Prof Sir Mark Welland and Richard Noble get honorary degrees from University of Bradford

Richard Noble OBE and Professor Sir Mark Welland were guests of honour as they joined hundreds of students in picking up their degrees in the university’s Great Hall.

First up in the morning was Professor Welland, head of the Nanoscience Centre at the University of Cambridge.

Throughout his long and distinguished career in the scientific world, Sir Mark has held roles at IBM, the Science and Technology Centre at the American University in Cairo, Egypt, and as Chief Scientific Adviser to the Ministry of Defence.

He was bestowed with a knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honorts List in 2011, and also received the highest medal awarded by the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Gold Medal for Distinguished Service, and was awarded the US Secretary of Defence’s Award for Exceptional Public Service, the highest award presented by the department to a representative of another government, in the same year.

He has also held a long-term commitment to engaging with schools, which included Sir Mark designing a short film which won the 2010 Science Short Film of the Year at Scinema - the largest film festival in the southern hemisphere.

At the afternoon ceremony, speed pioneer and entrepreneur Richard Noble OBE was presented with his honorary degree.

Mr Noble held the land speed record between 1983 and 1997, travelling at a speed of 633 miles per hour in Thrust2.

He was also project director of ThrustSSC, the first land vehicle to break the sound barrier, and broke his land speed record when it travelled at 763mph in 1997.

He is planning to again break the record next year with Bloodhound SSC, and aims to break the 1,000mph barrier.

A qualified pilot, Mr Noble’s life has revolved around speed, engineering and technology.

The 72-year-old was born in Edinburgh, before embarking on a career of breaking records and pushing limits.

Today sees Dr Gullapalli Rao and Ruth McKernan received their honorary degrees.