Coordinates	54°5′20″N18°25′10″N
Name	Heidelberg University
Native name	Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
Image name	Logo University of Heidelberg.svg
Latin name	Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis
Motto	Semper apertus – Zukunft. Seit 1386.
Mottoeng	(The book of learning is) always open. - The Future. Since 1386.
Established	1386
Type	Public
Staff	4,196 full time faculty
Rector	Bernhard Eitel
Students	26,741
City	Heidelberg
Country	Germany
Campus	Urban
Colors	Sandstone red and Gold
Affiliations	German Excellence UniversitiesLERU Coimbra Group EUA
Website
Footnotes	Data }}

The Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg (Heidelberg University, Ruperto Carola) is a public research university located in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386, it is the oldest university in Germany and was the fourth university established in the Holy Roman Empire. A coeducational institution since 1899, today Heidelberg consists of twelve faculties and offers degree programs at undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral levels in some 100 disciplines. It is a German Excellence University, as well as a founding member of the League of European Research Universities and the Coimbra Group.

Rupert I, Elector Palatine established the university when Heidelberg was the capital of the Palatinate. Consequently, it served as a center for theologians and law experts from throughout the Holy Roman Empire. Matriculation rates declined with the Thirty Years' War, and the university did not overcome its fiscal and intellectual crises until the early 19th century. Subsequently, the institution once again became a hub for independent thinkers, and developed into a "stronghold of humanism", and a center of democratic thinking. At this time, Heidelberg served as a role model for the implementation of graduate schools at American universities. However, the university lost many of its dissident professors and was marked a NSDAP university during the Nazi era (between 1933 and 1945). It later underwent an extensive denazification after World War II—Heidelberg serving as one of the main scenes of the left-wing student protests in Germany in the 1970s.

Modern scientific psychiatry; psychopharmacology; psychiatric genetics; environmental physics; and modern sociology were introduced as scientific disciplines by Heidelberg faculty. Associated with 30 Nobel Prize laureates, the university continues to emphasize research. It is consistently ranked among Europe's top overall universities, and is an international education venue for doctoral students, with approximately 1,000 doctorates successfully completed every year, and with more than one third of the doctoral students coming from abroad. International students from some 130 countries account for more than 20 percent of the entire student body. Heidelberg comprises two major campuses: one in Heidelberg's Old Town and another in the Neuenheimer Feld quarter on the outskirts of the city. The university's noted alumni include eleven domestic and foreign Heads of State or Heads of Government.

History

Founding

At the end of the 14th century, the city of Heidelberg, capital of the Palatinate since 1225 had approximately inhabitants, but the Great Schism in 1378, which split European Christendom into two hostile groups made it possible for this relatively small city to get its own university. The Great Schism was initiated by the election of two popes after the death of Pope Gregory XI in the same year. One successor resided in Avignon (elected by the French) and the other in Rome (elected by the Italian cardinals). The German secular and spiritual leaders voiced their support for the successor in Rome, which had far-reaching consequences for the German students and teachers in Paris: they lost their stipends and had to leave.

Rupert I recognized the opportunity and initiated talks with the Curia, which ultimately lead to the creation of the Papal Bull for the Foundation of a university. After having received on October 23, 1385 the permission from pope Urban VI to create a school of general studies (), the final decision to found the university was taken on June 26, 1386 at the behest of Rupert I, Count Palatine of the Rhine. As specified in the papal charter, the university was modelled after University of Paris and included four faculties: philosophy, theology, jurisprudence, and medicine.

On October 18, 1386, a special Pontifical High Mass in the ''Heiliggeistkirche'' commemorated the opening of the doors of the university. On October 19, 1386, the first lecture was held, making Heidelberg the oldest university in Germany. In November 1386, Marsilius of Inghen was elected first rector of the university. The rector seal motto was ''semper apertus''—i.e., "the book of learning is always open."

The university grew up quickly and in March 1390, 185 students were enrolled at the university.

Early development

Between 1414 and 1418, theology and jurisprudence professors of the university took part in the Council of Constance and acted as counselors for Louis III, who attended this council as representative of the emperor and chief magistrate of the realm. This resulted in establishing a good reputation for the university and its professors.

Due to the influence of Marsilius, the university initially taught the nominalism or ''via moderna''. In 1412, both realism and the teachings of John Wycliffe were forbidden at the university, but later around 1454, the university decided that the realism or ''via antique'' would also be taught, thus introducing two parallel ways ().

The transition from scholastic to humanistic culture was effected by the chancellor and bishop Johann von Dalberg in the late 15th century. Humanism was represented at the University of Heidelberg particularly by the founder of the older German Humanistic School Rudolph Agricola, Conrad Celtes, Jakob Wimpfeling, and Johann Reuchlin. Æneas Silvius Piccolomini was chancellor of the university in his capacity of provost of Worms, and later always favored it with his friendship and good-will as Pope Pius II. In 1482, Pope Sixtus IV permitted laymen and married men to be appointed professors in the ordinary of medicine through a papal dispensation. In 1553, Pope Julius III sanctioned the allotment of ecclesiastical benefice to secular professors.

Martin Luther's disputation at Heidelberg in April 1518 made a lasting impact, and his adherents among the masters and scholars soon became leading Reformationists in Southwest Germany. With the Palatinate's turn to the Reformed faith, Otto Henry, Elector Palatine, converted the university into a calvinsitic institution. In 1563, the Heidelberg Catechism was created under collaboration of members of the university's divinity school. As the 16th century was passing, the late humanism stepped beside Calvinism as a predominant school of thought; and figures like Paul Schede, Jan Gruter, Martin Opitz, and Matthäus Merian taught at the university. It attracted scholars from all over the continent and developed into a cultural and academic center. However, with the beginning of the Thirty Years' War in 1618, the intellectual and fiscal wealth of the university declined. In 1622, the then-world-famous Bibliotheca Palatina (the library of the university) was stolen from the University Cathedral and taken to Rome. The reconstruction efforts thereafter were defeated by the troops of King Louis XIV, who destroyed Heidelberg in 1693 almost completely.

As a consequence of the late Counter-Reformation, the university lost its Protestant character, and was channeled by Jesuits. In 1735, the Old University was constructed at University Square, then known as Domus Wilhelmina. Through the efforts of the Jesuits a preparatory seminary was established, the Seminarium ad Carolum Borromæum, whose pupils were also registered in the university. After the suppression of the Jesuit Order, most of the schools they had conducted passed into the hands of the French Congregation of Lazarists in 1773. They deteriorated from that time forward, and the university itself continued to lose in prestige until the reign of the last elector Charles Theodore, Elector Palatine, who established new chairs for all the faculties, founded scientific institutes such as the Electoral Academy of Science, and transferred the school of political economy from Kaiserslautern to Heidelberg, where it was combined with the university as the faculty of political economy. He also founded an observatory in the neighboring city of Mannheim, where Jesuit Christian Meyer labored as director. In connection with the commemoration of the four hundredth anniversary of the university, a revised statute book, which several of the professors had been commissioned to prepare, was approved by the elector. The financial affairs of the university, its receipts and expenditures, were put in order. At that period, the number of students varied from 300-400; in the jubilee year, 133 matriculated. As a consequence of the disturbances caused by the French Revolution, and particularly because of the Treaty of Lunéville, the university lost all its property on the left bank of the Rhine, so that its complete dissolution was expected.

19th and early 20th century

It was not until 1803 that this decline stopped. In this year, the university was reestablished as a state-owned institution by Karl Friedrich, Grand Duke of Baden, to whom the part of the Palatinate situated on the right bank of the Rhine was allotted. Since then, the university bears his name together with the name of Ruprecht I. Karl Friedrich divided the university into five faculties and placed himself at its head as rector, as did also his successors. During this decade Romanticism found expression in Heidelberg through Clemens Brentano, Achim von Arnim, Ludwig Tieck, Joseph Görres, and Joseph von Eichendorff, and there went forth a revival of the German Middle Ages in speech, poetry, and art.

The German Students Association exerted great influence, which was at first patriotic and later political. After Romanticism had eventually died out, Heidelberg became a center of Liberalism and the movement in favor of German national unity. The historians Friedrich Christoph Schlosser and Georg Gottfried Gervinus were the guides of the nation in political history. The modern scientific schools of medicine and natural science, particularly astronomy, were models in point of construction and equipment, and the University of Heidelberg was especially noted for its influential law school. The university as a whole became the role model for the transformation of American liberal arts colleges into research universities, in particular for the then-newly established Johns Hopkins University. Heidelberg’s professors were important supporters of the Vormärz revolution and many of them were members of the first freely elected German parliament, the Frankfurt Parliament of 1848. During the late 19th century, the university housed a very liberal and open-minded spirit, which was deliberately fostered by Max Weber, Ernst Troeltsch and a circle of colleagues around them.

In the Weimar Republic, the university was widely recognized as a center of democratic thinking, coined by professors like Karl Jaspers, Gustav Radbruch, Martin Dibelius and Alfred Weber. Unfortunately, there were also dark forces working within the university: Nazi physicist Philipp Lenard was head of the physical institute during that time. Following the assassination of Walther Rathenau, he refused to half mast the national flag on the institute, thereby provoking its storming by communist students.

Nazi era and Federal Republic

With the advent of the Third Reich in 1933, the university supported the Nazis like all other German universities at the time. It dismissed a large number of staff and students for political and racist reasons. Many dissident fellows had to emigrate and most Jewish and Communist professors that did not leave Germany were deported. At least two professors directly fell victim to Nazi terror. On 17 May 1933, members of the university faculty and students took part in book burnings at ''Universitätsplatz'' ("University Square") and Heidelberg was eventually infamous as a NSDAP university. The inscription above the main entrance of the New University was changed from "The Living Spirit" to "The German Spirit", and many professors paid homage to the new motto. The university was involved in Nazi eugenics: forced sterilizations were carried out at the women's clinic and the psychatric clinic then directed by Carl Schneider was involved in Action T4 Euthanasia program.

After the end of World War II, the university underwent an extensive denazification.

Since Heidelberg was spared from destruction during WWII, the reconstruction of the university was realized rather quickly. With the foundation of the Collegium Academicum, the University of Heidelberg became the home of Germany's first and, until today, only self-governed student hall. Newly laid statutes obliged the university to "The Living Spirit of Truth, Justice and Humanity".

During the 1960s and 1970s, the university grew dramatically in size. At this time, it developed into one of the main scenes of the left-wing student protests in Germany. In 1975, a massive police force arrested the entire student parliament AStA. Shortly thereafter, the building of the Collegium Academicum, a progressive college in immediate vicinity to the universities main grounds, was stormed by over 700 police officers and closed once and for all. On the outskirts of the city, in the Neuenheimer Feld area, a large campus for medicine and natural sciences was constructed.

Today, about 28,000 students are enrolled for studies at the University of Heidelberg. There are 4,196 full time faculty, including 476 university professors. In 2007, the university was appointed ''University of Excellence'' within the scope of an initiative started by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the German Research Foundation in order to enhance the German university system by establishing a small network of exceptionally well-funded universities, which are expected to generate a strong international appeal.

Campuses

Heidelberg is a city with approximately 140,000 inhabitants. It is situated in the Rhine Neckar Triangle, a European metropolitan area with approximately 2.4 million people living there, comprising the neighboring cities of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, and a number of smaller towns in the perimeter. Heidelberg is known as the cradle of Romanticism, and its old town and castle are among the most frequented tourist destinations in Germany. Its pedestrian zone is a shopping and night life magnet for the surrounding area and beyond. Heidelberg is about 40 minutes by train away from Frankfurt International Airport. The University of Heidelberg’s facilities are, generally speaking, separated in two parts. The faculties and institutes of humanities and social sciences are embedded in the Old Town Campus. The sciences faculties and the medical school, including three large university hospitals, are located on the New Campus in the Neuenheimer Feld on the outskirts of Heidelberg.

Old Town Campus

The so-called New University is regarded as the center of the Old Town Campus. It is situated at the ''Universitätsplatz'' (University Square) in the pedestrian zone, in direct vicinity to the University Library and to the main administration buildings. The New University was officially opened in 1931. Its erection was largely financed by donations of wealthy American families, such as the Goldman, Sachs, Morgan, Chrysler and Ford families, as well as other families, in line with a fundraising campaign of Jacob Gould Schurman, an alumnus of the University of Heidelberg and former United States Ambassador to Germany. It houses the new assembly hall, the largest lecture halls, and a number of smaller seminar rooms, mostly used by faculties of humanities and social sciences. Education in humanities and social sciences takes place to a great extent in the respective faculty buildings which are spread all over the ancient part of town, though, they are mostly a maximum of ten minutes walk away from University Square. The faculties maintain own extensive libraries and work spaces for their respective students. Seminars and tutorials are usually held in the faculty buildings.

New Campus

The New Campus is located in the Neuenheimer Feld district. It is now the largest part of the university, and the largest campus for natural sciences and life science in Germany. Almost all science faculties and institutes, the medical school, University Hospital Heidelberg, and the science branch of the University Library are situated on the New Campus. Most of the dormitories and the athletic facilities of the university can be found there as well. Several independent research institutes, such as the German Cancer Research Center and two of the Max-Planck-Institutes have settled there. The New Campus is also the seat of several biomedical spin-off companies. The old part of town can be reached by tram and bus in about 10 minutes. The Neuenheimer Feld campus has extensive parking lots for faculty and student vehicles for long term and short term parking, as well as visitors and patients of the various university hospitals. The Faculty of Physics and Astronomy is not located on either campus, but on the Philosophers' Walk, separated from the Old Town by the River Neckar, and some away from the New Campus. It also maintains observatory facilities on the Königstuhl Mountain.

Bergheim Campus

The Bergheim Campus is located in the former Ludolf Krehl clinic (named after Ludolf von Krehl) in the inner-city suburb of Heidelberg-Bergheim. Since March 2009 it has housed the institutes economics, political science, and sociology (together the Heidelberg University Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences) that formerly resided at the Old Town campus. The Bergheim campus offers one lecture theatre, several seminar rooms, the most modern of the university libraries, and a cafe (rather than the full cafeteria present in the other campuses).

Libraries

The University Library is the main library of the university, and constitutes together with the decentralized libraries of the faculties and institutes, the integral university library system comprising approximately 6.7 million printed books. It is Germany’s most frequently used library, and it is currently placed 1st in a ranking of Germany's best libraries. The University Library's stocks exceeded one million in 1934. Today, it holds about 3.2 million books, about 500,000 other media such as microfilms and video tapes, as well as 10,732 scientific periodicals. Moreover, it holds 6,600 manuscripts, most notably the Codex Manesse, 1,800 incunabula, 110,500 autographs, and a collection of old maps, paintings, and photographs. The further 83 decentralized libraries of the faculties and institutes hold another 3.5 million printed books. In 2005, 34,500 active users of the University Library accessed 1.4 million books a year. The conventional book supply is complemented by numerous electronic services. Around 3,000 commercial scientific journals can be accessed via e-journal. The University Library of today traces its roots back to the purchase of a chest of documents by the first Rector Marsilius von Inghen in 1388, which was stored in the Heiliggeistkirche, then the University Cathedral. Since 1978, the science branch of the University Library serves the institutes of natural sciences and medicine on the New Campus.

Facilities abroad

The University of Heidelberg founded a Center for Latin America in Santiago, Chile in 2001. It has the task of organizing, managing, and marketing the courses of study maintained either independently by the University of Heidelberg or in cooperation with the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and the University of Chile. The University of Heidelberg has arranged cooperation agreements with both of these universities. The center has responsibility for programs of postgraduate education. It also coordinates the activities of the University of Heidelberg in Latin America, and provides a platform for scientific cooperation. The university is now also represented by a liaison office in New York. Its main tasks include promoting existing collaborations, building up new networks, creating joint study programs, and maintaining and expanding academic contacts with American universities.

Organization

Governance

The Rectorate is the 'executive body' of the university, headed by rector Bernhard Eitel. The rectorate consists of the chancellor, Marina Frost, who is the head of the central administration and responsible for the university's budgeting, and three pro-rectors, who are responsible for international relations, teaching and communication, and research and structure respectively.

The Senate is the 'legislative branch' of the university. The rector and the members of the rectorate are senators ''ex officio'', as are also the deans of the faculties, as well as the medical and managing directors of the University Hospital, and the university's equal opportunities officer. Another 20 senators are elected for four-year terms, within the following quotas: eight university professors; four academic staff; four delegates of the student body; and four employees of the university administration.

The University Council is the advisory board to the aforementioned entities and encompasses, among others, the former Israeli Ambassador to Germany Avi Primor, as well as CEOs of German industries.

Faculties

After a structural reformation in 2003, the university consists of 12 faculties which in turn comprise several disciplines, departments, and institutes. As a consequence of the Bologna process, most faculties now offer Bachelor's, Master's, and Ph.D. degrees in order to comply with the new European degree standard. Notable exceptions are the undergraduate programs in law, medicine, dentistry and pharmacy, from which students still graduate with the State Examination, a central examination at Master's level held by the State of Baden-Württemberg. {| width="80%" |----- | valign="top" width="50%"|

The Faculty of Behavioural Sciences and Empirical Cultural Sciences

The Faculty of Biosciences

The Faculty of Chemistry and Earth Sciences

The Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences

The Faculty of Law

The Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science

| valign="top" width="50%"|

The Faculty of Medicine

The Faculty of Medicine in Mannheim

The Faculty of Modern Languages

The Faculty of Philosophy and History

The Faculty of Physics and Astronomy

The Faculty of Theology

|}

Associated institutions

{| width="80%" |----- | valign="top" width="50%"|

Network for Research on Ageing

Central Institute of Mental Health Mannheim

Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research,

| valign="top" width="50%"| Heidelberg State Observatory,

University Hospital Heidelberg,

University Hospital Mannheim.

|}

Partnerships

The university has numerous partnerships nationally and internationally. In particular, it maintains longstanding collaborations in research and education with the following independent research institutes located in and around Heidelberg: {| width="80%" |----- | valign="top" width="50%"|

College of Jewish Studies (Central Consistory of the Jews in Germany),

European Molecular Biology Laboratory

German Cancer Research Center (Helmholtz Association)

Heavy Ion Research Center Darmstadt (Helmholtz Association),

Heidelberg Academy of Sciences

| valign="top" width="50%"|

Karlsruhe Research Center (Helmholtz Association)

Max Planck Institute for Astronomy

Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law

Max Planck Institute for Medical Research

Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics

|}

Academic profile

School statistics

The university employs more than 15,000 academic staff, most of them are physicians engaged in the University Hospital. As of 2008, the faculty encompasses 4,196 full-time staff, excluding visiting professors as well as graduate research and teaching assistants. 673 faculty members have been drawn from abroad. Heidelberg University also attracts more than 500 international scholars as visiting professors each academic year. The university enrolls a total of 26,741 students, including 5,118 international students. In addition there are 1,467 international exchange students at Heidelberg. 23,636 students pursue taught degrees, 4,114 of whom are international students, and 919 are international exchange students. 3,105 students pursue a doctoral degree, including 1,004 international doctoral students and 15 international exchange students. In 2007, the university awarded 994 Ph.D. degrees.

Rankings

In 2010, U.S. News / QS World University Rankings ranked Heidelberg 1st in Germany, 14th in Europe, and 51st overall in the world, moving up six places from its position in the 2009 THE-QS World University Rankings. In the current rankings of broad subject areas, Heidelberg ranks globally 24th in natural sciences, 36th in arts & humanities, 45th in life sciences and biomedicine, 82nd in social sciences, and 172nd in Engineering & IT. In previous years, Heidelberg ranked between 17th and 43rd in life science and biomedicine, between 22nd and 45th in science, between 41st and 61st in arts and humanities, and between 54th and 78th in social sciences.

The Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Academic Ranking of World Universities ranks Heidelberg 3rd nationally, 18th in Europe, and 63rd in the world.

The University Ranking by Academic Performance 2010 (URAP Ranking) by Middle East Technical University ranks Heidelberg 2nd nationally, 12th in Europe and 54th globally.

The Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities (HEEACT Ranking), issued by the Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan, placed Heidelberg 2nd in Germany, 12th in Europe, and 61st globally.

The Scientometrics Journal Gatekeepers Indicator Ranking (ISSRU Ranking), created by Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest, ranks the University of Heidelberg at the top of German universities, 12th in Europe, and 73rd globally.

The Times Higher Education Ranking 2010 ranks Heidelberg 3rd in Germany, 18th in Europe and 83rd in the world.

According to the Third European Report on Science & Technology Indicators compiled by the European Commission, Heidelberg ranks 4th nationally and 9th in Europe.

The German Center for Higher Education Development Excellence Ranking, which measures academic performance of European graduate programs in biology, chemistry, economics, mathematics, physics, political sciences, and psychology, placed Heidelberg in the European excellence group for biology, chemistry, mathematics, physics, and psychology.

Ranked by the number of Nobel Laureates affiliated with the university at the time of Nobel Prize announcement, Heidelberg is placed 1st in Germany, 4th in Europe and 13th in the world by 2008.

The Times (London) referred to the University of Heidelberg as "the oldest and most eminent in the country of Luther and Einstein" and as "the jewel of German learning".

Organization and length of courses

The academic year is divided into two semesters. The winter semester runs from October 1-March 31 and the summer semester from April 1-September 30. Classes are held from mid-October to mid-February and mid-April to mid-July. Students can generally begin their studies either in the winter or the summer semester. However, there are several subjects students can begin only in the winter semester. The standard time required to finish a Bachelor's degree is principally six semesters, and a further four semesters for consecutive Master's degrees. The normal duration of Ph.D. programs for full-time students is 6 semesters. The overall period of study for an undergraduate degree is divided into two parts: a period of basic study, lasting at least four semesters, at the end of which students must sit a formal examination, and a period of advanced study, lasting at least two semesters, after which students take their final examinations.

Admission

In the winter-semester 2006/2007, the university offered 3,926 places in undergraduate programs restricted by numerus clausus, with an overall acceptance rate of 16.3%. Most selective are the undergraduate programs in clinical medicine, molecular cell biology, political science, and law, with acceptance rates of 3.6%, 3.8%, 7.6% and 9.1% respectively. The selection is exercised by allocating the best qualified applicants to a given number of places available in the respective discipline, thus depending primarily on the chosen subjects and the grade point average of the Abitur or its equivalent. For some majors and minors in humanities, particularly for those which are conceptually non-vocational like classics, philosophy, and ancient history, unrestricted admission is granted if certain criteria (e.g. relevant language proficiency) are fulfilled, as applications regularly do not exceed the number of places available. For prospective international undergraduate students, a language test for German — such as the DSH — is required. Admission to consecutive Master's programs always requires at least an undergraduate degree equivalent to the German grade "good" (i.e., normally B+ in American, or 2:1 in British terms). Except for the Master's programs taught in English, a language test for German must be passed as well. Ph.D. admission prerequisite is normally a strong Master's-level degree, but specific admission procedures vary and cannot be generalized. International applicants usually make up considerably more than 20% of the applicant pool and are considered individually by the merits achieved in their respective country of origin.

Finances

Studying at German universities is heavily subsidized by the state in order to keep higher education affordable regardless of socio-economic background. Since 2007, Heidelberg charges tuition fees of approximately € 1,200 p.a., including student union fees, for undergraduate, consecutive Master's, and doctoral programs, for both EU and non-EU citizens, and for any subject area. The usual housing costs for on-campus dormitories range from € 2,200 to € 3,000 p.a.

In the fiscal year 2005, the University of Heidelberg had an overall operating budget of approximately € 856 M, consisting of approximately € 413 M government funds, approximately € 311 M basic budget, and approximately € 132 M from external grants. The university spent approximately € 529 M in payroll costs and approximately € 326 M in other expenditures. Additionally, the university will receive another € 150 M in research grants, distributed over 5 years from 2007 onwards, due to the German Universities Excellence Initiative. In the fiscal year 2007, the university for the first time raised approximately € 19 M through tuition fees, exclusively to further improve the conditions of study. Only approximately € 9.5 M of these were spent at the end of the year and the rectorate had to urge the faculties to make use of their additional means.

Research

Among historical scientific achievements of Heidelberg researchers features prominently the invention of spectroscopy, and of the Bunsen burner; the discovery of chemical elements Caesium and Rubidium; the identification of the absolute point of ebullition; and the identification and isolation of nicotine as the main pharmacologically active component of tobacco. Modern scientific psychiatry; psychopharmacology; psychiatric genetics; environmental physics; and modern sociology Moreover, Heidelberg researchers invented the process of Plastination to preserve body tissue, conducted the first successful transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells, and recently developed a new strategy for a vaccination in order to prevent certain forms of cancer.

Today, the university puts an emphasis on natural sciences and medicine, but it retains its traditions with highly ranked faculties of humanities and social sciences. The ''Marsilius Kolleg'', named after Marsilius of Inghen, was established in 2007 as a Center for Advanced Study to promote interdisciplinary dialogue and research especially between the sciences and the humanities. Other institutes such as the ''Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing'', the ''Interdisciplinary Center for Neurosciences'', the ''Heidelberg Center for American Studies'', and the ''South Asia Institute'' also build a bridge between faculties and thus emphasize the concept of a comprehensive university.

Noted regular publications of the Center for Astronomy include the Gliese catalogue of nearby stars, the fundamental catalogues FK5 and FK6 and the annual published Apparent places, a high precision catalog with pre-calculated positions for over 3,000 stars for each day. The Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research publishes the annual Conflict Barometer, which describes the recent trends in global conflict developments, escalations, de-escalations, and settlements. Regular publications by the Max Planck Institute for International Law include the "Heidelberg Journal for International Law", the "Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law"; the "Journal of the History of International Law"; the "Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law"; and the semi-annual bibliography "Public International Law".

The German Research Foundation (DFG) currently funds twelve long-term Collaborative Research Centers (SFB) with a duration of up to 12 years at Heidelberg, four Priority Programs (SPP) with a duration of six years, two Research Units (FOR) with a duration of up to six years, as well as numerous individual projects at the university's faculties and institutes. As a result of the German Universities Excellence Initiative, two Clusters of Excellence are funded with € 6.5 M each - "''Cellular Networks: From Molecular Mechanisms to Quantitative Understanding of Complex Functions''", and "''Asia and Europe in a Global Context: Shifting Asymmetries in Cultural Flows''"

International cooperations

Heidelberg is a founding member of the League of European Research Universities, the Coimbra Group, and the European University Association, and it participates in 7 European exchange schemes for researchers and students, such as ERASMUS. Furthermore it is actively involved in the development of the German-speaking Andrássy University of Budapest, and co-runs the school of German law at the Jagiellonian University of Kraków. Beyond Europe, the university and its faculties maintain specific agreements with 58 partner universities in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia and the Russian Federation. In total, the Higher Education Compass of the German Rector's Conference lists staff and student exchange agreements as well as research cooperations with 236 universities worldwide.

Student life

The university offers a broad variety of athletics, such as teams in 16 different court sports from American football to volleyball, courses in 11 different martial arts, 26 courses in physical fitness and body building, 9 courses in health sports from aquapower to yoga, and groups in 12 different dance styles. Moreover equestrian sports, sailing, rowing, skiing in the French alps, track and field, swimming, fencing, cycling, acrobatics, gymnastics, and much more. Most of the sports are free of charge. Heidelberg’s competition teams are particularly successful in soccer, volleyball, equestrian sports, judo, karate, track and field, and basketball. The track and field team regularly achieves best placings at the German university championships. The University Sports Club men's basketball team, USC Heidelberg, is the championship record holder, won 13 national championships, and is the only university team playing at a professional level in the second division of Germany's national league.

