While the university is busy this week conferring degrees on thousands of graduates—including a number of honorary recipients—an engineering professor recently received a special degree of her own at a convocation ceremony in Sweden.

Hoda ElMaraghy, a professor and Canada Research Chair in Manufacturing Systems, received an honorary doctorate of engineering from Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, on June 1.

“It was a very festive convocation ceremony,” Dr. ElMaraghy said of the proceedings.

The honorary award at Chalmers is presented in recognition of a particularly eminent and substantial professional achievement linked to areas of competence at the university, as well as for the establishment of a contact network between the recipient and the university.

A member since 2005 of the international evaluation board for the Swedish Research Foundation, a federal granting body similar to NSERC, ElMaraghy evaluates research programs and major proposals from universities and researchers across Sweden. She has also been a member of the international Science Advisory Board of the Winquist Research Excellence Center at Chalmers University since 2007.

According to the centre’s web site, ElMaraghy was nominated for the award because of her “outstanding research and her strong international engagement in the area of production.” She was described as an “internationally respected researcher with an extensive international network” who is well-known in the Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the International Academy for Production Engineering.

ElMaraghy’s own research program is focused on the design and evolution of manufacturing systems, which a particular emphasis on developing flexible, reconfigurable systems that would allow manufacturers to quickly adapt their systems to meet increased consumer demand for more customized products.