HRH Crown Prince Frederik at DTU Commemoration Day 2016

DTU welcomed HRH Crown Prince Frederik when he participated in the awards party at DTU Commemoration Day 2016 on Friday, 29 April. As part of the festivities, DTU presented several prizes and honorary awards to both distinguished researchers and innovative students, and there were speeches, music, and gala lectures—true to tradition.

Highlights from the awards party

President criticizes cutbacks on research and education

The first speaker was DTU President Anders Bjarklev. In his speech, DTU’s President criticized the government’s cutbacks on research and education:

It will affect society, in addition to you and me.”
“If the cutbacks are an expression of a trend, we risk losing years of development. We risk losing new technological developments, new therapies, new production methods, new businesses, new knowledge. We risk losing growth and prosperity.

Read the whole speech by President Anders Bjarklev

Students reject student grant cutbacks

The Chairman of the student association Polyteknisk Forening, Sebastian Molbech Hansen, also used the occasion to criticize the political trends in Denmark, where both the progress reform and now proposals for cutbacks on the SU (Students' Grants and Loans Scheme) are less than popular:

“It does not pay to remove the SU state grant on the MSc programmes! The state grant enables everyone who has the determination and the ability to take an education, irrespective of their parents’ income. The state grant enables us to take chances, to experiment, and take on entrepreneurship—something which is not least relevant on the MSc programme.”

DTU appoints two new honorary doctors

Among the academic highlights was the appointment of two honorary doctorates. The honorary doctorate (doctor technices, honouris causa) is the University’s highest academic honour. This year, DTU awarded the doctorates to two international researchers:

Professor Charles Meneveau (far right) from Johns Hopkins University 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. The professor has since 2012 had a close collaboration with DTU Wind Energy.

Professor Gerd Leuchs from Erlangen-Nürnberg University 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. Together with researchers from DTU Physics, the professor has written more than 40 scientific articles. Gerd Leuchs is also the co-founding director of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Erlangen.

Three DTU researchers were honoured for their doctoral theses

In the past year, three researchers have defended their scientific work for the technical doctoral degree (Dr.Techn.):

1. Associate Professor Irina Petrushina from DTU Energy who, among other things, has described how very small electrical charges can accelerate a catalytic process.

See more in the film below.

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2. Senior Researcher Sigrún Jónasdottir sows from DTU Aqua, who describes the carbon footprint of copepods, which has a significant impact on the marine ecosystem.

See more in the film below.

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3. Professor Jens Nørkær Sørensen from DTU Wind Energy, who describes and re-assesses the theory used to optimize and determine a wind turbine’s performance and the loads to which it is exposed.

See more in the film below.

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Former President receives DTU’s Gold Medal

Former DTU President Hans Peter Jensen, who served from 1986 to 2001, was the instigator behind major projects and processes aimed at modernizing the University and its activities. During these years, DTU’s management, in cooperation with the then Danish Minister of Education, helped develop the special DTU Act which was adopted by the Danish parliament at the end of 2000. The Act established the basis which has been a precondition for DTU's continued modernization process, and it was the basis for the subsequent Danish University Act which came to include all Danish universities.

Julius Thomsen’s Gold Medal for professor from DTU Chemical Engineering

For his outstanding research work, DTU honoured Professor Ole Hassager with the Julius Thomsen Gold Medal. Ole Hassager’s research deals with a wide range of issues relating to the physics of viscous materials and the rheology of complex fluids.

The professor’s research is at a high international level, and he has received several international awards for his work. He has published more than 100 scientific articles and has served as co-editor of the ‘Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics', and he is now co-editor of ‘Physics of Fluids’—one of the most important journals within the field of fluid mechanics.

Student start-up of the year

Relibond is the name of the start-up headed by the two DTU students Christian Michelsen and Martin Sander Nielsen. They have linked elements from their study and created a unique method for joining copper and aluminium. The method will help reduce material consumption in high-voltage cables and thus reduce the costs of establishing and maintaining high-voltage cables.

See more in the film below.

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The DTU Innovation Prize

This year’s Innovation Prize was awarded to Professor Jes Broeng from DTU Fotonik. Throughout his career, Jes Broeng has continuously focused on innovation in the cross-field between research and industry. He is the co-founder of Crystal Fiber—a spin-out from DTU in 2000 which through a merger became NKT Photonics. He helped build up the company until his return to DTU Fotonik in 2012. With more than 300 publications and 8,700 citations, his career shows that it does not have to be either/or when working with innovation and entrepreneurship.

See more in the film below.

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Two associate professors voted Lecturers of the Year

Each year, the students at DTU select two Lecturers of the Year. The students had nominated a total of 62 teachers for the award. PF President Sebastian Molbech Hansen at the award ceremony:

“The nominations show that we have committed teachers who are passionate about their work, understand how to communicate difficult topics, how to actively involve the students in the teaching, and who are always ready to help. This is particularly applicable to the two lecturers we celebrate tonight.”

Associate Professor Jan Becker Høgsberg from DTU Mechanical Engineering was one of the winners.

See more in the film below.

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The second winner of the Lecturer of the Year award was Associate Professor Niels-Ebbe Dam from DTU Diplom.

See more in the film below.

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DTU Safety Award

Head of Centre Lars Georg Kiørboe received Arbejdsmiljøprisen 2016 (occupational health and safety award) for his long-standing work as the person responsible for health and operational safety at DTU Chemical Engineering. The department is a potentially dangerous workplace, where the tasks range from office work, over work of general chemical, thermal, and biological laboratories to testing in large and complicated pilot plants and in full industrial scale in collaboration with the business community. This complexity requires a targeted, well-structured, and robust approach to occupational health and safety work so that accidents and injuries can be avoided, but making the occupational health and safety work unnecessarily bureaucratic. 

Lecture marked the end of the awards party

In keeping with tradition, the awards party ended with a gala lecture. This years lecture was entitled ‘Biocatalysis for the future’ and was given by Professor Anne S. Meyer from DTU Chemical Engineering.