King’s Doctorate and Fellowship for Katherine

One of the UK’s most distinguished sportswomen, the rower Katherine Grainger CBE, was awarded her PhD in Law by King’s College London at a graduation ceremony on Tuesday 23 July.


From left-to-right: Andrew Summers, a senior member of the King’s College Council; Katherine Grainger; Professor Sir Richard Trainor, Principal of King’s.

She also received a Fellowship of the College, one of King’s highest honours, at the same ceremony, which took place at the Barbican Centre, London.

The gold medal for the double sculls that Katherine Grainger achieved in the 2012 London Olympics made her the first British woman to win medals at four successive Olympic Games. At the same time as training to gold-medal standard in rowing in the last few years, she has been pursuing highly demanding research at King’s for a PhD in Law, on the subject of homicide.

Offering his congratulations to her, the Principal of King’s, Professor Sir Richard Trainor, commented: ‘This is a remarkable achievement, demonstrating not only Katherine’s abilities, both academic and sporting, but also her tremendous discipline and commitment. We are immensely proud to have her both as an alumna and as a Fellow, and look forward to continuing to welcome her at King’s.’

More than 5,500 students are graduating from King’s College London this summer, of whom more than 3,000 are attending one of the College’s nine graduation ceremonies: three at Southwark Cathedral and six at the Barbican. A further 5,700 students graduated in January, of whom 2,700 attended ceremonies held then.

Professor Trainor added: ‘Those celebrating at these ceremonies are graduating from one of the world’s top universities, a major centre of research, teaching and innovation. We are delighted to welcome these our most recent alumni, and hope they will always retain their links with the College and with the friends they have made here.’

Notes to editors

Photograph credit: H Tempest Ltd

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