Bent Flyvbjerg to be awarded ITU’s first honorary doctorate

Bent Flyvbjerg, Professor and Academic Lead of Oxford University’s research and education programmes in Major Programme Management, is known for his groundbreaking research in the management of large-scale projects, including in the field of IT. The IT University of Copenhagen is the youngest of Denmark’s eight universities, and specialized in research and higher education in IT.

Computer Science Department Research e-government Collaborations

Written 1 September, 2020 11:08

Bent Flyvbjerg is the world’s most quoted researcher when it comes to the management of large-scale projects. As of September 2020, he has authored and edited ten books and written more than 200 articles in professional journals. Flyvbjerg’s publications have been translated into 20 languages. His book ‘Megaprojects and Risk: An Anatomy of Ambition’ is mandatory reading for project managers, sponsors and anyone else involved in megaprojects, and the book has been published in ten editions.

Bent Flyvbjerg leads groundbreaking research at Oxford University, which has catalyzed the development of the world’s largest database of IT-projects and their performance. The intention of the research activities is to develop and test fundamental theories of deeply risky IT-investments, which will help explain why the costs and schedule of many IT-projects often blow out of proportion. And not least: what can be done to help prevent future IT-scandals. Bent Flyvbjerg was a member of the Danish Ministry of Finance expert group on information technologies, where he served the Ministry as an advisor on how best to keep overspending and delays under control (2009-2010).

Bent Flyvbjerg has worked as a consultant for government, corporations, banks, national audit offices, the EU commission and the UN. He has served as an advisor to the British, Dutch and Danish governments on drafting national policies for infrastructure, environment, transportation and science. His research has been covered by prominent media such as Science, The Economist, Financial Times, The New York Times, BBC, CNN and many others.

Bent Flyvbjerg has advanced research in project management through award winning articles, published some of the most quoted books and articles in the field, and has played a leading role in the development of research centres and education programmes at Oxford University, Aalborg University and the Technical University of Delft. He has helped foster the development of management education for governments and private corporations in Europe, USA and Asia. He has received numerus awards, most recently the prestigious Project Management Institute Research Achievement Award in 2019.

“It is a great pleasure, that Bent Flyvbjerg has accepted the Honorary Doctorate here at the IT-University of Copenhagen. Bent Flyvbjerg is a world class scientist, who is in high demand both within and outside of academia. It is my hope that Flyvbjerg’s acceptance of ITU’s first Honorary Doctorate will open up a dialogue about the research in IT-projects in Denmark,” says Jens Schmidt, Head of Research Centre for Government IT at ITU.

“I am deeply honoured to receive ITU’s first Honorary Doctorate. IT-projects have an increasingly prominent role globally, and therefore also in my research at Oxford. It is therefore both interesting and visionary that ITU has established a research centre that focuses on government IT-projects,” says Bent Flyvbjerg, Professor at Oxford University.

“I am very proud to be able to appoint Professor Bent Flyvbjerg as the first Honorary Doctorate at the IT-University in Copenhagen, and thereby contribute to honouring his research, which for many years has belonged to the absolute world elite. Bent Flyvbjerg’s Honorary Doctorate at ITU is well aligned with ITU’s vision and mission to create value to society though internationally groundbreaking research and education,” says Martin Zachariasen, Vice Chancellor at ITU.

Bent Flyvbjerg to be awarded ITU’s first honorary doctorate

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