Technical University of Denmark

The Technical University of Denmark (Danish: Danmarks Tekniske Universitet), often simply referred to as DTU, is a polytechnic university and school of engineering. It was founded in 1829 at the initiative of Hans Christian Ørsted as Denmark's first polytechnic, and it is today ranked among Europe's leading engineering institutions. It is located in the town Kongens Lyngby, 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) north of central Copenhagen, Denmark.

Technical University of Denmark

Danmarks Tekniske Universitet
Other name	DTU
Former names	Den Polytekniske Læreanstalt (1829–1933) Danmarks Tekniske Højskole (1933–1994)
Motto	Technology for people
Type	Public, Technical
Established	November 5, 1829; 194 years ago (1829-11-05)
Chairman	Karin Markides
President	Anders Bjarklev
Provost	Rasmus Larsen
Dean	Philip Binning and Martin Vigild
Director	Claus Nielsen
Senior Vice President	Marianne Thellersen and Carsten Orth Gaarn-Larsen
Academic staff	2,003^[1]
Administrative staff	1,540^[1]
Students	11,031^[2]
Undergraduates	7,197^[2]
Postgraduates	3,834^[2]
Doctoral students	1,330^[2]
Location	Lyngby, Lyngby-Taarbæk Municipality, Copenhagen , Denmark
Affiliations	EUA, TIME, CESAER and EuroTech
Website	www.dtu.dk/

Along with École Polytechnique in Paris, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Eindhoven University of Technology, Technical University of Munich and Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, DTU is a member of EuroTech Universities Alliance.^[3]

History

DTU was founded in 1829 as the "College of Advanced Technology" (Danish: Den Polytekniske Læreanstalt). The Physicist Hans Christian Ørsted, at that time a professor at the University of Copenhagen, was one of the driving forces behind this initiative. He was inspired by the École Polytechnique in Paris, France which Ørsted had visited as a young scientist. The new institution was inaugurated on 5 November 1829 with Ørsted becoming its Principal, a position he held until his death in 1851.^[4]

 

The College of Advanced Technology's premises in Sølvgade, completed 1889

The first home of the new college consisted of two buildings located in Studiestræde and St. Pederstræde in the center of Copenhagen. Although these buildings were expanded several times, they eventually became inadequate for the requirements of the college. In 1890 a new building complex was completed and inaugurated located in Sølvgade. The new buildings were designed by the architect Johan Daniel Herholdt.^[4]

In 1903, the College of Advanced Technology commenced the education of electrical engineers in addition to that of the construction engineers, the production engineers, and the mechanical engineers who already at that time were being educated at the college.

In the 1920s, space again became insufficient and in 1929 the foundation stone was laid for a new school at Østervold. Completion of this building was delayed by World War II and it was not completed before 1954.^[4]

From 1933, the institution was officially known as Danmarks tekniske Højskole (DtH), which commonly was translated into English, as the 'Technical University of Denmark'. On 1 April 1994, in connection with the joining of Danmarks Ingeniørakademi (DIA) and DTH, the Danish name was changed to Danmarks Tekniske Universitet, this done to include the word 'University' thus giving rise to the initials DTU by which the university is commonly known today. The formal name, Den Polytekniske Læreanstalt, Danmarks Tekniske Universitet, however, still includes the original name.

 

R/V Dana is DTU's research vessel, visiting Ystad 18 November 2016.

In 1960 a decision was made to move the College of Advanced Technology to new and larger facilities in Lyngby north of Copenhagen. They were inaugurated on 17 May 1974.^[4]

On 23 and 24 November 1967, the University Computing Center hosted the NATO Science Committee's Study Group first meeting discussing the newly coined term "Software Engineering".^[5]

On 1 January 2007, the university was merged with the following Danish research centers: Forskningscenter Risø, Danmarks Fødevareforskning, Danmarks Fiskeriundersøgelser (from 1 January 2008: National Institute for Aquatic Resources; DTU Aqua), Danmarks Rumcenter, and Danmarks Transport-Forskning.

Organization and administration

The university is governed by a board consisting of 10 members: Six members are recruited from outside the university and they form the majority of the board. One member is appointed by the scientific staff and one member is appointed by the administrative staff. Two members are appointed by the university students.

The President of DTU is appointed by the university board. The President in turn appoints the Deans, and the Deans appoint the Heads of the departments.

In 2014, DTU was granted institutional accreditation by the Danish Accreditation Institution (a member of ENQA). The institutional accreditation ensures that the quality assurance system of the institution is well-described, well-argued, and well-functioning in practice.

