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Panoramic view on the North Campus © Jürgen Huhn​/​TU Dortmund
TU PROFESSOR AWARDED HIGHEST HONOR

Prof. Michael ten Hompel Receives the Federal Cross of Merit

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photo of Thomas Westphal and Prof. Michael ten Hompel © Stadt Dortmund
Thomas Westphal (left), Mayor of Dortmund, presented Prof. Michael ten Hompel (right) with the Federal Cross of Merit on 22 March 2023.
The President of Germany awarded Prof. Michael ten Hompel the Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon. The Mayor of Dortmund Thomas Westphal presented the cross to the professor for material handling and warehousing on 22 March. The TU researcher receives the federal decoration for his outstanding commitment to science.

“Prof. ten Hompel has played a significant role in shaping the development of Dortmund as a hub of science and technology, going above and beyond his professional work. He has had a lasting impact with his exceptional personal commitment,” said Mayor Westphal on the day of the ceremony. “With his excellent interdisciplinary research, he has made a significant contribution to establishing logistics as one of Dortmund’s seven scientific competence fields and, on top of that, boosting the Ruhr region international profile as a recognized center for logistics and IT.”

Prof. ten Hompel has held the Professorship for Material Handling and Warehousing at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of TU Dortmund University since 2000 and is the managing director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics (IML) – and also led the Institute for Software and Systems Engineering (ISST) until 2018. What’s more, ten Hompel has been one of the directors of the Lamarr Institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence since 2022. He is a member of the National Academy of Science and Engineering and has been a member of the international Logistics Hall of Fame since 2012.

Numerous innovations can be traced back to ten Hompel’s research

The focus of Prof. ten Hompel’s work today is in the fields of Industry 4.0, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence in logistics, the planning of logistics systems, logistics software, warehouse management and the development of material flow systems. Numerous innovations in logistics can be directly traced back to his research. He is considered one of the inventors of shuttle technology in intralogistics, which he and his team have continued to explore and which recently resulted in the development of several AI-based vehicles. On top of that, he is seen as one of the fathers of the Internet of Things. In 2010, he launched the EffizienzCluster LogistikRuhr as one of the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research’s leading-edge clusters. Involving 120 member companies and 11 research institutions, it is the largest research project of his career.

In collaboration with his team from Fraunhofer IML, Prof. ten Hompel promoted the establishment of a European Blockchain Institute, which the state government is now funding to the tune of 7.7 million euros. Blockchain technology stores data in a decentralized, secure and transparent manner, enabling companies to securely share data with each other.

Champion of sustainability

In addition to his technological expertise, Prof. ten Hompel’s commitment to social and ethical issues is also substantial. For decades, he has been championing sustainability with regard to the mobility of people and goods as well as social responsibility in the age of robotics and data economies.

Prof. ten Hompel has received many awards for his work, including the Innovation Prize of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia in 2020, and was honored as “Citizen of the Ruhr Area” in 2018 – an award for personalities who have made outstanding contributions to the Ruhr area through their work. 

The German Order of Merit is awarded to domestic and foreign citizens for political, economic, social and intellectual achievements as well as for all special services to the Federal Republic of Germany, such as in the social or philanthropic realm. It is the only general award of merit in Germany, making it the highest honor that the Federal Republic of Germany grants for services to the common good.

 

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