Moreover, the university supports a number of student groups in various fields of interest. Among them are the student parliament AStA, the student councils of the 12 faculties, four drama clubs, the university orchestra Collegium Musicum, four choirs, six student media groups, six groups of international students, nine groups of political parties and NGO’s, several departments of European organizations of students in certain disciplines, four clubs dedicated to fostering international relations and cultural exchange, a chess club, a literature club, a debate society, two student management consulting groups, and four religious student groups.

Heidelberg’s student newspaper "''ruprecht''" is — with editions of more than 10,000 copies — one of Germany’s largest student-run newspapers. It was recently distinguished by the MLP Pro Campus Press Award as Germany’s best student newspaper. The jury, consisting of journalists of major newspapers, commended its “well balanced, though critical attitude”, and its “simply great” layout which “suffices highest professional demands”. The ruprecht is financed entirely by advertising revenues, thus retaining its independence from the university's management. Some very renowned journalists emerged from ''ruprecht''s editorial board. However, the critical online student newspaper "UNiMUT", which is run by the joint student council of the faculties, criticized the ''ruprecht'' often for being conformed, and exceedingly layout-oriented. Heidelberg is also home of Germany’s oldest student law review "''StudZR''". The journal is published quarterly, at the beginning and end of each semester break, and is circulated throughout all of Germany.

Heidelberg hosts 34 student corporations, which were largely founded in the 19th century. Corporations are to some extent comparable to the fraternities in the US. As traditional symbols (couleur) corporation members wear colored caps and ribbons at ceremonial occasions (''Kommers'') and some still practice the traditional academic fencing, a kind of duel, in order to "shape their members for the challenges of life". In the 19th and early 20th century, corporations played an important role in Germany's student life. Today, however, corporations include only a relatively small number of students. Their self-declared mission is to keep academic traditions alive and to create friendships for life. The corporations' often representative 19th century mansions are present throughout the Old Town.

Heidelberg is not least famous for its student night life. Besides the various parties regularly organized by the student councils of the faculties, the semester opening and closing parties of the university, the dormitory parties, and the soirées of Heidelberg's 34 student fraternities, the city, and the metropolitan area even more, offers night life for any taste and budget. Adjacent to University Square is Heidelberg's major night life district, where one pub is placed next to each other. From Thursday on, it is all night very crowded and full of atmosphere. Moreover, Heidelberg has five major discos. The largest of them is located at the New Campus. The city of Mannheim, which is about three times as large as Heidelberg, is a 15-minute train ride away, and offers an even more diverse night life, having a broad variety of clubs and bars well-frequented by both Heidelberg's and Mannheim's student community.

Noted people

Alumni and faculty of the university include many founders and pioneers of academic disciplines, and a large number of internationally acclaimed philosophers, poets, jurisprudents, theologians, natural and social scientists. 30 Nobel Laureates, at least 18 Leibniz Laureates, and two "Oscar" winners have been associated with the University of Heidelberg. Eight Nobel Laureates received the award during their tenure at Heidelberg.

Besides several Federal Ministers of Germany and Prime Ministers of German States, five Chancellors of Germany have attended the university, the latest being Helmut Kohl, the "Chancellor of the Reunification". Heads of State or Government of Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, Nicaragua, Serbia, Thailand, a British Crown Prince, a Secretary General of NATO and a director of the International Peace Bureau have also been educated at Heidelberg; among them Nobel Peace Laureates Charles Albert Gobat and Auguste Beernaert. Former university affiliates in the field of religion include Pope Pius II, Cardinals, Bishops, and with Philipp Melanchthon and Zacharias Ursinus two key leaders of Protestant Reformation. Outstanding university affiliates in the legal profession include at least 16 Justices of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, a President of the Federal Court of Justice of Germany, a President of the Federal Labor Court of Germany, a President of the International Court of Justice, two Presidents of the European Court of Human Rights, a President of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, a Vice President of the International Criminal Court, two Attorney Generals of Germany, an Advocate General at the European Court of Justice, and a British Law Lord. In business, Heidelberg alumni and faculty notably (co-)founded or presided over ABB Group; Astor corporate enterprises; BASF; BDA; Daimler AG; Deutsche Bank; EADS; Krupp AG; Siemens AG; and Thyssen AG.

Alumni in the field of arts include classical composer Robert Schumann, philosophers Ludwig Feuerbach and Edmund Montgomery, poet Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff and writers Christian Friedrich Hebbel, Gottfried Keller, Heinrich Hoffmann, Sir Muhammad Iqbal, José Rizal, W. Somerset Maugham, Jean Paul, and Literature Nobel Laureate Carl Spitteler. Amongst Heidelberg alumni in other disciplines are the "Father of Psychology" Wilhelm Wundt, the "Father of Physical Chemistry" J. Willard Gibbs, the "Father of American Anthropology" Franz Boas, Dmitri Mendeleev, who created the periodic table of elements, inventor of the two-wheeler principle Karl Drais, Alfred Wegener, who discovered the continental drift, as well as political theorist Hannah Arendt, political scientist Carl Joachim Friedrich, and sociologists Karl Mannheim, Robert E. Park and Talcott Parsons.

Philosophers Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Karl Jaspers, Hans-Georg Gadamer, and Jürgen Habermas served as university professors, as did also the pioneering scientists Hermann von Helmholtz, Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, Gustav Robert Kirchhoff, Emil Kraepelin, the founder of scientific psychiatry, and outstanding social scientists such as Max Weber, the founding father of modern sociology.

Present faculty include Medicine Nobel Laureates Bert Sakmann (1991) and Harald zur Hausen (2008), 7 Leibniz Laureates, former Justice of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany Paul Kirchhof, and Rüdiger Wolfrum, the former President of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.

In fiction and popular culture

In 1880, Mark Twain wrote as detailed as humorously about his impressions of Heidelberg's student life in ''A Tramp Abroad''. He painted a picture of the university as a school for aristocrats, whose students pursued a dandy-like lifestyle, and described the great influence the student corporations exerted on the whole Heidelberg student life.

In William Somerset Maugham's 1915 masterpiece novel ''Of Human Bondage'', he described the one-year stay of the protagonist Philip Carey at the University of Heidelberg, in a largely autobiographical way. Heidelberg also featured in the respective film versions of the novel, released in 1934 (starring Leslie Howard as Philip, and Bette Davis as Mildred), 1946 (with Paul Henreid and Eleanor Parker in the lead roles), and 1964 (with Laurence Harvey and Kim Novak in the lead roles).

The 1927 silent film ''The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg'', based on Wilhelm Meyer-Förster's play ''Alt Heidelberg'' (1903), starring Ramon Novarro and Norma Shearer, continued Mark Twain's image of Heidelberg, showing the story of a German prince who comes to Heidelberg to study there, but falls in love with his innkeeper's daughter. Having been very popular in the first half of the 20th century, it presents the typical student life of the 19th and early 20th century, and it is today considered a masterpiece of the late silent film era. MGM's 1954 color remake The Student Prince, featuring Mario Lanza, is based on Sigmund Romberg's operetta version of the story.

