Distinguished scientist and academician, James Watson Cronin has earned recognition as one of the select few whose work has advanced the frontier of scientific knowledge. An outstanding career as an experimental particle physicist has included his being named an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow in 1964, a Guggenheim Fellow in 1970, a member of the National Academy of Science and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was honored by the John Price Wetherill Medal of the Franklin Institute in 1975 and by the Ernest O. Lawrence Award in 1977. His research uncovering a violation in one of the most fundamental symmetry laws of nature led to his being awarded the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physics. His scientific work is characterized by a keen insight which pierces to the heart of key scientific questions and by a tremendous drive to find the difficult answer. His colleagues on the faculties of Princeton University and the University of Chicago emphasize that he is warm, supportive, forthright, the model of the humane academic scientist. In recognition of his profound contributions to the understanding of the physical universe, and to the lives of his students and colleagues, Southern Methodist University is proud to confer upon James Watson Cronin the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa.