Large span among Chalmers’ new honorary doctors
The success of the music service Spotify is based on technology development and entrepreneurship of highest class – achievements that are now rewarded as Chalmers appoints its 2015 honorary doctors. The selected group also comprises an outstanding computer scientist, a world leading nuclear scientist, and the man who provided millions of people with malaria medicine.
Ludvig Strigeus and Martin Lorentzon
Ludvig Strigeus is the designer behind Spotify's successful technical platform for streaming music. He has also created the small but efficient file transfer client uTorrent – an amazing success used by millions of people worldwide. Technology and technical solutions have great impact on our lives, yet those who create these solutions often remain relatively unnoticed, as Ludvig Strigeus. Ludvig Strigeus has a master's degree in computer science and engineering from Chalmers University of Technology and was rewarded with the John Ericsson Medal in 2006 for his exceptional university study progress.
Martin Lorentzon receives his honorary doctorate for his technology-based and long-term entrepreneurship that has resulted in the world leading company Spotify, founded in 2007, along with Daniel Ek. Martin Lorentzon is an entrepreneurial role-model with a proven ability to work innovatively with people with complementary skills, such as Ludvig Strigeus and Daniel Ek. He also offers his commitment and his experience as a mentor to young entrepreneurs.
Benjamin Pierce
Prof. Benjamin Pierce, University of Pennsylvania, USA, has been appointed honorary doctor for his outstanding achievements in the areas of programming languages and computer security. He is one of the main proponents of the use of formal proofs in computer science research and a mastermind behind the POPL Mark challenge that encourages the computer science community to verify their formalizations of programming languages with computer-assisted proofs. He is an active and visible contributor to the computer science research community, where his activities include editorship of prestigious journals and program chairship of top conferences.
Benjamin Pierce’s connection to Chalmers has been strong, and has been further solidified by his successful engagement in the role of a Jubilee Professor in 2014.
Maria José García Borge
Maria José García Borge has a position as professor at Consejo Superior de In-vestigaciones Cientificas (CSIC) in Madrid. Since 2012 she is heading the physics group of the Isolde facility at the particle physics laboratory Cern, Geneva. Having this outstanding scientific position, professor Borge has as well been recognised beyond traditional academic circles.
Maria José García Borge has exceptionally strong merits within nuclear and atomic physics, in particular concerning experimental studies of very exotic subatomic systems. Her expertise within the field of beta-delayed particle emission is world leading.
The researchers within Subatomic Physics at Chalmers are since decades col-laborating very closely with Maria José García Borge and her research group.
Jay D. Keasling
Prof. Jay Keasling, professor at University of California Berkeley, USA, is a prominent researcher in biotechnology and metabolic engineering, i.e. development of cell factories for the production of fuels and chemicals.
Jay Keasling is appointed as honorable doctor for his significant contributions in metabolic engineering, in particular his work on developing a bio-based process for production of production of the anti-malarial drug artemisinic acid. The objective of this work was to establish large-scale, low-cost production of this drug for treatment of malaria in Africa, a process that has now been implemented having impact on the daily life of millions of people. Currently he is director of a large center funded by the Department of Energy, USA, that is developing novel bioprocesses for production of advanced biofuels.
Jay Keasling is collaborating with the systems biology group at Chalmers and has been involved in building biotechnology research at Chalmers to the international leading positions it holds today.
About Chalmers honorary doctorates
Honorary doctorate from Chalmers University of Technology is given in recognition of a very prominent and profound professional performance associated with Chalmers subject-specific areas of expertise. A strong relation between the appointed an honorary doctorate and Chalmers should already be established. Honorary doctorates at Chalmers are appointed by the Chalmers Faculty Council and awarded at an annual ceremony, this year on May 9.
Caption:
Benjamin Pierce, Ludvig Strigeus, Maria José García Borge, Martin Lorentzon and Jay Keasling are the 2015 honorary doctorates at Chalmers University of Technology.
Here you may download individual press images
For more information on this year's honorary doctorates, please contact:
Erika Hansson, 031-772 2746, erika.hansson@chalmers.se
Tags:
