Every year the faculty boards at Luleå University of Technology (LTU) select two or three honorary doctors. They are often individuals who have contributed to the activities and development of the university in one way or another or have somehow served as a source of inspiration to the university's teachers, researchers, students, and other staff.
The first doctorate to be announced for 2004 is Joseph Juran, and the justification for the decision of the engineering faculty board is as follows:"For a lifework that has fundamentally impacted and altered the view modern society has of quality development and the capacity to manufacture products from a quality perspective."
The story of Joseph Juran, among other things, is a tale of a childhood and adolescence scarred by poverty and anti-Semitism, but also characterized by determination, hard work, and brilliance. Joseph Juran is one of the most influential figures in the field of quality work, and his impact on the development of the field has been immense.
Juran has devoted a major portion of his nearly 100 years to influencing and helping management and companies all over the world, and he has committed a relatively large share of his efforts to Sweden, with some 30 visits to lecture and lead courses, primarily in Stockholm.
In Swedish higher education there are today three divisions, with research, graduate education, and undergraduate education in the quality field and a total of four professorial chairs in the subject. Two of them--Bengt Klefsjö and Håkan Wiklund--are associated with Luleå University of Technology. Today the Section for Quality and Environmental Leadership at LTU is a well-known entity across Sweden and abroad. At present it has the most extensive activities and the largest "production" of Ph.D.s in the country. Luleå University of Technology dominates the quality field in Sweden--an excellent reason to associate Joseph Juran with LTU.Owing to his advanced age, Joseph Juran will not be personally attending the conferment ceremony in the cathedral this fall, but he will participate and follow the academic festival via a satellite link.
For more information and background information about the incredibly fascinating life story of Joseph Juran, please see the article (in Swedish) in the university's news service on the Web, Högtrycket: http://hogtrycket.adm.ltu.se/artikel.asp?nyhetsnr=1559&skribent=3.