Honorary doctors of the Faculty of Science and Technology 2025

Professor Emeritus Göran Sandberg, Honorary Doctor of Philosophy

Göran Sandberg, Professor of Plant Physiology, has a very solid scientific career with a PhD from SLU Uppsala in 1981, several years of experience as an international postdoc, experience as a professor at SLU Uppsala and at Umeå University, rector at Umeå University, and executive member of the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW, 2010-2023).

The main motivation for the proposal of Göran Sandberg as honorary doctor at Uppsala University lies in his work as an executive member of KAW, and his visionary work that has made KAW the grant-giving body in Sweden where excellence is most evident. Before Göran Sandberg took office, KAW's impact, for example in terms of the number of top-cited scientific articles, was on a par with that of SSF or the Swedish Research Council. A decade after he took office, this number had doubled, so that KAW's impact is comparable to that of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).

KAW is thus at the very top of the world's leading and most prestigious research funders, which must be attributed to Göran Sandberg's determined efforts to identify excellence in the research community and to identify tools to fund this research.

Professor Catharina Stroppel, Honorary Doctor of Philosophy

Catharina Stroppel is a famous German mathematician, one of the world leaders in the area of representation theory. She has a longstanding collaboration with Uppsala university, the results of which form a significant part of her scientific achievements.

Catharina Stroppel made major contributions to the development of the modern representation theory, especially that of Lie algebras and superalgebras, diagram algebras and higher categories. This includes proofs of four conjectures by Bernstein, Frenkel and Khovanov on categorification of the Temperley-Lieb algebra; development of the theory of generalized Khovanov algebras and its application to the study of finite dimensional modules over Lie superalgebras; and also various classification and structural results in representation theory of Lie algebras.

Dr Vittal K. Yachandra, Honorary Doctor of Philosophy

Dr. Vittal K. Yachandra is a biophysical chemist and spectroscopist who has made outstanding contributions to the development of X-ray spectroscopy at synchrotrons and to serial femtosecond crystallography and X-ray spectroscopy at X-ray free electron lasers (XFELs). His main aim is to understand the mechanisms of metalloenzymes by revealing their structures and the temporal evolutions of their catalytic reactions – with the goal of applying the principles learned from Nature towards artificial photosynthesis. His focus has been on the water oxidation reaction in photosystem II in plants and cyanobacteria, which, thanks to his leadership and contributions, is now known with molecular precision throughout the reaction cycle.

Dr. Yachandra’s work has pushed the boundaries of both our understanding of photosystem II and of the capabilities at large-scale facilities. His achievements will have long-lasting effects in the chemical, physical and biological communities working with synchrotrons and XFELs, and are highly important for the development of bio-inspired, scalable catalysts, made of earth-abundant elements, urgently required for the transition to a fossil-free society.

Dr William Shafarman, Honorary Doctor of Technology

William Shafarman, University of Delaware, USA, has had various collaborations with the Department of Materials Science and Engineering over the years and his work has inspired the Division of Solar Cell Technology, including the incorporation of silver into the division's materials, which in turn led to the division’s current world record. Dr Shafarman is also part of the advisory group of the EU project coordinated by Professor Marika Edoff (SITA). He is a key figure in solar cell research in the US, where he has been the main organiser of the annual IEEE PVSC international conference.

Dr. Shafarman´s research group investigates materials, processing, and characterization of compound semiconductors for their application in thin film solar cells and related optoelectronic applications. This research has had a particular emphasis on copper indium gallium diselenide [Cu(InGa)Se2] and related alloys along with newer, promising materials including hybrid perovskites. At IEC, these thin films are deposited using a wide range of processes and in the fabrication of complete solar cell devices. The main objective of this research is to explore the complex relationships between processing, materials properties, device design, and electronic characteristics of the solar cells.