A MUSICAL legend, a heavyweight political reporter, one of the country’s most senior judges and a highly decorated chemical engineer.

Those are the four recipients of honorary degrees from the University of Southampton this year.

Brian Eno, Jon Sopel, Sir Adrian Fulford and Professor Sir Bill Wakeham will join more than 5,000 graduating students at ceremonies held over six days from Thursday.

All four have connections to the university, with Jon and Sir Adrian having previously graduated from Southampton, where Jon was also president of the students’ union.

Brian completed his studies at the university’s Winchester School of Art, and Sir Bill led Southampton University as vicechancellor for eight years, before retiring in 2009.

Former Roxy Music star Brian has worked with some of the biggest musical acts in the world, including U2, Coldplay, and David Bowie, during an influential solo career that has seen him take on roles as a musician, composer, record producer, music and cultural theorist, singer and visual artist.

As well as leading the way with pioneering techniques in music production, he is famous as a principal innovator of ambient music and for his diverse collaborations with other artists, scientists, film-makers and thinkers.

Jon currently presents The Politics Show on BBC One, is one of the lead presenters on the BBC News Channel and was voted Political Journalist of the Year in 2007.

He started his career at Radio Solent, where he met his wife Linda, and went on to report for and then present PM on Radio 4, before becoming News 24’s chief political correspondent and the Paris correspondent.

One of the country’s most senior judges, Sir Adrian sits in the Queen’s Bench Division and is one of the few judges selected to try terrorist cases, having presided over the trial following the attempted London bombings on July 21, 2005.

He has also served as a judge at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Sir Bill was vice-chancellor of the University of Southampton from 2001 to 2009.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, of which he is also Senior Vice President, the Institution of Engineering and Technology, the Institute of Physics and President of the Institution of Chemical Engineers.

He has had seven academic books and 400 peer-reviewed papers published during his career.