Chinese Honorary Doctorate Degree Awarded to Prof. Uffe Haagerup of Copenhargen

(Press Releases: East China Normal University, Embassy of Denmark in China, University of Copenhagen, China Daily)

On June 24th of 2013,the honorary doctorate degree awarding ceremony for Prof. Uffe Haagerup was held in Region C of Student Center of the Minhang campus of East China Normal University. The ceremony was anchored by Prof. Yuliang Wen, the assistant math department head. Prof. Qun Chen, the president of East China Normal University (ECNU), awarded the diploma to Prof. Uffe Haagerup on behalf of the academic committee. In his address, President Chen highly commented the outstanding achievements of Prof. Uffe Haagerup, especially in the field of Operator Algebras. He also highly evaluated the communication between Prof. Haagerup and the Research Center for Operator Algebras.

 

 

 

President of ECNU, Dr. Chen Qun, awards the honorary degree certificate to Prof. Haagerup

 

 

Uffe Haagerup give a speech at the ceremony

The reception party was held after the ceremony. More than 20 world famous mathematician attended this event to congratulate Prof. Haagerup, including Chunlan Jiang (the president of Hebei Normal University), Liming Ge (ICM Speaker, Prof. at the Univ. of New Hampshire; L. K. Hua Research Chair at Chinese Academy of Science), Guoliang Yu (ICM Speaker, Powell Chair Prof. at Texas A&M), Naritaka Ozawa (ICM speaker, Prof. at Kyoto Univ.), Xiaochun Rong (ICM speaker, Prof. at Rutgers), Zhongjin Ruan (Prof. at UIUC), Guihua Gong (Prof. at University of Puerto Rico, State Professor of China), Feng Xu (Prof. at UC Riverside, State Professor of China), Danish Innovation Attaché in China, Lars Christensen, etc. The reception party was anchored by Prof. Jing Lu, the vice president of East China Normal University. Former president of ECNU, Prof. Jianpan Wang, a well-known algebraist, also attended the reception party.

 

 

President Chen (R1), Prof. Wang Jianpan (L1), a renowned Chinese mathematician and former ECNU President, and Prof. Lin Huaxin (R2), a world leading mathematician in operator algebras, chat with Prof. Haagerup at the reception party.

 

It is the first time that East China Normal University ever awarded the honorary doctorate degree to world famous scholars, and it is believed that Prof. Uffe Haagerup’s crucial and ground breaking work in mathematical research and his communication with ECNU will inspire mathematicians of ECNU in there own research.

Uffe Haagerup, a professor of Copenhargen University, is a member of Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters and a member of Norwegean Academy of Science and Letters. He had been the editor-in-chief for "Acta Mathematica" for seven years. Due to his outstanding work in Operator Algebra and related fields, he was an invited 45 minute speaker of ICM 1986 and 60 minute speaker of ICM 2002. He was also awarded the Latsis Prize in year 2012. Besides the degree awarding, he was also invited by Prof. Huaxin Lin to give a talk in the "Special Week of Operator Algebras" of the Research Center for Operator Algebras.

The honorary doctoral degree in China is a rare award, only bestowed to the most distinguished individuals. Since the honorary degree system was first set up in 1983, the Academic Degree Board of the State Council of China, after receiving nominations from a short list of universities, has only awarded 277 honorary degrees in the past 30 years. Among those 277 recipients are Shiing-Shen Chern, Shing-Tung Yau, Noam Chomsky, Bill Gates, former US President James E Carter, current United Nation Chief Ban Ki-moon and several Nobel laureates.