Since DTU has no faculty senate, and since the faculty is not involved in the appointment of the President, Deans, or Department heads, the university has no faculty governance.^[6]

Departments

• DTU Aqua, National Institute for Aquatic Resources
• DTU Business, DTU Executive School of Business
• DTU Centre for Technology Entrepreneurship
• DTU Chemical Engineering
• DTU Chemistry
• DTU Civil Engineering
• DTU Compute, Institut for Matematik og Computer Science
• DTU Danchip, National Center for Micro and Nanofabrication
• DTU Diplom
• DTU Electrical Engineering
• DTU Environment, Department of Environmental Engineering
• DTU Executive School of Business
• DTU Food, National Food Institute
• DTU Fotonik, Department of Photonics Engineering
• DTU Management Engineering
• DTU MAT, Department of Mathematics
• DTU Mechanical Engineering
• DTU Nanotech, Department of Micro-and Nanotechnology
• DTU Physics
• DTU Space
• DTU Systems Biology
• DTU Library, Technical Information Center of Denmark
• DTU Vet
• DTU Wind Energy
• DTU Transport, Department of Transport^[7]

DTU Diplom

 

The main entrance to DTU Diplom.

DTU Diplom is the university's graduate engineering department (Danish: Center for Diplomingeniøruddannelse). Its facilities are located in Ballerup across 42.000 m² of space designed by PLH Architects.

The institution was first established in 1881, as an independent university college known as Copenhagen University College of Engineering (Danish: Ingeniørhøjskolen i København). The University College of Engineering merged with DTU in 2013, at which point it became the school's graduate engineering department.^[8]

DTU Space

The National Space Institute at the Technical University of Denmark, also known as DTU Space (Danish: Institut for Rumforskning og Rumteknologi), is a Danish sector research institute within DTU.^[9][10] The institute conducts research in astrophysics, Solar System physics, geodesy, and space technology in collaboration with the Niels Bohr Institute for Astronomy, Geophysics and Physics. The institute currently leads Swarm, a project to investigate the properties of the Earth's magnetic field.^[11]

The institute was first established in 2005 as the Danish National Space Center through the merger of the Danish Space Research Institute and the geodesy part of the National Survey and Cadastre of Denmark. In 2008, the National Space Center was integrated into DTU, becoming DTU Space. It has a staff of 169, including researchers, engineers, and technicians.^[12]

DTU Vet

DTU Vet is located at the 40,000 square metre DTU Life Science and Bioengineering Center on DTU's main campus in Lyngby.^[13] The institution was first established in 1908 as the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University’s Serum Laboratory (Danish: Den Kgl. Veterinær- og Landbohøjskoles Serumlaboratorium) at the initiative of professor C. O. Jensen. In 1932, its name was changed to the National Veterinary Serum Laboratory (Statens Veterinære Serumlaboratorium).^[14] In 2002, the National Veterinary Serum Laboratory merged with the National Veterinary Institute for Virus Research (established 1926) to form the Danish Veterinary Institute (Danmarks Veterinærinstitut). The Veterinary Institute was then merged with part of the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration in 2004, forming the Danish Institute for Food and Veterinary Research (DFVF). In 2007, the institute merged with DTU, forming DTU's veterinary department.

Department of Mathematics

The Department of Mathematics (Danish: Institut for Matematik, MAT) is located in building 303 S at Matematiktorvet, quadrant 3 on Lundtoftesletten in Lyngby. It was founded to consolidate all mathematical research and teaching at DTU. The institute The research at Department of Mathematics covers both theoretical and applications issues and is currently centered on four main areas: discrete mathematics, dynamical systems, applied functional analysis, and geometry.

All undergraduate students at DTU receive at least 20 ECTS points worth of classes from the Department of Mathematics during their first year. Master thesis projects and PhD projects are also completed in collaboration with private companies.

The department participates in several research networks. Along with the Department of Mechanical Engineering, the applied functional analysis team participates in a research network on topology optimization, referred to as TOPOPT. TOPOPT is sponsored by a NEDO grant and a European Young Investigator award (EURYI).Along with University of Southern Denmark, the Department of Mathematics organises an annual European Study Group with Industry (ESGI), where a weeklong workshop is centered on finding solutions to mathematical modelling problems brought forth by the industry.

