Dr honoris causa | Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences

Dr. honoris causa

The honorary doctorate, honoris causa, is awarded to a person who has made a remarkable contribution to his or her field, leading to major social, cultural and scientific advances. This distinction is awarded during the Dies academicus.

2024 Dr.h.c Natali Helberger

Upon the recommendation of the Department of Communication and Media Research, the Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Fribourg is awarding an honorary doctorate to Prof. Natali Helberger, Professor of Law and Digital Technology with a special focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the University of Amsterdam (NL).

Prof. Helberger is an internationally leading scholar at the intersection of media, technology, law, and democracy. Her research has significantly shaped the understanding of platforms, algorithmic systems, and AI, as well as their ethical implications and impacts on democratic societies, media diversity, and public discourse. Beyond her academic achievements, she actively contributes to the dialogue between science, politics, business, and civil society, promoting the the responsible implementation and governance of digital technologies.
2023 Dr.h.c Mark A. Musen

Upon the proposal of the Department of Informatics, the Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences of the University of Fribourg awards an honorary doctorate to Prof. Mark Alan Musen, PhD, MD.

Prof. Musen's scientific contributions to the field of knowledge engineering and semantic processing of information—in particular, to the development of the freely available software Protégé for building intelligent systems—are of worldwide importance in numerous disciplines from biology to astronomy to open science, and they have significantly influenced the development of artificial intelligence systems.

He has contributed to more than 600 publications as (co-)author and has raised more than 80 million USD in external funding. In addition, Prof. Musen has provided enormous services to the international scientific community as a lecturer, organizer, editor, and reviewer for numerous leading journals and conferences.
2022 Dr.h.c Klaus M. Schmidt

On the proposal of the Department of Political Economy, the Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences of the University of Fribourg is awarding the title of doctor honoris causa to Professor Klaus M. Schmidt.

Klaus M. Schmidt is professor of economics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich. He made seminal contributions to contract theory and behavioural economics, in particular the theory of social preferences. Due to the innovative combination of these fields in his works, he became a pioneer of behavioural contract theory and is one of the most important German speaking economists.

Klaus M. Schmidt is a fellow of the Econometric Society and a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences. In 2001, he was awarded the Gossen Prize of the German Economic Association, awarded to the best economist under the age of 45 in the German speaking area. In 2017, he received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Since 2019, he is chairman of the scientific council of the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action.
2021 Dr.h.c Jan Jenisch

The Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences of the University of Fribourg, on the recommendation of the Department of Management Sciences, has awarded the title of honorary doctor to Mr Jan Jenisch, CEO of Holcim.

Jan Jenisch started his career in 1996 at the speciality chemicals company Sika – after graduating from the Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences of the University of Fribourg. He worked in different functions and countries. In 2004, he became Head of the Industry Division of Sika and member of the Group Management. From 2007-2012, he was in the Group Management responsible for the region Asia/Pacific. In 2012, he was appointed CEO. In 2016, he received the Swiss Manager of the Year award.

In September 2017, Jenisch became CEO of Holcim (then: LafargeHolcim), one of the largest building materials companies in the world. He quickly restructured the company, reduced debt, delegated power to the country managers and brought the company back on a growth path. Beyond that, he transformed Holcim towards sustainability. In 2019, he was named again Swiss Manager of the Year. In 2020, he signed the Net-Zero Pledge for Holcim, with clearly measurable sustainability targets for the next decade that are validated by the Science-based Targets Initiative.
2020 Dr.h.c Robin Mansell

Upon the recommendation of the Department of Communication and Media Research, the Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Fribourg is awarding an honorary doctorate to Prof. Robin Mansell.

Robin Elizabeth Mansell is Professor of New Media and the Internet in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is a leading scholar at the intersection between media, technology, markets and democracy. With her critical research she makes groundbreaking contributions to our understanding not only of the social, political, and economic impact of communication technologies and innovation but also of the role of power in media policy and internet governance. Her current work focuses on the consequences of digital platforms and the «datafication» of society.

