Technical University of Denmark

DTU was founded in 1829 as the "College of Advanced Technology" (Danish: Den Polytekniske Læreanstalt). The Physicist Hans Christian Ørsted, at that time a professor at the University of Copenhagen, was one of the driving forces behind this initiative. He was inspired by the École Polytechnique in Paris, France which Ørsted had visited as a young scientist. The new institution was inaugurated on 5 November 1829 with Ørsted becoming its Principal, a position he held until his death in 1851.

The first home of the new college consisted of two buildings located in Studiestræde and St. Pederstræde in the center of Copenhagen. Although these buildings were expanded several times, they eventually became inadequate for the requirements of the college. In 1890 a new building complex was completed and inaugurated located in Sølvgade. The new buildings were designed by the architect Johan Daniel Herholdt.

In 1903, the College of Advanced Technology commenced the education of electrical engineers in addition to that of the construction engineers, the production engineers, and the mechanical engineers who already at that time were being educated at the college.

In the 1920s, space again became insufficient and in 1929 the foundation stone was laid for a new school at Østervold. Completion of this building was delayed by World War II and it was not completed before 1954.

From 1933, the institution was officially known as Danmarks tekniske Højskole (DtH), which commonly was translated into English, as the 'Technical University of Denmark'. On 1 April 1994, in connection with the joining of Danmarks Ingeniørakademi (DIA) and DTH, the Danish name was changed to Danmarks Tekniske Universitet, this done to include the word 'University' thus giving rise to the initials DTU by which the university is commonly known today. The formal name, Den Polytekniske Læreanstalt, Danmarks Tekniske Universitet, however, still includes the original name.

In 1960 a decision was made to move the College of Advanced Technology to new and larger facilities in Lyngby north of Copenhagen. They were inaugurated on 17 May 1974.

On 23 and 24 November 1967, the University Computing Center hosted the NATO Science Committee's Study Group first meeting discussing the newly coined term "Software Engineering".

On 1 January 2007, the university was merged with the following Danish research centers: Forskningscenter Risø, Danmarks Fødevareforskning, Danmarks Fiskeriundersøgelser (from 1 January 2008: National Institute for Aquatic Resources; DTU Aqua), Danmarks Rumcenter, and Danmarks Transport-Forskning.

DTU Engineering Technology

DTU Engineering Technology is the university's graduate engineering department (Danish: Center for Diplomingeniøruddannelse). Its facilities are located in Ballerup across 42.000 m2 (50.232 sq yd) of space designed by PLH Architects.

The institution was first established in 1881, as an independent university college known as Copenhagen University College of Engineering (Danish: Ingeniørhøjskolen i København). The University College of Engineering merged with DTU in 2013, at which point it became the school's graduate engineering department.

Research centers

Center for Electron Nanoscopy

The Center for Electron Nanoscopy (Danish: Center for Elektronnanoskopi, CEN) is a center for electron microscopy within the university. Inaugurated in December 2007, the institute was funded by a donation of DKK100 million from the A.P. Møller and Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller Foundation. DTU CEN houses seven electron microscopes built by FEI Company ranging from a standard scanning electron microscope to two highly specialized Titan transmission electron microscopes. The microscopes are available for use by both in-house and external users. They are housed in a new building designed especially for the microscopes, 314, and the offices are located on the first floor of the neighbouring building, 307.

Arctic research

The technical university is an active member of the University of the Arctic. UArctic is an international cooperative network based in the Circumpolar Arctic region, consisting of more than 200 universities, colleges, and other organizations with an interest in promoting education and research in the Arctic region.

Controversy

DTU was the subject of controversy in 2009 because the (then) institute director of the Department of Chemistry, O.W. Sørensen, was a high-ranking member of Scientology. In relation to this, the university was accused of violating the principles of free speech by threatening to fire employees, among them Rolf W. Berg, who voiced their criticism of the institute director. On 7 April 2010, the successor of Sørensen was announced, at a department meeting, as Erling Stenby, who officially took over as Director on 1 May 2010.