Michael Gordon and David Basin are appointed honorary doctors at Chalmers for their distinguished contributions to bio-inspired functional materials and cybersecurity, respectively.
The honorary doctors are appointed by Chalmers Faculty Senate. Chalmers Doctoral Conferment ceremony is held on 30 May 2026.
Michael Gordon is Professor and Department Chair at the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), USA.
He is awarded an honorary doctorate at Chalmers for his distinguished contributions to bio-inspired functional materials. Michael Gordon’s research sheds light on how the size, morphology, organisation and surface structure of materials influence their physico-chemical properties and function across multiple length, time and energy scales. By combining synthesis, characterisation and simulation of nanostructured materials and systems, Michael Gordon has been able to develop ground-breaking materials for applications in photonics, energy and chemical conversion.
Chalmers and UCSB have for more than a decade maintained a strong collaboration in materials science, in which Michael Gordon has developed a robust and long-term partnership between the institutions, encompassing an undergraduate student exchange programme, research collaborations and an annual symposium. Within the framework of this collaboration, a handful of students from UCSB have, for a decade, undertaken annual internships at Chalmers.
At the same time, an equal number of Chalmers students have completed corresponding exchanges at UCSB. The collaboration between faculty has further resulted in joint publications in leading international journals in materials science. He has extensive collaboration with researchers at Chalmers’ Departments of Physics, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, as well as Industrial and Materials Science.
David Basin is Professor of Computer Science and holder of the Chair in Information Security at ETH Zurich. There he leads one of the world’s most prominent research groups in cybersecurity. He is a Fellow of the ACM and IEEE and a member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences.
David Basin is awarded an honorary doctorate for his work on how secure systems can be designed and validated by combining fundamental theory with tools and methods for practical system development and standardisation. Among his many contributions is the Tamarin system for formal verification of cryptographic protocols. Another important contribution is MonPoly, an influential framework for runtime verification and monitoring that is, among other uses, applied to check compliance with the GDPR. His work has influenced central technologies in data security, including 5G security, credit card security, internet routing, electronic voting systems and identity control.
David Basin has for a long time collaborated with and supported Chalmers. He has published articles together with researchers here on the foundations of data security. On several occasions, he has served as an external expert in the assessment of Chalmers researchers and has also acted as opponent at several doctoral defences. He has contributed to Chalmers’ strategic research in cybersecurity and, among other activities, delivered a high-profile keynote lecture at the initiative seminar ‘Navigating the cybersecurity landscape’, organised by Chalmers’ Area of Advance Information and Communication Technology.
Chalmers Faculty Senate have appointed Lisbeth Olsson, professor at The Department of Life Sciences, to Chalmers promotor 2026.
Chalmers promotor is a position of trust where a professor at Chalmers has been appointed to conduct the doctoral degree conferment ceremony. The promotor bestows dignity upon the promovendi and honorary doctors through the insignia, i.e. the hat, ring, and diploma, also presenting the jubilee doctors. The promotor also holds a short lecture within their field of research at the conferment ceremony, as well as a brief speech at the conferment banquet focusing on the day's experience.