Gauss Professorship
The Gauss Professorship offers outstanding scientists from abroad the opportunity to temporarily, and in a sense symbolically, occupy the chair of Carl Friedrich Gauss as a guest of the Academy. The professorship was established on the centenary of the death of the eminent mathematician, who served as Director of the Göttingen University Observatory from 1807 until his death in 1855.
This special appointment is a research stay without formal obligations. However, the guest is entitled to give lectures or talks at the university and to participate in meetings of the Academy.
The recipient is selected by the Gauss Commission, which is appointed by the Mathematics and Natural Sciences Class. Priority is given to scholars who have made significant contributions to the fields represented by Gauss: astronomy, geophysics, mathematics, and physics.
Gauss Professorships
2025 (invited)
Prof Simon Albrecht, Associate Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, Denmark
Prof Dennis Baldocchi, Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, USA
Prof Bertrand Lefebvre, Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon: Terre, Planètes, Environnement , Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, France
Prof Bernhard Mehlig, Department of Physics, Gothenburg University, Sweden
Prof Eva Miranda, Laboratory of Geometry and Dynamical Systems, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (EPSEB), Barcelona, Spanien
2024
Prof Eric Gaidos, Department of Earth Sciences, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Prof Jana Roithova, Spectroscopy and Catalysis, Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands
Prof Srikanth Sastry, Theoretical Sciences Unit, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore, India
Prof Xingliang Zhang, Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi’an, P.R. China
2023
Prof Dmitriy Grazhdankin, Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics of Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation
Prof Ryszard Nest, Mathematics Department, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Prof Alain Pumir, Laboratoire de Physique, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, France
Prof Guoliang Yu, Department of Mathematics, Texas A&M University, USA
Assoc-Prof Alessio Zaccone, Department of Physics, Milan, Italy
2021/2022
Prof Pierre Braunstein, Institut de Chimie, Université de Strasbourg, France
Prof Rainer Dietmann, Department of Mathematics, University of London, UK
Prof Grzegorz Szamel, Department of Chemistry, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, USA
Prof Sotiris S. Xantheas, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, West Richland, USA
2020
* Some recipients began their stay only in 2023 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. *
Prof Mark H. Thiemens, Division of Physical Sciences, University of California, San Diego, USA
Prof Rolando Victor Rivera Pomar, Centro de Bioinvestigaciones, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2019
Prof Trevor D. Wooley, School of Mathematics, University of Bristol, UK
Prof Dr Leticia González, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Vienna, Austria
Prof Mark Adriaan van Zuilen, Equipe Géomicrobiologie, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP), France
Prof Eckhard Meinrenken, Mathematics Department, University of Toronto, Canada
2018
Prof Ozan Öktem, Sweden
Prof Simon Turner, Director of Research, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Macquarie University, Australia
Prof Ranko Richert, School of Molecular Sciences, Arizona State University Tempe, USA
Prof Trichur Vidyasagar, Department of Optometry & Vision Sciences, and Adjunct Professor Department of Anatomy & Neuroscience, University of Melbourne, Australia
2017
Prof Charles T. Campbell, Department of Chemistry, University of Washington, USA
Prof Simon Turner, Director of Research, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Macquarie University, Australia
Dr Guillem Anglada-Escudé, School of Physics and Astronomy, Queen Mary, University of London, UK
Prof Paul Frank Baum, Department of Mathematics, The Pennsylvania State University, USA
Prof Mark H. Thiemens, Division of Physical Sciences, University of California, San Diego, USA
2016
Prof Charles T. Campbell, Department of Chemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, USA
Prof Kannan Soundararajan, Department of Mathematics, Stanford University, USA
Prof John Coates, Centre for Mathematical Sciences (DPMMS), Cambridge, UK
Prof Richard Holme, School of Environmental Sciences, Jane Herdman Laboratories, Liverpool, UK
2015
Prof Xueming Yang, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, China
Prof Michael Francis A’Hearn, Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, USA
Prof David Kelly Campbell, Department of Physics, Boston University, USA
Prof Trevor Wooley, School of Mathematics, University of Bristol, UK
2014
Prof Kirk A. Peterson, Edward R. Meyer Distinguished Professor, Department of Chemistry, Washington State University, USA
Prof Michael Francis A'Hearn, Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, USA
Prof Mikhail Gordin, St. Petersburg Department of V.A. Steklov Mathematical Institute, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation
Prof David Kelly Campbell, Department of Physics, Boston University, USA
2013
Prof Andrey Vilesov, Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA
Prof Yuriy G. Shermolovich, Institute of Organic Chemistry, National Academy of Sciences, Kyiv, Ukraine
2012
Prof Yuriy G. Shermolovich, Institute of Organic Chemistry, National Academy of Sciences, Kyiv, Ukraine
Prof Evgenii E. Nikitin, Department of Chemistry, Israel Institute of Technology, Technion City, Haifa, Israel
Prof Mark Dijkstra, Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Garching, Germany
2011
Prof Itamar Procaccia, Department of Chemical Physics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
Prof Daniel Auerbach, San Jose, California, USA
Prof Evgenii E. Nikitin, Department of Chemistry, Israel Institute of Technology, Technion City, Haifa, Israel
2010
Prof David C. Morse, Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science,, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA
Prof Alexander V. Sobolev, Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry V. I. Vernadsky, Moscow, Russian Federation
2009
Prof Luciano Floridi, St. Cross College, University of Oxford, UK
Prof David C. Morse, Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA
2008
Prof Hideyuki Saio, Astronomical Institute, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University Aramaki, Japan
Prof Santiago Alvarez, Departement de Quimica Inorganica, University of Barcelona, Spain
Prof Alexander V. Sobolev, Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry V. I. Vernadsky, Moscow, Russian Federation