In recognition of outstanding scientific achievements or other special merits, the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena can award an honorary doctorate as a rare distinction through its faculties.
Since 1990, honorary doctorates have been awarded to the following personalities:
Faculty of Theology
- Rt Rev Nicholas M. Baines
Bishop of Leeds - The Very Rev. Prof. em. Dr Henry Chadwick DD. KBE. FBA
em. Regius Professor of Divinity of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge (England) - Prof. Dr Dr h. c. Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela
South African psychologist and reconciliation researcher - Prof. Dr theol. Otto Kaiser
em. Professor of Old Testament at Philipps University Marburg - Prof. Dr Bruce L. McCormack
American Barth expert - Prof. Dr John Wiliam Rogerson
em. Professor of Theology, University of Sheffield - Prof. Dr Dr h. c. Otto Hermann Pesch (†)
em. Professor of Theology, University Hamburg - Prof. em. Dr theol. Dr h.c. Dr h.c. Jacques Waardenburg (†)
Dutch theologian, religious and Islamic scholar - Prof. Dr Dr h. c. Hans Weder
em. Theology University of Zurich
Faculty of Law
- Hans-Joachim Bauer
Former President of the Higher Regional Court of Jena - Prof. Dr Stanisław Biernat
Full Professor at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and Vice-President of the Polish Constitutional Court - Dr jur. Walter David (†)
former Chief Legal Advisor of the Zeiss Foundation Oberkochen - Prof. Dr Dres. h. c. Wolfgang Huber
Former Bishop of the Evangelical Church Berlin-Brandenburg-schlesische Oberlausitz, former Chairman of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) - Dr iur. Hans-Joachim Jentsch (†)
former judge at the Federal Constitutional Court - Stefan Kaufmann
President of the Thuringian Higher Regional Court - Dr Klaus Kübel (†)
Chancellor of the University of Jena 1990-2007 - Prof. Dr. Chien-Liang Lee
Institutum Iurisprudentiae Academia Sinica - Prof. Dr Dres. h.c. Marcus Lutter
em. Professor and Director of the Institute for Commercial and Business Law, University of Bonn - Günter Schaub (†)
Retired presiding judge at the Federal Labour Court - Elmar Joseph Schuler
President of the Thuringian Fiscal Court - Prof. Dr Dieter Schwab
RLegal historian, family law expert - Prof. Dr iur. Tore Sigeman
em. Professor of Civil Law and Labour Law at the Universities of Stockholm and Uppsala
Faculty of Economics
- Peter Draper
South African economist - Professor Steven Klepper (PhD)
Professor of Economics and Social Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh - Jürgen Radomski
Former Siemens Chief Human Resources Officer - Wolfgang Spindler
Vice President of the Federal Fiscal Court
Faculty of Philosophy
- Prof. Dr sc. phil. Manfred Bierwisch
em. Professor of Linguistics at the Humboldt University of Berlin, Vice-President of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities - Prof. Dr Włodzimierz Borodziej (†)
Polish historian and former co-director of the "Imre Kertész Kolleg Jena" - Prof. Dr Wolfgang Deurer
freelance architect and church builder of the town church St. Michael in Jena - Prof. Dr Dr h.c. Gonthier-Louis Fink
French Germanist - Dr theol. h.c. Joachim Gauck
Former Federal Government Commissioner for State Security Documents - Prof. Dr Dr h. c. mult. Dieter Henrich
Expert on the history of philosophy from the 18th to the 20th century - Wulf Kirsten
German poet, prose writer and editor - Imi Knoebel
German artist - Prof. Dr phil. Odo Marquard (†)
em.Professor of Philosophy at the Justus Liebig University of Gießen - Dr h.c. Herta Müller
Writer and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature - Dr h.c. Dr h.c. Frank Stella (†), New York City
Freelance artist - Dr Volker Ullrich
ZEIT editor and historian
Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
- Prof. Dr Niels Birbaumer
Psychologist and neurobiologist - Dr Hildegard Hamm-Brücher (†)
Former Politician - Minister of State (Education) - Roland Jahn
Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the Former German Democratic Republic (BStU) - Prof. Dr Karl G. Jöreskog
Swedish scientist - father of structural equation modelling - Prof. Dr Gerd Lüer
em. Professor of Psychology at the Georg-August University of Göttingen - Prof. Dr K. Warner Schaie, Ph.D.
