Nobel laureate David MacMillan, who got his Ph.D. in chemistry at UC Irvine, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

“It’s been remarkable, surreal and humbling at the same time to receive this,” says MacMillan, a citizen of both the U.S. and Scotland and currently a professor at Princeton University.

MacMillan, who received the 2021 Nobel Prize in chemistry, recently visited his alma mater, saying: “To go back to a place that is emotionally so important to you and have people treat you so well … I was getting so sentimental and so emotional, it was something else.”

The queen granted the honor to MacMillan as part of her 96th birthday celebration and platinum jubilee.