Dies Academicus 2014

Leuphana grants honorary doctorates to three researchers

Lüneburg. Leuphana University Lüneburg celebrated the end of the academic year in a festive atmosphere as it granted three honorary doctorates to distinguished scholars and awarded numerous prizes to its own successful researchers and students. Several hundred guests accepted the invitation to this year’s Dies Academicus.  Once a year, the university community joins together in this traditional event to acknowledge outstanding academic accomplishments, the acquisition of external funds, innovative instruction, and volunteer work by students. This year the event also marked the second part of the festivities related to the university’s twenty-fifth anniversary, which was celebrated under the title of sustainable science.

Honorary Doctorates Conferred

The presentation of honorary doctorates by the Faculty of Sustainability as well as by the Faculty of Business and Economics stood at the center of the event.
 
The Faculty of Business and Economics honored Professor Deborah R. Hensler. As a political scientist, Dr. Hensler holds the Judge John W. Ford Professorship for Dispute Resolution at Stanford Law School while also serving as the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies. She is one of the world’s leading scholars in the field of empirical legal research. She has introduced a pioneering approach to traditional legal scholarship through her research in the field, which for many years neglected empirical approaches. Through her scholarship, she has called into question many of the ideological assumptions regarding the operational procedures and structures of the legal system. In conferring the honorary doctorate in law (Dr. iur.h.c.), the Faculty of Business and Economics recognized Professor Hensler’s scholarly accomplishment in the field of empirical investigations of the legal system.
  
The Faculty of Sustainability granted honorary doctorates to Dr. Helga Nowotny, Professor of Science Studies, and to Dr. Michael Crow, Professor of Political Science and President of Arizona State University.

Professor Helga Nowotny is a European scholar of the theory and social studies of science.  She served as the President of the European Research Council until 2013. She is widely recognized for her path-breaking work on transdisciplinary research. Her interest in the social studies of science runs through all her academic career and scholarly work. From this critical perspective she examines the social context in which knowledge is produced and how it is subsequently used by society. The co-written book, The New Production of Knowledge (1994) represents a milestone in the field. In conferring the honorary doctorate in philosophy (Dr phil.h.c.), the Faculty of Sustainability recognized Professor Nowotny’s accomplishments in the field of science studies.

Professor Michael C. Crow is an American political scientist and the current President of Arizona State University, the largest public university in the United States. With his vision for a New American University, Michael Crow has given Arizona State University a fundamentally new orientation through the creation of numerous inter- and transdiscipinary Schools and Centers, thereby, transforming the institution into one of the leading public universities in the country. Like no other university president, Michael Crow has defined the image of the university for society in the twenty-first century and put his ideas into practice. The Faculty of Sustainability honored Professor Crow’s accomplishments in the field of social and future-oriented university policies in general as well as in transformative sustainability studies in particular with the conferral of the honorary doctorate (Dr. phil. h.c.). 
 
You can find further reports about the Dies Academicus here.