Former Irish Timescorrespondent Conor O'Clery has said he is "honoured, proud and grateful" to have been awarded an honorary doctorate by Queen's University, Belfast.
The award was conferred on the final day of the university's summer graduation ceremonies in respect of O'Clery's role as "our man at large in the world".
Delivering the citation, Prof Ellen Douglas-Cowie referred to O'Clery's career spanning more than 30 years which took him from Dublin, Belfast and London to Moscow, Beijing, Washington and New York.
She highlighted the newspaper's commitment to having its own reporter as major world events unfolded and detailed O'Clery's reporting of the peace process from the US, the Gorbachev years in Moscow and the emergence of China as a global economic power.
Accepting his doctorate, O'Clery referred to his "accidental" introduction to journalism: "I want to say a special 'Thank you' to the university for scrapping the computer science course" he applied for. "Of course I might have become a Bill Gates if it hadn't, but I somehow doubt that." Urging students to help keep the peace, he said: "Believe me, it is worth holding on to. War is not about good and evil. It is about death."