Lund University to appoint applied physicist Federico Capasso as honorary doctor

The Faculty of Engineering (LTH) at Lund University has decided to appoint Federico Capasso, Robert L. Wallace Professor of Applied Physics and Vinton Hayes Senior Research Fellow in Electrical Engineering at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), as an honorary doctor.

Capasso will be among five individuals receiving honorary doctorates at the University’s doctoral degree ceremony in Lund Cathedral on May 27, 2011.

Usually only very few honorary doctorates are awarded each year, but because LTH is celebrating its 50th anniversary as a school of engineering this year, five awards are being made, one for each decade.

“With these five honorary doctors we want to demonstrate LTH’s breadth and diversity. The individuals’ work reflects LTH’s important role in influencing regional development, interacting with Europe for a sustainable society, cutting-edge research, internationalization and innovative enterprise”, says Anders Axelsson, dean of LTH.

Capasso has influenced the research carried out in Lund in various ways, both within basic experimental and theoretical semiconductor physics and for applications focused on high-speed electronics and nanophotonics. He visits Lund several times a year and also acts as an adviser to several companies at Ideon Science Park.