On October 14, 2002, Zhejiang University held a ceremony awarding an honorary doctorate to Kofi Annan, U.N. Secretary-General, Nobel Laureate in Peace in 2001. Mr. Annan was born in Ghana in 1938. He graduated from Kumasi University of Science and Technology in Ghana and later got a Master Degree in Management in MIT, USA. Mr. Annan has worked in U.N. for 40 years since 1962. In 1997, he became the seventh U.N. Secretary-General and was reappointed as such in 2001.

During the Awarding Ceremony, Mr. Annan addressed to about a thousand teachers and students in Zhejiang University on "the Function and Influence of the United Nations".