The event takes place at 09:00 in the Aula (on the Hatfield campus). This is part of the Autumn Graduation ceremonies that started on 14 April and continue until 30 April.

The degree to be conferred to Prof Eriksson is the DSc honoris causa. Prof Eriksson is currently a professor and Head of the Department of Geosciences at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in the USA.

Professor Kenneth Eriksson was born in Boksburg in 1946 and grew up in Benoni. He studied at the University of the Witwatersrand where he completed his BSc(Hons) in 1967, his MSc on the Malmani Dolomite of the Potchefstroom Synclinorium in 1971, and his PhD on the Moodies Group in the Barberton region in 1977.

In 1971 he was awarded an Abe Bailey Fellowship to visit England and Scotland with a group of recent graduates from seven other universities in South Africa. From 1974 to 1975 he studied at the University of Cincinnati as a Rotary Foundation awardee.

Professor Eriksson emigrated to the USA in 1978 where he joined the University of Texas at Dallas for three years before moving to the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in 1981.

During the past 30 years, Professor Eriksson has conducted research in the USA, Australia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. He commenced his research in Zimbabwe in 1992 as a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Zimbabwe. From 1995 to 2007 he was co-chief editor of the journal Precambrian Research.

Much of Professor Eriksson’s research has been concerned with understanding the evolution of the Precambrian sedimentary record and overall Earth evolution in the Precambrian era. More recently he has been involved in understanding the geology of coalbearing sedimentary rocks in the Appalachian region of the USA.

Prof Eriksson has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals and over 150 abstracts of papers presented at professional meetings during the past 40 years.

He has supervised 12 MSc and 8 PhD students during his career and is a Fellow of the Geological Society of South Africa and the Geological Society of America.