Three new honorary doctorates in Science and Technology

Professor Margaret M. Murnane is an internationally leading expert in ultrafast quantum optics with special emphasis on overtone-generating laser lights, so-called high harmonic generation. She is based at the University of Colorado in Boulder, USA, where she works at the research institute JILA as the leader of an interdisciplinary group working towards finding new applications for overtone sources. Her research involves applying ‘laser-like’ beams of light with short wavelengths, from extreme ultraviolet to the soft X-ray spectrum. These highly transitory pulses of light enable us to capture and study the fastest processes in nature. Professor Murnane has collaborated with Uppsala University on a number of occasions.

Sergey Ivanov is a professor at the Karpov Institute of Physical Chemistry, Moscow (Russia). He is the superintendent of the institute’s departments of X-ray diffraction and studies of ferric oxide materials. The institute, which has more than 2000 employees, was founded in 1918 and conducts basic and applied research in physics and chemistry. One of Professor Ivanov’s main research interests is the study of materials that show both electrical and magnetic order. He has a leading position in the production and ordering of crystalline and magnetic structures in new materials with these properties. Professor Ivanov has been a regular visitor to Uppsala as a visiting researcher and professor for 20 years.

After attaining a Master of Engineering, Kjell Brunberg has worked at a number of high-tech companies. He is the founder of several companies, notably Hectronic AB and UPWIS AB, as well as the co-founder of BAP AB. Hectronic is now one of the leading Nordic companies in embedded systems. UPWIS was founded under the Uppsala University research project WISENET and today produces cutting-edge wireless sensor technology. Kjell Brunberg has also worked on and supported several research projects throughout the years. He has also been involved in the Centre for Natural Disaster Science and is active in the EU project Baltic Flows, as well as the Vinnova-backed Green IoT/Smart City Uppsala. Aside from research, he has also taken an interest in the educational offerings at the department, for instance as a representative of the private sector. With his unique competence and breadth in IT, Brunberg has contributed to establishing the field ‘embedded systems’ in technical physics, an educational programme that has attracted a great deal of interest from students, the industry and academia.

The conferment ceremony will take place in January 2016.