The Governing Council of the University of La Laguna approved today, December 12, the proposal to award honorary doctorates to four individuals. The University Senate will now ratify these nominations in a forthcoming session.
The first one presented to the governing body was that of Dr. Nicholas Peppas, Peppas, a professor at the University of Texas and nominated by Professor Edgar Pérez, has served as director of the Institute for Biomaterials, Drug Administration, and Regenerative Medicine at the same institution. He is a researcher with a long and prolific career, widely recognized for his dedication to mentoring young researchers throughout their careers, a fact noted in various sources, including his support of over 1,500 researchers.
It is worth noting that he has been a visiting professor at 14 universities in 11 countries, has supervised 125 doctoral theses, and has participated in over a thousand scientific collaborations worldwide. Furthermore, Peppas has been awarded 14 honorary doctorates.
General image of the session.
Professor Carina González, for her part, defended the merits of the researcher. Londa Schiebinger as an honorary doctorate recipient from the University of La Laguna. This American researcher holds a doctorate from Harvard University and directs a project on gender innovation in science, medicine, engineering, and the environment. According to her proposer, she is an international authority on gender and science, which has earned her honorary doctorates from the universities of Valencia, Lund (Sweden), and the Free University of Brussels, in addition to numerous awards such as the Alf Andrew Heggoy Book Award, the National Institutes of Health Award, the National Society of Women Physicians Award, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Award, and the Stanford University Award.
Schiebinger has proposed the development of practical methods that combine science, gender, and intersectionality and their impact on innovation—a much-needed perspective for developing gender-sensitive research. Her work promotes more inclusive and higher-quality research, González noted.
Journalism professor Lara Carrascosa defended the candidacy of Amparo Moreno Sardà, Moreno Sardà, a communication researcher and professor emerita at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, is a feminist activist and researcher. She founded the Laboratory of Journalism and Communication for Citizenship and was one of the promoters of the Catalan Women's Days, which began during the Francoist period. Her doctoral thesis focused on the androcentric order of historical discourse, for which she received the Clara Campoamor Prize in 1984.
Carrascosa explained that the work 'The Virile Archetype, Protagonist of History: Exercises in Non-Androcentric Reading' is one of the most cited by the emeritus professor. The study of media for social narrative, the type of information they collect, and the description of androcentrism have been central to the scholarly work of this Honorary Member of the Spanish Association for Communication Research.
For her part, Professor Dulce González Doreste proposed the candidacy of the Senegalese writer for an honorary doctorate. Ken Bugul, González Doreste, author of eleven novels, discussed the life of this novelist, deeply marked by her family uprooting in early childhood. An irreverent, Black African writer, her publisher gave her the pseudonym Ken Bugul, which in Wolof means 'The one no one wants'.
Years later, she has traveled the world, speaking on women's rights and family planning, promoting therapeutic writing and rehabilitation in vulnerable communities. Her humorous narrative style has earned her a distinctive voice in African literature, noted the professor from the University of La Laguna. She writes in French, the language of her colonial upbringing, she explained, a tool that has allowed her to reach a wider audience, although her work focuses on the Wolof world.
At the same session, the appointment of Abel López Díez, a professor of Geography, as director of the University Extension Secretariat was announced. Meanwhile, the Vice-Rector for Teaching and Research Staff, Alfonso Ruiz, presented a proposal to change the area of expertise of one professor and a proposal for new honorary professorships, in order to continue benefiting from the collaboration of faculty members of high and proven academic quality. The partial modification of several regulations governing access to university teaching positions was also approved.
The Secretary General and the Rector of the ULL, during the session.
The Vice-Rector for Students, Rosario Hernández, presented the modifications made to the regulations governing student internships during their undergraduate studies, expanding the scope to include extracurricular internships and the management of certain grants from companies, in addition to updating the regulations. She also addressed some changes to the admissions regulations for undergraduate programs at the academic center.
The Vice-Rector announced new regulations concerning support services for students with disabilities, including an advisory committee of experts in this field and the addition of a tutor. The regulations also incorporate adjustments to the assessments used to evaluate these students, which are mandatory for faculty.
In the same session, the modification of the regulations concerning the recognition of credits was addressed, in this case by the Vice-Rector for Teaching, José Manuel García Fraga. Finally, the Vice-Rector for Sustainability and Infrastructure, Candela Díaz, reported on the content of the Environmental Sustainability Plan, which incorporates most of the fifty comments received from the university community after its public consultation phase.
This is a key document to consolidate this university's commitment to sustainable development and addresses the four strategic axes suggested by the CRUE (organization, teaching, research and environmental management) for the period 2025/27.
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