Topic: recognition 

UT staff and students are invited to nominate candidates who deserve to be awarded the university’s honorary decoration for their outstanding achievements. Nominations can be submitted until 20 September.

Ahead of the anniversary of the Republic of Estonia, the University of Tartu announced the recipients of the contribution to society award, research award, language award and the teaching staff of the year awards for 2025.

With the annual awards, the university aims to recognise its employees’ and students’ outstanding achievements in teaching, doing research and serving society.

On 21 November, Rector Toomas Asser handed over the university’s this year’s 123 honorary decorations. This marked the beginning of the traditional events of the 106th anniversary of Estonia’s national university.

On 31 October, the senate of the University of Tartu decided to award the University of Tartu Grand Medal to former rector, Professor emeritus Jaak Aaviksoo, Professor Marlon Gerardo Dumas Menjivar, Professor Kalle Kirsimäe, and Professor Ivo Leito. The recipients of the University of Tartu Star of Appreciation, Medal, Badge of Distinction and the decoration “100 Semesters at the University of Tartu” have also been selected.

Until 31 October, nominations can be submitted for the “Contribution to Estonian National Identity” award.

Meelis Pärtel, Professor of Botany at the University of Tartu, was elected to Academia Europaea, the Pan-European Academy of Humanities, Letters and Sciences. Pärtel will be active in the academy’s Ecology and Evolution section, where he sees strengthening connections between ecology and other research fields as his most important task.

The University of Tartu organised the largest number of international conferences in Tartu last year, and 13 of them won recognition.

The committee formed by the University of Tartu Student Union chose the recipients of the teaching staff of the year awards for 2024.

The government of Estonia has approved the laureates of this year’s national research awards. Seven researchers of the University of Tartu were recognised with annual awards.