The University of Windsor will confer degrees on 1,182 graduating students during its 110th Convocation ceremonies Saturday, October 13, in 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. sessions in the St. Denis Centre.

Faculty of Nursing experiential learning specialist Judy Bornais will address Convocation at the 10 a.m. session. Prof. Bornais is the recipient of a 3M National Teaching Fellowship, created in 1986 by the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education to recognize exceptional teachers in post-secondary education.

At the 3 p.m. session, the University will award an honorary degree to Francis Plummer, distinguished professor in the departments of Medical Microbiology and Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba.

Dr. Plummer is recognized in Canada and abroad for his work in public health and science, and has published many articles on HIV/AIDS that have changed global public health policy. He oversaw the development of VSV-Ebov, a vaccine successfully trialed in West Africa in 2015, and ZMapp, the first effective treatment for Ebola virus infection.

Plummer was scientific director of the National Microbiology Laboratory (Winnipeg) of the Public Health Agency of Canada, followed by a position as Canada’s chief public health officer until 2017. He has served as advisor to the National Academy of Sciences in the US, and a consultant to the World Bank, the World Health Organization, and the governments of Kenya, India, and Lesotho.

Among his many honours, Plummer was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada; the Order of Manitoba; and received a grant from the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiatives of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for his HIV research.