Honorary fellows

The honorary fellowship of the University of Tartu may be conferred on a natural person who has made a significant contribution to the attainment of a statutory objective of the University of Tartu, including by means of a substantial monetary support. The honorary title was established in 1852. The university presents honorary fellows with a medal.


The right to propose candidates for honorary fellowships may be exercised by members of the university senate and council and by councils of faculties and non-faculty institutions. The university council decides on the granting of an honorary fellowship.
The rector presents the title of the honorary fellowship and the medal on 1 December at the ceremony marking the anniversary of Estonia’s national university.

Honorary fellow 2017

Harry Huge

2012
Gunnar Vasar (posthumously)

2009
Erich Rannu
Nadia Walter-Tschishewsky
Ago Peters

2008
Olga Sternik
Horst-Werner Maier-Hunke
Voldemar Jaanberg (posthumously)

2007
Toomas Sildmäe

2006
Freidrich Fred Raimond Allik (posthumously)
Helgi Nirk (posthumously)

2004
Walter Keller
Elmar Tampõld

2002
Linda Roose Kaljot
Magda Puusepp (posthumously)

2001
Henning Kramer

1999
Bengt von zur Mühlen
Pekka Artturi Oinonen

1998
Jochen Friedrich Kirchhoff
Toivo Miljan
Aare-Ruth Mörner
Aino Järvesoo

1997
Wolfgang Haβe
Nils Otto von Taube

1996
Egon Brinkschmidt
Uffe Ellemann-Jensen
Hans-Dietrich Genscher

1995
Wilhelm Held
Tõivelemb Kivikas
Ekkehard Pabsch
Laine Silvere-Pant
Maria Wasna

1990
Endel Aruja
Hilja Aun
Maret Aun
Nikolai Küttis
Walter Väärsi

1917
George Buchanan
Count Sergey Sheremetev

1914
Albert I, King of the Belgians
Alexander Karađorđević, Crown Prince of Serbia, later King of Yugoslavia
Nikolay Nikolaevich, Grand Duke of Russia
Peter I, King of Serbia

1913
Sergey Prutschenko

1910
Nikolay Zhukovsky

190?
Sergey Nikitin

1906
Wilhelm Max Wundt

1903
Ivan Foinitsky

1902
Adolf Wagner
Mikhail Gorchakov
Heinrich Dernburg
Maxim Kovalevsky
Franz von Liszt
Vasily Sergeyevich
Nikolay Tagantsev
Boris Chicherin
Johannes Engelmann
Vladimir Bekhterev
Ivan Dogel
Dmitri Mendeleev
Ilya Mechnikov
Filipp Ovsyannikov
Ivan Pavlov
Ivan Sechenov
Paul Clemens von Baumgarten
Ernst von Bergmann
Paul Camille Brouardel
André-Victor Cornil
Paul Emil Flechsig
Carl Gegenbaur
Oscar Hertwig
Sir Victor Horsley
Adalbert von Kölliker
Bernhard Naunyn
Santiago Ramón y Cajal
Magnus Gustaf Retzius
Wilhelm von Waldeyer
Ernst von Ziegler
Alexander Popin
Vladimir Gerje
Nikodim Kondakov
Yevgeny Golubinsky
Vladimir Lamansky
Pyotr Nikitin
Dmitry Kobeko
Léopold Victor Delisle
Vasily Latyshev
Count Ivan Tolstoy
Ivan Pomyalovsky
Leo Meyer
Vladimir Ikonnikov
Alexander Christian Leopold Conze
Nikolay Bugayev
Paul Gordan
William Thomson, Lord Kelvin
Éleuthère Élie Nicolas Mascart
Julius Edler von Hann
Alexey Yermolov
Eduard Suess
Friedrich Karl Schmidt
Sir John Murray
Adolf Engler
Mikhail Voronin
August Weismann
Anton Felix Dohrn
Count Lev Tolstoy
Joann (Ivan) Sergiyev (John of Kronstadt), Archpriest (renounced his honorary member status due to Lev Tolstoy's election)

1901
Mikhail Vladimirsky-Budanov
Vasily Klyuchevsky

1898
Viktor Pashutin

1897
Pyotr Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky
Count Sergei Witte
Vladimir Alexandrovich, Grand Duke of Russia
Konstantin Pobedonostsev

1894
Dmitry Zernov

1892
Rudolf von Ihering
Ivan Zabelin

1891
Hermann von Helmholtz
Rudolf Virchow
Heinrich von Brunn

1889
Otto Wilhelm von Struve

1887
Otto von Böhtlingk
Alexander von Middendorff

1885
Alexander Georg von Bunge

1884
Friedrich von Bidder

1883
Hermann Abich

1880
Andrey Saburov
Ferdinand Johann Wiedemann

1874
Heinrich Fleischer

1872
Friedrich Georg von Bunge

1852
Alexander Nikolayevich, Crown Prince of Russia, Grand Duke (later Emperor Alexander II)
Konstantin Nikolayevich, Grand Duke of Russia
Peter, Prince of Oldenburg
Prince Platon Shirinsky-Shikhmatov
Avraam Norov
Gustav von Craffström
Prince Alexander Chernyshyov
Prince Mikhail Vorontsov
Count Peter von der Pahlen
Count Alexei Orlov
Count Sergey Uvarov
Count Dmitry Bludov
Baron Carl Magnus von der Pahlen
Count Modest von Korff
Prince Alexander Suvorov
Count Friedrich Benjamin von Lütke
Friedrich Nikolaus von Pauffler
Christian von Beck
Mikhail von Markus
Ivan Davydov
Wilhelm von Struve
Karl Ernst von Baer
Reinhold Samson von Himmelstiern
Nikolay Pirogov
Otto von Mirbach
Ferdinand Walter
Johannes Müller
Justus Freiherr von Liebig

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