Keystone-SDA
Former President of the Confederation Alain Berset received an honorary doctorate from the University of Friborg on Saturday. The award ceremony for distinguished personalities took place in Granges-Paccot in the presence of Federal Councilor Guy Parmelin.
(Keystone-ATS) Alain Berset received the title of doctor honoris causa from the Faculty of Sciences and Medicine. The Secretary General of the Council of Europe was rewarded for the close links he forged with natural sciences and medicine during the Covid-19 pandemic, Unifr said on the occasion of Dies academicus.
The former health minister favored “robust and constructive collaboration between politics and research”. The faculty also highlighted its role as mediator between science, politics and society, through which “it strengthened dialogue and promoted decision-making based on evidence”.
An archbishop
Furthermore, the importance of the 53-year-old citizen of Belfaux (FR), as a federal councilor and leading political figure, embodies “in a particularly remarkable way the European and international orientation of Unifr”.
“It is a very great honor and I have a deep feeling of gratitude,” Mr. Berset told Keystone-ATS, specifying that he had done all his studies in Neuchâtel and not in Fribourg. “I am very rarely present in Fribourg, it was a great opportunity to return there for this ceremony,” he added.
As announced in May, the event once again honored Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa.
The latter is the Archbishop of Jerusalem Pierbattista Pizzaballa. He is well known for his commitment to the Middle East. The Faculty of Theology thus wished to pay tribute to a Franciscan who, for more than 20 years, has been “one of the most striking faces of the Christian presence in the Holy Land in the eyes of the whole world”.
Six doctorates
In total, this year, not five, but six honorary doctorates were awarded. The new Faculty of Education and Training Sciences, resulting from the Friborg High School of Education and part of the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, was inaugurated on August 1.
The title of doctor honoris causa of the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences was awarded to Ambassador Jacques Pitteloud. The 63-year-old Valaisan, former head of the Confederation’s Intelligence Service, is currently Swiss ambassador to Belgium and head of the Swiss mission to NATO.
Rector Katharina Fromm hosted a ceremony which took place at Forum Fribourg, due to the renovation after water infiltration of the aula magna of the Miséricorde building, a building dating from 1941. Guy Parmelin participated as honorary president and the prefect of Veveyse François Genoud as guest of honor.