Professor Mansell is the author and editor of 20 books and more than 160 journal articles and book chapters. Beyond her achievements in research and teaching, Professor Mansell has provided substantial service to the scientific community and shown a strong dedication to dialogue and collaboration with academia, policymaking, industry, and civil society. She currently serves as a member of TPRC’s (Research Conference on Communications, Information and Internet Policy) Board of Directors, member of the Advisory Council of the Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, and of the Austrian Science Fund Wittgenstein Prize jury. She is an elected member of Academia Europaea and received the C. Edwin Baker International Communication Association 2020 award. She is also past president of the International Association of Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) and received its Distinguished Contribution Award, past chair of the Euro Communications Policy Research Scientific Committee, and past member of a European Research Council panel, the Standing Selection Committee of the Networks of Centres of Excellence Canada, and the UK Economic and Social Research Council College of Expert Reviewers.
2019 Dr.h.c Maria Grazia Speranza

The Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences of the University of Fribourg, on the recommendation of the Department of Computer Science, has awarded the title of honorary doctorate to Professor Maria Grazia Speranza.

Maria Grazia Speranza is Full Professor of Operations Research at the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Brescia (Italy) and currently serves as Vice Rector.

After completing her Advanced Diploma in Applied Mathematics at the University of Milan in 1983, she immediately became Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Sciences at the same University. She then moved first to the University of Udine and finally to the University of Brescia, where she was promoted Full Professor in 1994. She was also Visiting Professor at London School of Economics during 2 years.

She is author or co-author of more than 200 papers, published in high-ranked journals and she is associate editor of 15 international journals. Moreover, she initiated and is co-editor of the series “EURO Advanced Tutorials in Operational Research“. She has been plenary speaker at several international conferences all around the world.

Furthermore, Maria Grazia Speranza is very active in the promotion of Operations Research (OR), as she was president of EURO, the Association of the European OR Societies (2011-2012) and she is currently president of IFORS, the International Federation of the OR Societies (2019-2021).
2018 Dr.h.c Martin Ravallion

The Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences of the University of Fribourg, on the recommendation of the Department of Political Economy, is awarding the title of doctor honoris causa to Professor Martin Ravallion.

Martin Ravallion (Australian) currently holds the Inaugural Edmond D. Villani Chair of Economics, at Georgetown University (Washington D.C., USA). Martin Ravallion completed his PhD at the London School of Economics in 1981 and worked for the World Bank from 1988 to 2012. He combined his work at the World Bank with consultancy to an important number of governments and with academic research leading to publications in the best scientific journals. From 2007 to 2012, he was director of the development research group (the World Bank’s research department).

Martin Ravallion has published four books and more than 200 articles in international academic journals and edited volumes. He has more than 60’000 citations and is one of the most prominent economists in the field of development economics and policy.
2017 Dr.h.c Jean-Claude Usunier

The Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences of the University of Fribourg, on the recommendation of the Department of Management Sciences, is awarding the title of doctor honoris causa to Professor Jean-Claude Usunier.

Jean-Claude Usunier (born 1951 in Vernon/France) is a French and Swiss Emeritus Professor at the University of Lausanne. After completing his PhD in international economics at the HEC Paris in 1980, he joined the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris (now ESCP-EAP) as assistant Professor. Positions as professor of marketing and international business at the University of Grenoble and the University of Strasbourg followed before joining the HEC in Lausanne in the year 2000. His travels brought him as visiting professor to Japan, Finland, Canada, the USA, Germany, Portugal and Australia.

Currently, he serves as a visiting professor at the University of Fribourg. His research comprises diverse topics and has often been interdisciplinary. It has been published in top journals like International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of International Marketing, Economic Letters, and Journal of Service Research.

