Honorary degree recipients of NYU are typically persons of great distinction or achievement who are nationally or internationally prominent in their subject areas or disciplines and who reflect the values of New York University. As a whole, the group of honorees vary in their fields of endeavor, and are diverse in ethnicity, race, background, and gender. Among some of the distinguished recipients honored in recent years at Commencement are the following:

• Louise Bourgeois, artist^[1]
• David Brooks, columnist for The New York Times
• Emmanuelle Charpentier, scientist whose research led to some of the most important tools for genome “editing”, and Scientific Member and Director of the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, and Visiting Professor at Umeå University.^[2]
• Bill Clinton, 42nd President of the United States.^[3]
• Billy Crystal, comedian, actor, producer, writer, director, and 1970 alumnus of the Tisch School of the Arts.^[2]
• Patrick Desbois, President, Yahad-In Unum
• Aretha Franklin (Hall of Fame artist)
• Claire Marie Fraser (Genomicist)
• Lang Lang, internationally renowned pianist
• John Lewis, courageous leader of the U.S. civil rights movement and a Member of Congress since 1986.^[2]
• Sanna Marin, 46th Prime Minister of Finland^[4]
• Margaret H. Marshall, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts and the first woman to hold that position, wrote the first high court opinion in the U.S. permitting same-sex marriage.^[2]
• Omara Khan Massoudi, Afghan Museum Director and Preserver of Cultural Patrimony
• Robert Rubin, 70th United States Secretary of the Treasury
• Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice, United States Supreme Court
• Oliver Stone, film director and NYU Tisch Alum
• Taylor Swift singer-songwriter
• Dylan Tilley (Exogeologist, Mineralogist)
• Justin Trudeau, 23rd Prime Minister of Canada^[5]
• Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation.^[2]
• Charles Weissmann, Professor and Chairman, Department of Infectology, The Scripps Research Institute
• Janet Yellen, Federal Reserve System Chair^[6]