Bill Gates fourth most powerful person in the world in 2012, up from fifth in 2011. In 1994, he was honored as the 20th Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society (DFBCS). In 1999, Gates received New York Institute of Technology's President's Medal. Gates has received honorary doctorates from Nyenrode Business Universiteit, Breukelen, The Netherlands, in 2000; KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, in 2002; Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan, in 2005; Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in April 2007; Harvard University in June 2007; the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, in 2007, and Cambridge University in June 2009. He was also made an honorary
University Scholars Program major in computer science and economics in 1986 and an MBA from Duke's Fuqua School of Business in 1987. The University Scholars Program at Duke was the first major philanthropic endeavor by the Gates' through the William H. Gates Foundation, prior to the establishment of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The University Scholars Program is the first scholarship program of its kind in the United States. The program offers scholarship support to undergraduate, graduate and professional school students with a focus on interdisciplinary approaches to knowledge. The focus on interdisciplinarity derives in part from Melinda French Gates' own interdisciplinary