MAX-PLANCK-INSTITUT FÜR WISSENSCHAFTSGESCHICHTE Max Planck Institute for the History of Science

News

Visiting Scholar Hanoch Gutfreund Receives Honorary Doctorate from Freie Universität Berlin

Visiting Scholar Hanoch Gutfreund has received an honorary doctorate from the Freie Universität Berlin (view recorded live-stream of the event here). MPIWG director Jürgen Renn, co-author of several books with Gutfreund, delivered a speech and biographical sketch at the ceremony; the Institute also held a colloquium in Gutfreund's honor on September 1, 2021.

Übergabe der Urkunde beim Festakt im Henry-Ford-Bau

Presentation of the certificate at the ceremony in the Henry Ford Building. Image source: Arne Sattler. © FU Berlin

From left to right: Professor Günter M. Ziegler, President of Freie Universität Berlin, Professor Martin Weinelt, Dean of the Department of Physics at Freie Universität, and Professor Hanoch Gutfreund, former Rector and President of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Gutfreund received his PhD in Theoretical Physics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1966), and is Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has held the Andre Aisenstadt Chair in Theoretical Physics since 1985 and has previously held various academic and administrative positions at the University, including Head of the Physics Institute, Head of the Advanced Studies Institute, Rector and President. He was among the initiators and founders of the Center for Neural Computation and is currently a member of the Center where he also teaches. Gutfreund is the Director of the Einstein Center and is the University's appointee responsible for Albert Einstein's intellectual property; he heads the executive committee of the Israel Science Foundation and is the chairperson of the "Basha'ar—Academic Community for Israeli Society" association.

Gutfreund’s project at the MPIWG's Research Program on the History of the Max Planck Society (GMPG) looks at the evolution of the MPG’s relation with Israeli scientific institutions in comparison with the development of MPG’s International Relations.

Press release FU Berlin (German)
Publications
Gutfreund, H., & Renn, J. (2020). Einstein on Einstein: Autobiographical and Scientific Reflections. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Gutfreund, H., & Renn, J. (2020). Einstein on Einstein: Autobiographical and Scientific Reflections. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Steinhauser, T., Gutfreund, H., & Renn, J. (2017). A Special Relationship: Turning Points in the History of German-Israeli Scientific Cooperation (2. Aufl.). Berlin: Forschungsprogramm Geschichte der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. Gutfreund, H., & Renn, J. (2017). El camino hacia la relatividad: el artículo de Einstein que camnió la cienca. Barcelona: Tusquets Editores. Gutfreund, H., & Renn, J. (2017). The Formative Years of Relativity: The History and Meaning of Einstein's Princeton Lectures. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Gutfreund, H., Buchwald, D. K., & Renn, J. (2016). Gravitational waves: ripples in the fabric of spacetime lost and found. Huffington Post (US Edition), (12.02.), 1-1. Gutfreund, H., & Renn, J. (Eds.). (2015). Albert Einstein: Relativity, the special and the general theory, 100th anniversary edition. Princeton: Princeton University Press.