Prof. Helmut Rechberger recieves honorary degree

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On March 30, the Rector of the University of Antwerp awarded an honorary degree to Prof. Helmut Rechberger from TU Wien. He was nominated by Prof. Pieter Billen from iPRACS. The degree was awarded for his expertise in integrating information theory and classical thermodynamics in the assessment and prediction of the sustainability of material flows and processing technologies.

In other words,  Prof. Rechberger took the concept of entropy in the frame of materials management back to the original statistical meaning, allowing to quantify the entropy of material flows, composed of objects, and beyond.  This provided a completely new array of tools to address research questions related to a Circular Economy and inherent sustainability (or "elegance") of product and systems design. It constitutes a prospective lens on the future of materials.

His masterclass (45 min), entitled ‘Anthropogenic metabolism seen through the lens of entropy’,can be re-watched here.