Research centers

• Arctic Technology Centre
• Center for Advanced Food Studies
• Centre for Applied Hearing Research
• Center for Biological Sequence Analysis – chair Søren Brunak
• Center for Electric Power and Energy
• Cener for Electron Nanoscopy
• Center for Facilities Management
• Center for Information and Communication Technologies
• Center for Microbial Biotechnology
• Center for Phase Equilibria and Separation Processes
• Center for Technology, Economics and Management
• Center for Traffic and Transport
• Combustion and Harmful Emission Control
• DTU Fluid
• IMM Statistical Consulting Center
• International Centre for Indoor Environment and Energy
• The Danish Polymer Centre

Center for Electron Nanoscopy

 

The Center for Electron Nanoscopy at the Lyngby campus.

The Center for Electron Nanoscopy (Danish: Center for Elektronnanoskopi, CEN) is a center for electron microscopy within the university.^[15] Inaugurated in December 2007, the institute was funded by a donation of DKK100 million from the A.P. Møller and Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller Foundation.^[16] DTU CEN houses seven electron microscopes built by FEI Company ranging from a standard scanning electron microscope to two highly specialized Titan transmission electron microscopes. The microscopes are available for use by both in-house and external users. They are housed in a new building designed especially for the microscopes, 314, and the offices are located on the first floor of the neighbouring building, 307.^[17]

Campus

 

Main building in Lyngby.

The university is located on a plain known as Lundtoftesletten in the northeastern end of the city of Lyngby. The area was previously home to the airfield Lundtofte Flyveplads. The campus is roughly divided in half by the road Anker Engelunds Vej going in the east–west direction, and, perpendicular to that, by two lengthy, collinear roads located on either side of a parking lot. The campus is thus divided into four parts, referred to as quadrants, numbered one through four in correspondence with the conventional numbering of quadrants in the Cartesian coordinate system with north upwards.

DTU Risø Campus

The Risø Campus (55°41′35″N 12°05′54″E / 55.69306°N 12.09833°E / 55.69306; 12.09833) is a satellite campus north of Roskilde which covers an area of more than 2.6 square kilometres. It houses a number of DTU's institutes, as well as Aarhus University's Department of Environmental Science and Department of Bioscience. The campus was formerly the site of the Risø National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy (Danish: Nationallaboratoriet for bæredygtig energi), a scientific research organization established in 1956 and merged into DTU in 2007, before finally being dissolved on 1 January 2012.

Wind Atlas Analysis and Application Program (WAsP) is a tool used in the wind energy industry to simulate wind flow over terrain and estimate the long-term power production of wind turbines and wind farms. It has been in development by Risø and DTU Wind Energy for over 30 years, and runs on PCs using Microsoft Windows.

Risø National Laboratory research

 

Risø National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy seen from Roskilde Fjord: The two cylindrical buildings outermost on the peninsula contained the two nuclear reactors DR-2 and DR-3. The red-white meteorological tower is 117 m high.

The Risø National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy had been founded in 1956 under the leadership of Niels Bohr.^[18] The laboratory employed about 700 staff in 2005, at which point it was a research institute under the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. On 1 January 2007, the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) merged with several national research institutes, including the Risø National Laboratory. The following year in 2008, it was made an official institute of DTU. On 1 January 2012 the institute was dissolved and its facilities were transformed into a separate campus.

In its first three decades, the Risø National Laboratory's activities were centred around research on peaceful use of nuclear energy and was the site of three research nuclear reactors: DR-1, DR-2 and DR-3. All three reactors are no longer in use, and have undergone decommissioning since 2003.^[19] DR1 was a Homogenous reactor with a thermal power of 2kW, operational 1957–2001 and decommissioned between 2003 and 2006. DR2 was a pool reactor with a thermal power of 5MW, operational 1958–1975 and decommissioned in 2003. DR3 was a DIDO with a thermal power of 10MW, operational 1960–2000 and also decommissioned in 2003.

In its later years^[when?], the organization's focus shifted towards other energy sources, and was particularly noted for its involvement in wind energy and solid-oxide fuel cells. The National Laboratory had strong competences in climate change effects studies and had "state of the art" facilities for realistic climate change experiments and monitoring. These included the Risø Environmental Risk Assessment facility, a phytotrone controlled environment growth facility; the Sorø beech forest, a field station in an 80-year-old beech forest measuring carbon inputs, outputs and turnover processes by advanced techniques (e.g. eddy covariance); and CLIMAITE, a field scale climate change experiment conducting multifactor experiments with elevated CO₂, night time warming and altered precipitation. The laboratory's facilities were also used by the National Environmental Research Institute of Denmark (Danish: Danmarks Miljøundersøgelser) until 2011 when it too was dissolved.

