The University of Debrecen (UD) held its traditional autumn doctoral inauguration ceremony again this year. During the event, held in the Main Building’s Auditorium on Saturday, doctoral, habilitated doctoral, and honorary doctoral titles, as well as institutional awards, were presented.
- “The doctoral and honorary doctorate inauguration is traditionally the most significant celebration of our university’s academic life. It is during this ceremony that our young colleagues, who have matured into independent researchers, receive their doctoral titles. The event also recognizes achievements at further stages of their professional careers, such as awarding habilitation certificates and scientific publication awards. The ceremony is crowned by the awarding of the honorary doctorate title to an internationally outstanding scholar,” said László Csernoch in his speech.
The Vice-Rector for Scientific Affairs of UD recalled that the Royal Hungarian University of Debrecen exercised its right to confer doctorates for the first time on December 18, 1915, when it awarded Professor József Pápay an honorary doctorate in philosophy for his outstanding achievements in Finno-Ugric linguistics.
László Csernoch quoted the thoughts of then-Rector Nándor Bernolák: “In the future, hundreds will earn this recognition of academic preparedness at our university; in most cases, it will mark the beginning of a scientific career rather than its culmination. I see it as an encouraging sign that, when our university first exercises this right, it bows its flag before a distinguished past in scientific work.”
- “Bernolák clearly foresaw the future, but I doubt he imagined that today, more than 100 – specifically 132 – candidates would stand simultaneously before the university leadership to receive their doctoral degrees,” emphasized the Vice-Rector.
Of the candidates, 108 received summa cum laude, 23 received cum laude, and one received rite qualifications to meet the requirements for obtaining a doctoral (PhD) degree.
On behalf of the newly conferred doctors, Zsuzsanna Demeter-Karászi expressed gratitude.
- “We pledge to always strive to preserve the prestige of the doctoral degree, contribute to the advancement of our scientific field, promote the growth of the University of Debrecen to the best of our abilities, and serve our country’s welfare in doing so.”
During the ceremony, 21 university staff members received habilitated doctoral titles. Eight from the field of agricultural sciences, four from the humanities, five from medical and health sciences, and four from social sciences successfully met the habilitation requirements.
The ceremony continued with the presentation of university awards and honors.
The “Dissertation of the Year” award was given to Gergely Balázs for his study on “Clinical and Technical Factors Influencing the Success of Less Invasive Surfactant Therapy in Premature Infants,” Zsófia Enterszné Kocsis for “Characteristics of Student Employment and Its Impact on University Careers at the University of Debrecen,” and Gergő Róth for “Application of Algorithms and Neural Networks to Map the Composition of Copolymers.”
The University Senate established the “Female Researcher of the Year” award in the autumn of 2013, given to a female colleague who achieves significant research results. This year, the award went to Orsolya Edit Varga, an associate professor at the Department of Public Health and Epidemiology of the Faculty of General Medicine (ÁOK), based on her outstanding research results and publication performance.
The “Pro Cura Ingenii Award” for outstanding contributions to talent development was presented to Veronika Bocsi from the Faculty of Child Education and Special Education, Norbert Szentandrássy from the Faculty of Dentistry, and László Antal from the Faculty of Science and Technology.
This year, the University Senate awarded the Tankó Béla Memorial Prize to Károly Fekete, Bishop of the Transtibiscan Reformed Church District and university professor, for his scientific work and leadership activities, and to Endre Nagy, a professor at the Department of Endocrinology at the Faculty of General Medicine, for his professional achievements.
To conclude the ceremony, the university conferred an honorary doctorate on Walter Erhart, a professor at Germany’s Bielefeld University, for his outstanding contributions to literary history and theory.
The list of awardees can be found here.
(unideb.hu)