Furthermore, he is the author or co-author of many successful books, including International and Cross-Cultural Business Research (2nd ed., 1998), Marketing across Cultures (6th ed., 2013), International Business Negotiations (2nd ed., 2003) and Marketing International – Marchés, Cultures et Organisations (2nd ed., 2015).
2016 Dr.h.c Roger Schawinski

The Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences of the University of Fribourg, on the proposal of the Department of Communication and Media (DCM), awards the title of doctor honoris causa to causa to Dr Roger Schawinski.

Media freedom and the right to individual communication must be won again and again, or be defended against certain political and economic economic elites. Roger Schawinski was exceptionally committed to for the right to freedom of information, through
the establishment of private radio stations in Switzerland, his in Switzerland, his determination to defend media diversity and and independent journalism since the 1970s.
2015 Dr.h.c Carl August Zehnder

The Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences of the University of Fribourg awards the title of doctor honoris causa to Carl August Zehnder, Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at ETH Zurich.

In the 1980s, Prof. Zehnder participated as an external expert in the design of the new Department of Computer Science at the University of Fribourg (DIUF), where he held the first Chair in 1986. In the field of research, Prof. Zehnder has published ground-breaking contributions in the areas of databases, IT law (particularly concerning data protection and personal information), and the development and implementation of major IT systems.
2013 Dr.h.c Dominique Biedermann

The Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences of the University of Fribourg awards the title of doctor honoris causa to Dominique Biedermann, Director of the Ethos Foundation since 1998 and of Ethos Services since its creation in 2000.

Dr. Biederman obtained a doctorate in economics from the University of Geneva in 1989. His doctoral thesis was on the behaviour of real interest rates in an international environment with flexible exchange rates. In 1991, Dominique Biedermann joined the Caisse de prévoyance des enseignants de l'Instruction publique et des fonctionnaires de l'Administration du Canton de Genève (CIA) as deputy director, then as director from 1994 to 1998. In this capacity, in 1997 he participated in the creation of the Ethos Foundation, of which he was the first Chairman until August 1998, and then Director.

Dominique Biedermann has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Fédération des coopératives Cooperatives since 2012. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Expert Corporate Governance Service (ECGS) in London, as well as the Ethics Committee of the University of Geneva. Dominique Biedermann is a regular guest lecturer on corporate governance and socially responsible investment. He was awarded the 2012 Landis & Gyr Foundation Prize for his pioneering role in putting corporate governance rules and sustainable development principles into practice in asset management.
2011 Dr.h.c Gebhard Kirchgässner

Gebhard Kirchgässner, born in 1948, has been Professor of Political Economy and Econometrics since 1992, and Director of the Swiss Institute of International and Applied Economics at the University of St. Gallen.

He is a member of the Deutschen Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina, Halle (since 2001), a Research Fellow of the international CESifo network (since 2001), a member (1997 to 2004) and Chairman (2004 to 2007) of the Swiss Federal Council's Economic Issues Committee, Chairman of the European Public Choice Society (2003 to 2005), and Chairman of the Swiss Society for Economics and Statistics (since 2008).
2010 Dr.h.c Dominique de Werra

Dominique de Werra, Honorary Professor of the EPFL, was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences.

His research focuses on discrete mathematics and its applications to industrial and IT systems. Dominique de Werra holds a doctorate h.c. from the Université de Paris - Dauphine and the Ecole Polytechnique de Poznan, Poland, and was awarded the European Gold Medal (EURO) for Operations Research in 1995. He directs work in the above-mentioned fields, in particular the problems of time use and, more generally, the management of schedules and resources in the execution of major projects (sports, education, etc.).

Since 1971, he has been Professor of Operations Research at EPFL. He chaired the Conference of Department Heads and was appointed Vice-President of EPFL in 1990, as well as Director of Education in autumn 93. In March 2003, he was appointed Dean of International Affairs. He is currently President of IFORS, the International Federation of Operational Research Societies.