DTU Campus Village

 

Panorama of DTU Campus Village in winter.

The Campus Village is an international student housing complex on the university's Lyngby campus at Elektrovej 330.^[20] It houses up to 224 international students, most of them staying for the duration of a semester or an academic year, and it is made up of identical red containers arranged in rows, housing up to ten students each.^[21][22] The Campus Village was constructed in the summer of 2001, and was opened as an international student dormitory starting in fall 2001.^[23] Residents staying in Campus Village may be participants of exchange or bilateral agreement programs between DTU and their home university.

Controversy

DTU was the subject of controversy in 2009 because the (then) institute director of the Department of Chemistry, O.W. Sørensen,^[24] was a high-ranking member of Scientology.^[25] In relation to this, the university was accused of violating the principles of free speech by threatening to fire employees, among them Rolf W. Berg, who voiced their criticism of the institute director.^{[26][27][28][29][30][31]} On 7 April 2010, the successor of Sørensen was announced, at a department meeting, as Erling Stenby,^[32] who officially took over as Director on 1 May 2010.

Rankings

University rankings
Global – Overall
ARWU World^[33]	151–200 (2023)
QS World^[34]	121 (2024)
THE World^[35]	126 (2024)

The university maintains an updated site with the university's standing in several relevant academic and research rankings. In November 2007 the Times Higher Education Supplement put the university as number 130 in their ranking of the universities of the world and number 122 in 2010.^[36]

• In "The World's Most Innovative Universities" 2015 ranking by Thomson Reuters, DTU is ranked:^[37]
  • No. 1 in the Nordic countries
  • No. 43 in the World
• In the "engineering" category in the QS subject rankings, DTU is ranked:
  • No. 2 in the Nordic countries
  • No. 36 in the World
• On the Leiden Ranking's 2008 "crown indicator" list of Europe's 100 largest universities in terms of the number of Web of Science publications in the period 2000–2007, DTU is ranked:^[38]
  • No. 1 in the Nordic countries
  • No. 5 in Europe
• In the 2022 QS World University Rankings^[39] DTU is ranked:
  • No. 99 in the World
• In the 2013 Leiden Ranking^[40] DTU is ranked:
  • No. 45 in the World
  • No. 7 in Europe
• In the 2013–2014 Times Higher Education World University Rankings^[41] DTU is ranked:
  • No. 121 in the World (No. 31 in the "Engineering & Technology" category)

Extracurricular organizations

Sports

Exiles RUFC is the official rugby union club of DTU.^[42]

Student organizations

168-year-old Polyteknisk Forening, as well as the maritime student association Nul-kryds formed in 1947.^{[citation needed]}

Notable alumni and faculty

• Henrik Pontoppidan, Nobel Prize in Literature laureate
• Henrik Dam, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine laureate
• Morten Peter Meldal, Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2022) laureate
• Harald Bohr (1887–1951), Olympic silver medalist football player and mathematician; brother of Niels Bohr
• Johan Jensen, mathematician
• Jorgen Arendt Jensen, scientist, engineer
• Carsten Thomassen, mathematician
• Ludwig A. Colding, physicist and civil engineer
• Martin Knudsen, physicist
• Morten Bo Madsen, physicist
• Rodney Cotterill, physicist
• Jakob Stoustrup, control theory scientist
• Andreas Mogensen, astronaut
• Ove Arup, founder of Arup Group
• Per Vilhelm Brüel, co-founder of Brüel & Kjær
• Craig R. Barrett, former CEO of Intel
• Jørgen Lindegaard, former CEO of the SAS Group
• Henrik O. Madsen, former CEO of DNV GL
• Dines Bjørner, computer scientist
• Anders Hejlsberg, software engineer
• Henrik Wann Jensen, computer graphics researcher
• Per Brinch Hansen, computer scientist
• Jakob Nielsen, web usability consultant
• Anker Engelund, civil engineer
• Povl Ole Fanger, HVAC engineer
• Peder Oluf Pedersen, electroacoustic engineer
• Poul Henningsen, author, architect and critic
• Ebbe Sand,^[43] former professional footballer
• Haldor Topsøe, Founder and former chairman of Haldor Topsøe
• Harald T. Friis, pioneering contributions to radio propagation, radio astronomy, and radar
• Jingdong Zhang, electrochemist and microscopist
• Jan S. Hesthaven, Chair of Computational Mathematics and Simulation Science, EPFL

See also

• Top Industrial Managers for Europe (TIME), network for student mobility
• Technologist, magazine published by EuroTech Universities Alliance
• Open access in Denmark^[44]
• Dana IV (ship)

