Double honors for SDU professors
Not one, but two professors from Faculty of Technology at University of Southern Denmark have been honored with the Order of Dannebrog.
Professors Henrik Gordon Petersen and Jacob Buur have per October 3rd been appointed Knights of the Order of Dannebrog.
Effective robotic controls
54 year old Henrik Gordon Petersen primarily works with robot technology for the industry. Through his professorship at the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Institute at SDU, he develops algorithms that optimize robotic management.
“In short, I work with developing robot technology that for example take irregularities in the production into account, so the robots can solve more difficult tasks, that a being handled manually today. That way we can participate in making the industry more efficient and take part in saving the manufacturing sector in Denmark”, says Henrik Gordon Petersen.
He holds a candidate in mathematics with physics as minors and he wrote his Ph.D. on applied mathematics. He is knighted after more than 25 years with SDU, from where he is both educated and in 1987 initiated his Ph.D.
“Naturally I am both happy and honored with being appointed, and I interpret it as an accolade for a massive piece of work within a certain area”, says the professor.
User involvement in product development
Professor Jacob Buur is head of research for the new research focus SDU Design that gathers 50 design researchers across technical, humanistic and social science faculties in Kolding. In 2008 he established the interdisciplinary research center SPIRE at the Mads Clausen Institute at SDU in Sønderborg with resources from The Danish Council for Strategic Research.
56 year old Jacob Buur receives the Order of Dannebrog for his research within developing innovation processes with videoethnography, user involvement, company interaction – and theater.
”It is a great honour to be acknowledged for my work with bringing scientists together from very different areas of expertise such as design, engineering, anthropology, communication and economy. Interdisciplinary research is a necessity today, where societal challenges have become difficult to ‘design’ solutions for”, he says.
Jacob Buur is a civil engineer from Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and wrote his Ph.D. the same place on design methods after studies in Japan. Before joining SDU as professor in 2000, he spent ten years as head of research at Danfoss’ center for user oriented design.
The orders have been handed to the professors, but they have yet to be presented in audience with Queen Margrethe.
For more information, contact:
Professor Henrik Gordon Petersen, hgp@mmmi.sdu.dk
Professor Jacob Buur, buur@mci.sdu.dk