Honorary doctorates

Honorary doctorates 1921-1999: For a complete list of all honorary doctorates from 1921 to the present, please go to the Danish webiste.

Since 2000, the academic highpoint of the Annual Commemoration Day has been the conferral of honorary doctorates (doctor technices, honoris causa). 

2016

Professor Charles Meneveau (Johns Hopkins University) far left
Charles Meneveau is an internationally leading researcher within fluid dynamics and turbulence. These are key areas within the field of wind energy—both in terms of airflows in the atmosphere and wind farms, as well as turbine blade aerodynamics. 

Professor Gerd Leuchs (Erlangen-Nürnberg University) greeted by the President of DTU
Gerd Leuchs has distinguished himself through his ground-breaking research and experiments with light, its behaviour, and its possible applications. He is one of the pioneers within the research fields of quantum information and quantum technology.

2015

Anders Nilsson (Stockholm University)
Exceptional expertise and outstanding achievements within the fields of surface physics, ultrafast chemistry, and the structure of liquid and solid water, through pioneering applications of x-ray spectroscopic techniques.

William W. Nazaroff (University of California, Berkeley)
Outstanding contributions advancing understanding of the physics and chemistry that control human exposure to pollutants in indoor environments.

John E.P. Connerney (NASA)
Exceptional achievements in space research as well as highly innovative technological research, particularly for his contributions to designing space instrumentation and using it to reveal new sides of the Solar System.

2014

Bjerne S. Clausen (CEO of Haldor Topsøe)
In recognition of his excellent research with particular emphasis on in situ characterization of the importance of nanoparticles to industrial heterogeneous catalysis.

2013

Wieslaw Królikowski
Outstanding and seminal contributions to fundamental nonlinear optics within light localization and solution formation and interaction in nonlinear media.

Paul Seymour
Outstanding and seminal contributions to the mathematical foundations of networks with far reaching applications to theoretical computer science.

2012

Yechezkel Barenholz
Outstanding contributions to lipid membrane research and highly innovative achievements in nanomedicine.

Richard W. Ziolkowski
Outstanding and seminal contributions to metamaterial-inspired antennas.

2011

Hassan Aref
Outstanding and highly innovative scientific achievements in fluid dynamics, particularly for his work on chaotic advection and vortex dynamics.

James B. Rawlings

 Outstanding and seminal contributions to Model Predictive Control.

2010

Alfonso Valencia

Outstanding and highly innovative scientific achievements in computational biology, particularly for his creation of data integration schemes which incorporate text mining for the extraction of protein interactions – a seminal contribution which constitutes the basis of much of the current work within the fields of bioinformatics and systems biology.

Fiona Anne Harrison

Highly innovative and pioneering studies leading to outstanding scientific achievements in experimental and observational high-energy astrophysics - particularly for her role in the development of hard X-ray focusing telescopes, her leadership in future high-energy missions and her great results achieved in the Gamma-Ray Burst science.

2009

Peter Roepstorff
Outstanding and highly innovative scientific achievements in protein chemistry and proteomics, particularly for his creation of the world-wide used area of mass spectrometry of proteins and other biological macromolecules. 

2008

Patrice Courvalin
Outstanding and ground-breaking contributions to our understanding of the molecular background and evolution of antimicrobial resistance in pathogenic bacteria, with great importance for the detection and control of serious disease problems. 

2007

Willi Gujer

Outstanding and innovative contributions to the development of deterministic models for biological wastewater treatment technologies and the transfer of the models to the water industry. 

2006

Klavs F. Jensen

Ground-breaking and truly fundamental contributions to the development of Chemical Engineering, in particular within Chemical Reaction Engineering, Micro-Electronics and micro-Reactors – and all with a great impact on the Chemical Industry. 

Alan Needleman

Outstanding and innovative contributions to the understanding and modeling of deformation and fracture phenomenon of structural materials. 

2005

Gregory N. Stephanopoulos 
Outstanding contributions to the implementation in the field of biotechnology and life sciences, particular in pioneering and defining the field of metabolic engineering. 

Bengt Kasemo
Outstanding, innovative contributions to the development of nanoscience and nanotechnology particularly in the areas of biomaterials and environmental heterogeneous catalysis. 

2004

Cleve Moler
Outstanding and groundbreaking contributions in practical algorithms and software for mathematical modelling, which have revolutionized computational modelling and simulation worldwide.  

Victor C. Li
Outstanding, innovative contributions to materials research and engineering and providing our society and the construction industry with new, safe and sustainable building materials. 

2003

John D. Spengler
Outstanding interdisciplinary research contributions to the indoor air sciences and environmental engineering that have been of great benefit for human health and quality of life.

Craig R. Barret
Significant contributions to understanding of metallic microstructure and its influence on material properties, and for pioneering contributions to the development of the IT industry.

2002

Martin A. Schmidt
For significant contributions to the development of the field of Microsystems research excellent research within process development as well as design and manufacturing of novel MEMS components. 

2001

Alaa E. Mansour 

William Harry Melody 

2000

Lester Alan Gerhardt

Edwin N. Lightfoot