References

1. "DTU Årsrapport 2013". DTU. Retrieved 3 September 2014.
2. "DTU Årsrapport 2016". DTU. Retrieved 11 November 2017.
3. "EuroTech Universities Alliance". EuroTech Universities Alliance. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
4. "Den Polytekniske Læreanstalt". Gyldendal. Retrieved 14 February 2010.
5. NATO Unclassified Document AC/137-D/326
6. . Archived from the original on 5 September 2009. Retrieved 8 November 2009.
7. Transportation Logistics Programs at DTU
8. Dinesen, Marie (9 January 2013). "To diplomingeniøruddannelser bliver til én". DTU (in Danish). Retrieved 12 July 2013.
9. . DTU Space. Archived from the original on 25 October 2020. Retrieved 15 October 2019.
10. . DTU Space (in Danish). Archived from the original on 24 October 2020. Retrieved 15 October 2019.
11. McDonald, Andrew (23 June 2014). . The Space Reporter. Archived from the original on 25 June 2014. Retrieved 24 June 2014.
12. . DTU Space (in Danish). Archived from the original on 22 May 2013.
13. "Research and Educational Building for Technical University Denmark / Christensen & Co. Architects + Rørbæk & Møller architectssh". ArchDaily. Retrieved 7 January 2015.
14. . DTU Vet. Archived from the original on 14 March 2015. Retrieved 7 January 2015.
15. "Center for Electron Nanoscopy". DTU CEN.
16. . investindk.com. 11 December 2007. Archived from the original on 20 January 2008.
17. . DTU Cen (in Danish). Archived from the original on 5 December 2013. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
18. Henry Nielsen, ed. (1998). Til samfundets tarv - Forskningscenter Risøs historie (in Danish). Forskningscenter Risø. ISBN 87-550-2380-0.
19. Knudsen, Henrik (2006). (PDF) (in Danish). p. 3. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 September 2016.
20. (PDF). DTU. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
21. . DTU. 25 November 2014. Archived from the original on 23 December 2017. Retrieved 6 November 2023.
22. "Can Robots Mindstorm: Challenge your creativity with LEGO". best.eu.org.
23. . Naturvidenskabelig fotodatabase (in Danish). Archived from the original on 8 August 2007. Retrieved 6 November 2023.
24. "Ole W. Sørensen". Kemi.dtu.dk. 4 September 2006. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
25. Lise Richter (13 October 2011). "DTU-leder bruger Scientology-metoder". Dagbladet Information. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
26. "Forsker står til fyring for kritiske udtalelser". 10 May 2009. Retrieved 8 November 2009.
27. Kristian Villesen (13 October 2011). "Jeg kan ikke forestille mig, at vi knægter ytringsfriheden". Dagbladet Information. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
28. Lise Richter (13 October 2011). "Forsker står til fyring for kritiske udtalelser". Dagbladet Information. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
29. "Lig på bordet". Dagbladet Information. 25 February 2009. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
30. Lise Richter (22 February 2009). "Trivselsundersøgelse holdes hemmelig". Dagbladet Information. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
31. Lise Richter (22 February 2009). "DTU-leder kører de ansatte i sænk". Dagbladet Information. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
32. . Kt.dtu.dk. 18 July 2006. Archived from the original on 1 July 2007. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
33. "ARWU World University Rankings 2023". Shanghai Ranking. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
34. "QS World University Rankings 2024". 9 October 2023.
35. "World University Rankings". 26 September 2023.
36. Sara Rosendal. (in Danish). ing.dk. Archived from the original on 9 November 2007. Retrieved 15 November 2007.
37. "The World's Most Innovative Universities". Reuters. from the original on 26 March 2023.
38. . Archived from the original on 26 February 2012. Retrieved 26 February 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
39. "QS World University Rankings 2022". Topuniversities. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
40. "World University Rankings". Leiden. Retrieved 1 September 2013.
41. "World University Rankings 2013–2014". Times Higher Education. Retrieved 26 July 2014.
42. "Exiles - Forsiden default.aspx". Forsiden. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
43. . Archived from the original on 19 March 2012.
44. . Directory of Open Access Repositories. UK: University of Nottingham. Archived from the original on 6 February 2009. Retrieved 11 March 2018.

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Technical University of Denmark.

• Official website
• International Education at DTU
• DTU Alumni Association

55°47′09″N 12°31′17″E / 55.78583°N 12.52139°E / 55.78583; 12.52139