In Bernhard Schlink's semi-autobiographical 1995 novel ''The Reader'', Heidelberg University is one of the main scenes of part II. Nearly a decade after his affair with an older woman came to a mysterious end, Michael Berg, a law student at the university, re-encounters his former lover as she defends herself in a war-crime trial, which he observes as part of a seminar. The university is also featured in the Academy Award-winning 2008 film version The Reader, starring Kate Winslet, David Kross and Ralph Fiennes.

In 2000, the university was the main scene of the award-winning German thriller ''Anatomy''. The medical student Paula Henning (played by Franka Potente) wins a place in a summer course at the prestigious Heidelberg Medical School. When the body of a young man she met on the train turns up on her dissection table, she begins to investigate the mysterious circumstances surrounding his death, uncovering a gruesome conspiracy perpetrated by an antihippocratic secret society operating within the university.

Notes and references

References

See also

Further reading

External links

University of Heidelberg

University of Heidelberg

Heidelberg Alumni International

Photo Gallery #1

Photo Gallery #2

Photo Gallery #3

City of Heidelberg

Heidelberg.de

Old Heidelberg.com

Miscellaneous

Drink! The Student Prince@youtube

Matriculation Register (1386 - 1920)

Heidelberg Category:Heidelberg Heidelberg Category:1386 establishments Heidelberg

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Coordinates	54°5′20″N18°25′10″N
name	Shirin Ebadi شيرين عبادى
birth date	June 21, 1947
birth place	Hamadan, Iran
death date
occupation	Lawyer Judge
known for	Defenders of Human Rights Center
alma mater	University of Tehran
spouse
children	Negar (b. 1980) Nargess (b. 1983)
residence	London, England
nationality	Iranian
religion	Shia Islam
awards	Nobel Peace Prize (2003)
parents	Mohammad Ali Ebadi Minu Yamini
signature	ShirinEbadi Signature.svg }}

Shirin Ebadi ( ''Širin Ebādi''; born 21 June 1947) is an Iranian lawyer, a former judge and human rights activist and founder of Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran. On 10 October 2003, Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her significant and pioneering efforts for democracy and human rights, especially women's, children's, and refugee rights. She was the first ever Iranian, and the first Muslim woman to have received the prize.

In 2009, Ebadi's award was allegedly confiscated by Iranian authorities, though this was later denied by the Iranian government. If true, she would be the first person in the history of the Nobel Prize whose award has been forcibly seized by state authorities.

Ebadi lives in Tehran, but she has been in exile in Canada since June 2009 due to the increase in persecution of Iranian citizens who are critical of the current regime.

Life and early career as a judge

Ebadi was born in Hamadan from an ethnic Persian family, Iran. Her father, Mohammad Ali Ebadi, was the city's chief notary public and a professor of commercial law. Her family moved to Tehran in 1948.

She was admitted to the law department of the University of Tehran in 1965 and in 1969, upon graduation, passed the qualification exams to become a judge. After a six-month internship period, she officially started her judging career in March 1969. She continued her studies in University of Tehran in the meanwhile and received a master's degree in law in 1971. In 1975, she became the first woman to preside over a legislative court.

Following the Iranian revolution in 1979, conservative clerics insisted that Islam prohibits women from becoming judges and Ebadi was demoted to a secretarial position at the branch where she had previously presided. She and other female judges protested and were assigned to the slightly higher position of "law expert." She eventually requested early retirement as the situation remained unchanged. However there still are females as judges and high judicial officials.

As her applications were repeatedly rejected, Ebadi was not able to practice as a lawyer until 1993, while she already had a law office permit. She used this free time to write books and many articles in Iranian periodicals, which made her widely known.

Ebadi as a lawyer

Ebadi now lectures law at the University of Tehran and is a campaigner for strengthening the legal status of children and women, the latter of which played a key role in the May 1997 landslide presidential election of the reformist Mohammad Khatami.

As a lawyer, she is known for taking up cases of dissident figures who have fallen foul of the judiciary. She has represented the family of Dariush Forouhar, a dissident intellectual and politician who was found stabbed to death at his home. His wife, Parvaneh Eskandari, was also killed at the same time.

The couple were among several dissidents who died in a spate of grisly murders that terrorized Iran's intellectual community. Suspicion fell on extremist hard-liners determined to put a stop to the more liberal climate fostered by President Khatami, who championed freedom of speech. The murders were found to be committed by a team of the employees of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence, whose head, Saeed Emami, allegedly committed suicide in jail before being brought to court.

Ebadi also represented the family of Ezzat Ebrahim-Nejad, the only person (a conscript soldier) killed in the Iranian student protests of July 1999. In the process, in 2000 Ebadi was accused of distributing the videotaped confession of Amir Farshad Ebrahimi, a former member of the Ansar-e Hezbollah. Ebrahimi accused his former associates of attacking members of President Khatami's cabinet on orders of high-level conservative authorities. Ebadi claimed that she had only videotaped Amir Farshad Ebrahimi's confessions in order to present them to the court. This case was named "Tape makers" by hardliners who questioned the credibility of his videotaped deposition as well as his motives. Ebadi and Rohami were sentenced to five years in jail and suspension of their law licenses for sending Ebrahimi's videotaped deposition to Islamic President Khatami and the head of the Islamic judiciary. The sentences were later vacated by the Islamic judiciary's supreme court, but they did not forgive Ebarahimi's videotaped confession and sentenced him to 48 months jail, including 16 months in solitary confinement. This case brought increased focus on Iran from human rights groups abroad.

Ebadi has also defended various child abuse cases and a few cases dealing with bans of periodicals (including the cases of Habibollah Peyman, Abbas Marufi, and Faraj Sarkouhi). She has also established two non-governmental organizations in Iran with western funding, the ''Society for Protecting the Rights of the Child'' (SPRC) and the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC).

She also helped in the drafting of the original text of a law against physical abuse of children, which was passed by the Iranian parliament in 2002.

Political views

In her book ''Iran Awakening'', Ebadi explains her political/religious views on Islam, democracy and gender equality

In the last 23 years, from the day I was stripped of my judgeship to the years of doing battle in the revolutionary courts of Tehran, I had repeated one refrain: an interpretation of Islam that is in harmony with equality and democracy is an authentic expression of faith. It is not religion that binds women, but the selective dictates of those who wish them cloistered. That belief, along with the conviction that change in Iran must come peacefully and from within, has underpinned my work."

At the same time, Ebadi expresses a nationalist love of Iran and a critical view of the Western world. She opposed the pro-Western Shah, initially supported the Islamic Revolution, remembers the CIA's 1953 overthrow of prime minister Mohammad Mosaddeq with rage.

At a press conference shortly after the Peace Prize announcement, Ebadi herself explicitly rejected foreign interference in the country's affairs: "The fight for human rights is conducted in Iran by the Iranian people, and we are against any foreign intervention in Iran."