Evan Pugh Professor of Human Development and Psychology, Pennsylvania State University - Eduard Schewardnadse (†)
former President of Georgia - Prof. Dr Hans-Peter Schwarz (†)
Political scientist - Prof. Dr Erwin K. Scheuch
Sociologist - Prof. Dr Allen J. Scott
Social scientist
Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science
- Prof. Dr phil. nat. Dr. h.c. mult. Gerhard Krüger
Professor of Computer Science, University of Karlsruhe - Prof. Dr phil. Boris A. Trachtenbrot
Professor für Informatik, School of Mathematical Sciences, Tel Aviv University (Israel) - Prof. Dr Hartmut Wedekind
Database expert - Prof. Dr Henryk Wozniakowski
Professor of Mathematics at the University of Warsaw and Columbia University New York
Faculty of Physics and Astronomy
- Prof. Dr Abhay Ashtekar
Relativity researcher, Director of the Institute for Gravitational Physics and Geometry at Pennsylvania State University - Prof. Dr Michael Kaschke
Chairman of the Executive Board of Carl Zeiss AG - Prof. Dr Herbert Kroemer
Nobel Laureate in Physics and Professor of Physics at the University of California (Santa Barbara) - Dr Dieter Kurz
former Chairman of the Executive Board of Carl Zeiss AG - Dr Reinhart Neubert
Pioneer of laser research - Prof. Dr phil. Dr h.c. Fritz Peter Schäfer (†)
former Director at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen - Dr phil. nat. Hermann Schwarz (†)
former Managing Director of Rohde & Schwarz, Munich
Faculty of Chemistry and Earth Sciences
- Prof. Dr John Bannister Goodenough
Co-inventor of the lithium-ion battery and professor at the University of Texas at Austin - Prof. Gerhard Hard
Geographer, Professor Emeritus of Physical Geography at the University of Osnabrück - Prof. Dr Dr h. c. mult. Alan Roy Katritzky
Director of the "Center for Heterocyclic Compounds" at the University of Florida (USA) - Prof. Dr Klaus Keil (†)
Amer. Mineralogist; Director of the Hawai Institute of Geophysics and Planetology - Prof. Dr Dr h.c. Helmut Werner
Expert for organometallics
Faculty of Biological Sciences
- Prof. Dr rer. nat. Dr h.c. mult. Sydney Brenner
Director of the Molecular Sciences Institute, Berkeley, California (USA) - Doz. Dr rer. nat. habil. Ilse Jahn (†)
Biological historian - Prof. Dr rer. nat. Dr h.c. mult. Herbert Oelschläger (†)
Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Director of the Institute of Pharmacy at Friedrich Schiller University Jena - Johanna Schlüter
Managing Director of Gustav-Fischer Verlag Jena
Faculty of Medicine
- Prof. Dr med. dent. Karl Eichner (†)
Professor of Dental Prosthetics at the Free University of Berlin - Prof. Dr Simon Finfer
Professor at the University of Sydney and doyen for high-level clinical research in the field of intensive care medicine - PD Dr med. Urs Heim
Private lecturer at the University of Bern and employee of AO-International Davos - Prof. Dr med. Thomas Kenner
Full Professor of Physiology at the University of Graz - Prof. Dr med. Dietrich Lehmann
Professor of Clinical Neurophysiology at the University of Zurich - Prof. Dr Dr h.c. mult. Mahmut Gazi Yasargil
Microneurosurgeon emeritus Professor of Neurosurgery in Zurich
The following publications provide information on all honorary doctorates awarded at the University of Jena up to 2005 (German only):
Joachim Bauer, Joachim Hartung, Klaus Dicke (Hg.): Die Ehrendoktoren der Friedrich-Schiller-Universität in den Geisteswissenschaften 1800 bis 2005, Hain Verlag, Weimar und Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-89807-093-5
Joachim Hartung, Andreas Wipf (Hg.): Die Ehrendoktoren der Friedrich-Schiller-Universität in den Bereichen Naturwissenschaften und Medizin, Hain Verlag, Weimer und Jena 2004, ISBN 3-89807-064-6