Seven honorary doctorates awarded at the Dies academicus of the University of Basel

The Faculty of Theology awarded an honorary doctorate to Professor Dietrich Korsch, emeritus professor of systematic theology at the University of Marburg. Korsch is regarded as a bridge-builder between a humanistic-liberal theology on the one hand and a biblical-Reformation theology on the other, as advocated by Basel theologian Karl Barth.

The Faculty of Law awarded an honorary doctorate to Professor Paul Eitel from Lucerne, emeritus professor of private, family and inheritance law. Eitel is regarded as a leading specialist in Swiss inheritance law and has made great contributions as a scholar and practitioner to the penetration and further development of inheritance law.

Dr. Roland P. Bühlmann was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Faculty of Medicine. The biotech entrepreneur founded a global diagnostics company in Schönenbuch, Basel-Landschaft, and is the long-standing president of AlumniBasel, the alumni association of the University of Basel. The faculty recognizes his great commitment to Basel as a location for research and innovation.

The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences awarded its honorary doctorate to Paul Bucherer-Dietschi, who established the Bibliotheca Afghanica together with his late wife Veronika Bucherer-Dietschi. In doing so, he has decisively promoted and secured the research and documentation of Afghanistan’s geography, history, culture and nature and anchored it in the Basel region.

The Faculty of Science awarded its honorary doctorate to electrical engineer Michael Steinacher. He has opened up uncharted academic territory by developing precision electronics, and his commitment has inspired the interest of many young people in the Basel region in the natural sciences and technology.

Professor Andrei Levchenko received the honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Business and Economics. The economist received the honor for his research on the importance of business networks in international trade and the role of very large companies in a national economy. The prize also recognizes his contributions to the interplay between globalization, structural change and international business cycles.

The Faculty of Psychology awarded an honorary doctorate to Dr. Rolf Soiron, former president of the University Council. It honors his unwavering commitment to the success of the University of Basel, his dedicated support of psychology at the university and his work as a psychotherapist.

The University of Basel Alumni Prize was awarded to Mirjana Spoljaric, who, as President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), has worked tirelessly for compliance with international humanitarian law and for the protection of civilians in armed conflicts.

Mirjana Spoljaric studied philosophy, economics and international law in Basel and Geneva and earned a master’s degree at the University of Basel. She then worked as an academic associate in the Faculty of Law.

The Alumni Prize is awarded to former students of the University of Basel who have distinguished themselves through outstanding accomplishments in society, academia, economics or culture, and who have thus contributed particularly to the positive image of the University of Basel in the public eye.

A number of other prizes were awarded on the occasion of the Dies academicus. The Amerbach Prize, sponsored by the University of Basel, was awarded to Dr. Claudia Stühler at the suggestion of the Faculty of Law. She received the prize for her doctoral thesis, in which she investigated the conditions under which implanted pacemaker defibrillators can be switched off with impunity.

The university’s Sports Prize, sponsored by Baloise, went to Alena Marx, a bachelor’s student in sport, exercise and health with a minor in ethnology at the University of Basel. Alena Marx is a multiple Swiss and European canoe racing champion and most recently won two Olympic diplomas at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

The Emilie Louise Frey Prize for the funding of young female academics, sponsored by the Basel section of the Schweizerischer Verband der Akademikerinnen (Swiss Association of Female Academics), was awarded to Rahel Baer, MA, for her master’s thesis entitled “Gendergerechte Sprache in kurzen Schulbuchtexten der Sekundarstufe I” (“Gender-inclusive language in short textbooks at lower secondary school level”) at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. In it, she demonstrated that the use of gender-inclusive language forms in academic texts does not impair comprehensibility.

The following faculty prizes were presented to a number of junior researchers for outstanding doctoral theses and studies:

• The Faculty of Theology prize to Dr. Christoph Heilig
• The Faculty of Law Prize, sponsored by the law firm Vischer, to Dr. Balthasar Müller
• The Faculty of Medicine prize for the best thesis for a medical doctorate, sponsored by the university hospitals, to Dr. Manuela Hauser; for the best PhD thesis, sponsored by the Margot and Erich Goldschmidt & Peter René Jacobson Foundation, to Dr. Cihan Atila
• The Humanities Prize of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, sponsored by the L. and Th. La Roche Foundation, to Dr. Jennifer Burri
• The Faculty of Science prize, sponsored by Adobe Research (Schweiz) AG, to Dr. Pia Mach and Dr. Zeynep Okur
• The Faculty of Business and Economics prize, sponsored by the Basler Kantonalbank Foundation for the funding of economic research and teaching at the University of Basel, to Dr. Remo Nyffenegger and Dr. Santiago E. Alvarez-Blaser
• The Faculty of Psychology’s Steven Karger Prize, sponsored by the Karger Publishing Foundation, to Dr. Loreen Tisdall

The Young Talent Prize of the student association “Schwizerhüsli”, sponsored by the Ferdinand Neeracher-Pfrunder Foundation, was awarded to Niklaus Brunschwiler, MLaw, of the Faculty of Law.

Further information

Matthias Geering, University of Basel, Head of Communications & Marketing, tel: +41 61 207 35 75, mobile: +41 79 269 70 71, email: matthias.geering@unibas.ch

Images

Photos of the celebration at St. Martin’s Church, Basel, will be available in the Media Database from Friday afternoon, 29 November 2024.