Subsequently, Ebadi has openly defended the Islamic regime's nuclear development programme:

Aside from being economically justified, it has become a cause of national pride for an old nation with a glorious history. No Iranian government, regardless of its ideology or democratic credentials, would dare to stop the program.

Ebadi also expressed indirectly her views on Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In April 2010, Associated Students of the University of California passed A Bill to In Support of UC Divestment From War Crimes, calling UC to break ties with companies providing technology to the army of Israel. Shirin Ebadi, together with three other Peace Prize laureates, supported the bill.

Nobel Peace Prize

On 10 October 2003, Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her courageous efforts for democracy and human rights, especially for the rights of women and children. The selection committee praised her as a "courageous person" who "has never heeded the threat to her own safety". Now she travels abroad lecturing in the West. She is against a policy of forced regime change. Her husband, Javad Tavassolian, was an advisor to President Khatami.

The decision of the Nobel committee surprised some observers worldwide – then Pope John Paul II was the bookies' favourite to scoop the prestigious award amid feverish speculation that he was nearing death. Some observers, mostly supporters of Pope John Paul II, viewed her selection as a calculated and political one, along the lines of the selection of Lech Wałęsa and Mikhail Gorbachev, among others, for the Peace Award. They claimed that none of Ebadi's previous activities were directly related to the stated goals for the award of the Nobel Peace Prize, as originally stated by Alfred Nobel, and that according to his will the prize should have been awarded "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses".

She presented a book entitled, ''Democracy, human rights, and Islam in modern Iran: Psychological, social and cultural perspectives'' (2003,Bergen: Fagbokforlaget), to the Nobel Committee. The volume documents the historical and cultural basis of democracy and human rights from Cyrus and Darius, 2,500 years ago to Mohammad Mossadeq, the popular Prime Minister of modern Iran who nationalized the oil industry.

In Iran, officials of the Islamic Republic were either silent or critical of the selection of Ebadi, calling it a political act by a pro-western institution and were also critical when Ebadi did not cover her hair at the Nobel award ceremony. IRNA reported it in few lines that the evening newspapers and the Iranian state media waited hours to report the Nobel committee's decision—and then only as the last item on the radio news update. Reformist officials are said to have "generally welcomed the award", but "come under attack for doing so." Reformist president Mohammad Khatami did not officially congratulate Ms. Ebadi and stated that although the scientific Nobels are important, the Peace Prize is "not very important" and was awarded to Ebadi on the basis of "totally political criteria". Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi, the only official to initially congratulate Ebadi, defended the president saying "abusing the President's words about Ms. Ebadi is tantamount to abusing the prize bestowed on her for political considerations".

Post-Nobel prize

Since receiving the Nobel Prize Ebadi has lectured, taught and received awards in different countries, issued statements and defended people accused of political crimes in Iran. She has traveled to and spoken to audiences in India, the United States, and other countries; released her autobiography in an English translation; participated in the Nobel Women's Initiative along with five other Nobel Laureates.

Threats

In April 2008 she told Reuters news agency that Iran's human rights record had regressed in the past two years. and agreed to defend Baha’is arrested in Iran in May 2008.

In April 2008 Ebadi released a statement saying: "Threats against my life and security and those of my family, which began some time ago, have intensified," and that the threats warned her against making speeches abroad, and defending Iran's minority Baha'i community. In August 2008, the IRNA news agency published an article attacking Ebadi's links to the Bahá'í Faith and accused her of seeking support from the West. It also criticized Ebadi for defending homosexuals, appearing without the Islamic headscarf abroad, questioning Islamic punishments, and "defending CIA agents." It accused her daughter, Nargess Tavassolian, of conversion to the Bahá'í faith, a capital offense in the Islamic Republic. Her daughter believes "the government wanted to scare my mother with this scenario." Ebadi believes the attacks are in retaliation for her agreeing to defend the families of the seven Baha’is arrested in May.

In December 2008, Iranian police shut down the office of a human rights group led by her. Another human rights group, Human Rights Watch, has said it was "extremely worried" about Ebadi's safety.

Seizure

Ebadi said while in London in late November 2009 that her Nobel Peace Prize medal and diploma had been taken from their bank box alongside her Légion d'honneur and a ring she had received from Germany's association of journalists. Ebadi also said her bank account was frozen by authorities. Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Jonas Gahr Støre expressed his "shock and disbelief" at the incident.

Post-Nobel Prize timeline

2003 November – She declared that she would provide legal representation for the family of the murdered freelance photographer Zahra Kazemi.

2004 – During the World Social Forum- Bombay, January 2004 – Ebadi, speaking at a small girls' school run by an NGO, "Sahyog", proposed that 30 January (the day Mahatma Gandhi fell to a Hindu extremist's bullets) be observed as International Day of Non-Violence. This proposal was brought to her from school children in Paris by their Indian teacher Akshay Bakaya. 3 years later Sonia Gandhi and Archbishop Desmond Tutu relayed the idea at the Delhi Satyagraha Convention January 2007, preferring however to propose Gandhi's birthday 2 October. The UN General Assembly on 15 June 2007 adopted 2 October as the International Day of Non-Violence.

2005 Spring – Ebadi taught a course on "Islam and Human Rights" at the University of Arizona's James E. Rogers College of Law in Tucson, Arizona.

2005 Autumn – Ebadi presented a lecture titled "The Role of Women in World Peace" in a Woman's Study Review held at The City University of New York (CUNY), Lehman College.

2005 – Ebadi was voted the world's 12th leading public intellectual in ''The 2005 Global Intellectuals Poll'' by ''Prospect'' (UK).

2006 – Random House released her first book for a Western audience, ''Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope'', with Azadeh Moaveni. A reading of the book was serialised as BBC Radio 4's ''Book of the Week'' in September 2006. American novelist David Ebershoff served as the book's editor.

2006 – Ebadi was one of the founders of The Nobel Women's Initiative along with sister Nobel Peace Laureates Betty Williams, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Wangari Maathai, Jody Williams and Rigoberta Menchu Tum. Six women representing North America and South America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa decided to bring together their experiences in a united effort for peace with justice and equality. It is the goal of the Nobel Women's Initiative to help strengthen work being done in support of women's rights around the world.

2006 May – Ebadi delivered the Commencement Address at the University of Michigan Law School in Ann Arbor, Michigan and a speech at UC Berkeley.

2006 September – Her presentation of a lecture entitled "Iran Awakening: Human Rights, Women and Islam" drew a sold-out crowd at the University of San Diego's Joan B. Kroc Distinguished Lecture Series.

2007 (12 April) – She gave a presentation on "Peace and Social Justice in a Global World: The Role of Women and Islam" at the Saint Louis University, Saint Louis, MO. She was the Keynote speaker at The Seventh Annual Atlas Week, a week for global awareness.

2007 (30 April) – She gave a presentation on "True Islam: Human Rights and The Roles of Faith" at Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL. She also received an honorary doctorate from the university.

