillan will accept her honorary doctorate Friday in Saint John.

The honorary degree recipients were announced Tuesday in a news release.

Beairsto is an entrepreneur and humanitarian who became a major plumbing and mechanical contractor, was president of the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce, and received the chamber’s Small Business Award. He’s also been involved with UNB’s alumni council, senate, and board of directors.

Beairsto and his wife launched the Fred and Dixie Beairsto Emergency Aid Fund to help undergraduate students facing financial challenges. He’s a past recipient of the chamber’s Distinguished Citizens Award, the Fredericton Community Foundation’s Philanthropy in Action Award, Rotary International’s Paul Harris Award, the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal, and the Lieutenant-Governor’s Excellence in Aging Award.

The Brewers are social activists, philanthropists, and community supporters who have improved education, food security, the arts, health, and social innovation.

Earl Brewer, a renowned real-estate developer, has led projects such as the historic post office building on Queen Street, Barker House, Phoenix Square, the Waverley on Regent Street, Westpointe by the River, and the Promenade on Queen. He’s sat on the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Atlantic Salmon Federation, UNB board of governors, and Vestcor boards and UNB’s law advisory council. He’s a past consul to Sweden for New Brunswick.

Sandy Kitchen-Brewer manages the Brewer Foundation and is a former research associate at the National Research Council of Canada. She’s the co-author of papers on community intermediaries, co-chairs Women4Women Fredericton, and sits on the board of the Lahey Clinic Canadian Foundation.

The Brewers created the Studio Watch Emerging Artist award program at the Beaverbrook gallery in 2006 and have supported UNB’s law faculty by donating $1 million to establish the Brewer Scholarship and contributing to the law student lounge renovations.

Duffie is a professor of management and finance at Stanford University in California. He’s been presented with various research awards, fellowships, teaching awards, and prizes. He’s been a member of many academic editorial boards, an advisor for the World Economic Forum, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Society of Financial Econometrics, and the Scientific Councils of the Swiss Finance Institute and the Duisenberg Institute. He’s been president of the American Finance Association and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Science.

Duffie has written more than 70 peer-reviewed research articles and books, including How Big Banks Fail – And What to Do About It. His graduate textbook, Dynamic Asset Pricing Theory, offers an in-depth look at modern mathematical finance.

Kierstead, a neuroscientist and entrepreneur, is known for his work in regenerative medicine. He taught anatomy and neurobiology at the University of California Irvine campus, where he founded and directed a stem cell research centre, received more than $16 million in research grants, and was a founding advisor of the California Stem Cell Agency.

Kierstead’s research led to major biomedical breakthroughs and innovations, including a treatment that restores movement and function to people with quadriplegic spinal cord injuries. He’s also been named one of the top 100 scientists of the year by Discover Magazine. He’s developed therapies for immune disorders, motor neuron diseases, retinal diseases, and a multi-pathogen vaccine.

MacMillan is an award-winning author, historian, and an emeritus professor at the University of Toronto and Oxford University. Her best-selling books, Paris 1919: Six Months that Changed the World and The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914 are two of the most influential studies written on the First World War.