Honorary Doctorate from Tel Aviv University for Knut Urban
13 June 2018
On the 3rd of May, Prof. Knut Urban was awarded an honorary doctorate from Tel Aviv University (TAU). In this way, the renowned Israeli university sought to recognize his scientific achievements in physics and his work on the development and application of a new generation of electron microscopes with aberration-correcting electron lenses.
Urban, Director at the Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons (ER-C) until 2010, was previously awarded the prestigious Wolf Prize in Physics in 2011 for this work, together with Maximilian Haider of CEOS GmbH in Heidelberg and Harald Rose from the Technische Universität Darmstadt. The discovery made by the three scientists proved groundbreaking for modern material sciences, opening up new opportunities to study the properties of materials and the functions of structural components directly at the atomic scale.
Knut Urban gained his doctorate from the University of Stuttgart in 1972 and subsequently joined the Max Planck Institute of Metals Research. He was one of two founding directors of the ER-C in 2004. In 2011, he accepted a senior professorship in the Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA). In this way, university professors can continue to pursue their research both at RWTH Aachen and Forschungszentrum Jülich even after retirement. Moreover, the JARA senior professorships promote knowledge-sharing and collaborations between older, more experienced and younger, early-career research scientists.
Knut Urban is a former president of the German Physical Society and a current member of several advisory bodies, boards of trustees and scientific committees. His prestigious research awards include, apart from the Wolf Prize, the MRS von Hippel Award and the HONDA Prize for Ecotechnology. Through scientific collaborations, he has enjoyed a decades-long connection with Israel. Furthermore, he is the Yuval Ne’eman Distinguished Lecturer at Tel Aviv University.
Further information
Video of the honorary degrees conferment ceremony
Tel Aviv University announcement of the TAU honorary doctorates 2018
Image of Prof. Knut Urban taken during the honorary degree conferment ceremony at Tel Aviv University held on 3 May 2018 as part of the TAU Board of Governors series of events. The Board of Governors is the University’s highest representative body which, among other things, elects the Rector and the President of the University. Besides Knut Urban, the TAU granted honorary doctorates to a group of groundbreaking researchers and inspiring philanthropists from all over the world during the event.