2007 (1 May) – Shirin appeared at the Performing Arts Center at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, at the request of the Persian Students of Cal Poly to give a lecture which mainly dealt with Democracy, Women's Rights, and American relations in Iran.

2007 (17 May) – Ebadi announced that she would defend the Iranian American scholar Haleh Esfandiari, who is jailed in Tehran.

2007 (18 May) – Ebadi presided over the Commencement ceremony of The New School at Madison Square Garden in New York. She gave a speech in Persian which was translated by a translator and she also received an honorary PhD from The New School.

2008 March – Ebadi tells Reuters news agency that Iran's human rights record had regressed in the past two years.

2008 (14 April) – Ebadi released a statement saying "Threats against my life and security and those of my family, which began some time ago, have intensified," and that the threats warned her against making speeches abroad, and defending Iran's minority Baha'i community. 2008 June – Ebadi volunteered to be the lawyer for the arrested Bahá'í leadership of Iran in June.

2008 (7 August) – Ebadi announced ''via'' the Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights that she would defend in court the seven Bahá'í leaders arrested in the spring.

2008 (1 September) – Ebadi published her book ''Refugee Rights in Iran'' exposing the lack of rights given to Afghan refugees living in Iran.

2008 (16 October) – Ebadi was a keynote presenter at Emory University School of Law for the Advancing the Consensus conference celebrating the 60th anniversity of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

2008 (21 December) Ebadi's office of the Center for the Defense of Human Rights raided and closed.

2008 (29 December) – Islamic authorities close Ebadi's Center for Defenders of Human Rights, raiding her private office, seizing her computers and files. Worldwide condemnation of raid.

2009 (1 January) – Pro-regime "demonstrators" attack Ebadi's home and office.

2009 (24 February) – Ebadi spoke on the "Empowering women" plenary session at ISFiT.

2009 (12 June) – Ebadi was at a seminar in Spain at the time of Iranian presidential election. "[W]hen the crackdown began colleagues told her not to come home" and as of October 2009 she has not returned to Iran.

2009 (16 June) – In the midst of nationwide protests against the very surprising and highly suspect election results giving incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a landslide victory, Ebadi calls for new elections in an interview with Radio Free Europe.

2009 (24 September) – Touring abroad to lobby international leaders and highlight the Islamic regime's human rights abuses since June, Ebadi criticizes the British government for putting talks on the Islamic regime's nuclear programme ahead of protesting its brutal suppression of opposition. Noting the British Ambassador attended President Ahmadinejad’s inauguration, she said, “`That’s when I felt that human rights were being neglected. ... Undemocratic countries are more dangerous than a nuclear bomb. It’s undemocratic countries that jeopardise international peace.`” She calls for "the downgrading of Western embassies, the withdrawal of ambassadors and the freezing of the assets of Iran’s leaders."

2009 November – The Iranian authorities seize Ebadi's Nobel medal together with other belongings from her safe-deposit box.

2009 (29 December) – Ebadi’s sister Noushin Ebadi was detained apparently in an effort to silence Ebadi who is abroad. "She was neither politically active nor had a role in any rally. It's necessary to point out that in the past two months she had been summoned several times to the Intelligence Ministry, who told her to persuade me to give up my human rights activities. She has been arrested solely because of my activities in human rights," Ebadi said.

Lawsuits

Lawsuit against the United States

In 2004, Ebadi filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Treasury because of restrictions she faced over publishing her memoir in the United States. American trade laws include prohibitions on writers from embargoed countries. The law also banned American literary agent Wendy Strothman from working with Ebadi. Azar Nafisi wrote a letter in support of Ebadi. Nafisi said that the law infringes on the First Amendment. After a long legal battle, Ebadi won and was able to publish her memoir in the United States.

Lawsuit over non-publication

According to the Associated Press, on 27 August 2007, Ebadi was sued by a Canadian author and political analyst, Shahir Shahidsaless—who writes and publishes in Persian—in U.S. District Court in Manhattan saying she reneged on getting a publisher for a book she had requested him to write under her supervision, titled "A Useful Enemy". The initial suit was dismissed due to lack of jurisdiction of the court, and not the substance of the case, which was never tried. The case is currently being considered at the New York State Court.

Honors and awards

Awarded plate by Human Rights Watch, 1996

Official spectator of Human Rights Watch, 1996

Awarded Rafto Prize, Human Rights Prize in Norway, 2001

Nobel Peace Prize in October, 2003

Women's eNews 21 Leaders for the 21st Century Award, 2004

International Democracy Award, 2004

‘Lawyer of the Year’ award, 2004

Doctor of Laws, Williams College, 2004

Doctor of Laws, Brown University, 2004

Doctor of Laws, University of British Columbia, 2004

Honorary doctorate, University of Maryland, College Park, 2004

Honorary doctorate, University of Toronto, 2004

Honorary doctorate, Simon Fraser University, 2004

Honorary doctorate, University of Akureyri, 2004

Honorary doctorate, Australian Catholic University, 2005

Honorary doctorate, University of San Francisco, 2005

Honorary doctorate, Concordia University, 2005

Honorary doctorate, The University of York, The University of Canada, 2005

Honorary doctorate, Université Jean Moulin in Lyon, 2005

UCI Citizen Peacebuilding Award, 2005

The Golden Plate Award by the Academy of Achievement, 2005

Legion of Honor award, 2006

Honorary doctorate, Loyola University Chicago, 2007

Honorary Doctorate The New School University, 2007

One of ''A Different View'''s 15 Champions of World Democracy, 2008

Award for the Global Defence of Human Rights, International Service Human Rights Award, 2009

Honorary Doctor of Laws, Marquette University, 2009 Honorary Doctor of Law, University of Cambridge, 2011

See also

Iranian women

List of famous Persian women

Intellectual movements in Iran

Persian women's movement

Islamic feminism

List of Iranian intellectuals

References

Further reading

External links

Shirin Ebadi at the Nobel Prize website

Shirin Ebadi's autobiography on the Nobel Prize website

Shirin Ebadi's Nobel lecture

Nobel Women's Initiative

Pictures of Shirin Ebadi's visit to the College Historical Society

Quotes from Shirin Ebadi Speeches

Nermeen Shaikh, ''AsiaSource Interview with Shirin Ebadi''

Picture Gallery

TIME.com: 10 Questions for Shirin Ebadi

Shirin Ebadi and her view on Nuclear Weapons

"Iran's Quiet Revolution" Winter 2007 article from ''Ms.'' magazine about activism and feminism in Iran.

Speech in Seattle

David Batty in conversation with Shirin Ebadi, ''"If you want to help Iran, don't attack"'', The Guardian, 13 June 2008

Video: Shirin Ebadi on 'What's Ahead for Iran', Asia Society, New York, 3 March 2010

Shirin Ebadi Presses Iran on Human Rights and Warns Against International Sanctions – video by ''Democracy Now!''

Shirin Ebadi interviewed by Alyssa McDonald on New Statesman

Shirin Ebadi, avocate pour les droits de l'homme en Iran Jean Albert, Ludivine Tomasso and edited by Jacqueline Duband, Emilie Dessens

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