Chalmers University of Technology



Chalmers University of Technology (Chalmers tekniska högskola, often shortened to Chalmers) is a Swedish university located in Gothenburg that focuses on research and education in technology, natural science, architecture, maritime and other management areas.

History
The University was founded in 1829 following a donation by William Chalmers, a director of the Swedish East India Company. He donated part of his fortune for the establishment of an "industrial school". Chalmers was run as a private institution until 1937, when the institute became a state-owned university. In 1994, the school was incorporated as an aktiebolag under the control of the Swedish Government, the faculty and the Student Union. Chalmers is one of only three universities in Sweden which are named after a person, the other two being Karolinska Institutet and Linnaeus University.

Departments
Beginning 1 May 2017, Chalmers have 13 departments. In addition to these, Chalmers is home to eight Areas of Advance and six national competence centres in key fields like Mathematical Modelling, Environmental Science and Vehicle Safety (SAFER).
 * Architecture and Civil Engineering
 * Biology and Biological Engineering
 * Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
 * Communication and Learning in Science
 * Computer Science and Engineering
 * Electrical Engineering
 * Industrial and Materials Science
 * Mathematical Sciences
 * Mechanics and Maritime Sciences
 * Microtechnology and Nanoscience
 * Physics
 * Space, Earth and Environment
 * Technology Management and Economics

Research infrastructure
Chalmers University of Technology's research infrastructure includes everything from advanced real or virtual labs to large databases, computer capacity for large-scale calculations and magnificent research facilities.
 * Chalmers Centre for Computational Science and Engineering, C3SE
 * Chalmers Mass Spectrometry Infrastructure, CMSI
 * Chalmers Power Central
 * Chalmers Materials Analysis Laboratory
 * Chalmers Simulator Centre
 * Chemical Imaging Infrastructure
 * Facility for Computational Systems Biology
 * HSB Living Lab
 * Nanofabrication Laboratory
 * Onsala Space Observatory
 * Revere – Chalmers Resource for Vehicle Research
 * The National laboratory in terahertz characterisation

Students
Approximately 40% of Sweden's graduate engineers and architects are educated at Chalmers. Each year, around 250 post graduate degrees are awarded as well as 850 graduate degrees. About 1,000 post-graduate students attend programmes at the university and many students are taking Master of Science engineering programmes and the Master of Architecture programme. From 2007, all Master's programmes are taught in English for both national and international students. This was a result of the adaptation to the Bologna process that started in 2004 at Chalmers (as the first technical university in Sweden). Currently, about 10% of all students at Chalmers come from countries outside Sweden to enroll in a Master's or PhD program.

Around 2,700 students also attend Bachelor of Science engineering programmes, merchant marine and other undergraduate courses at Campus Lindholmen. Chalmers also shares some students with Gothenburg University in the joint IT University project. The IT University focuses exclusively on information technology and offers Bachelor and Master programmes with degrees issued from either Chalmers or Gothenburg University, depending on the programme.

Chalmers confers honorary doctoral degrees to people outside the university who have shown great merit in their research or in society.

Organization
Chalmers is an aktiebolag with 100 shares à 1,000 SEK, all of which are owned by the Chalmers University of Technology Foundation, a private foundation, which appoints the university board and the president. The foundation has its members appointed by the Swedish government (4 to 8 seats), the departments appoints one member, the student union appoints one member and the president automatically gains one chair. Each department is led by a department head, usually a member of the faculty of that department. The faculty senate represents members of the faculty when decisions are taken.

Campuses
In 1937, the school moved from the city center to the new Gibraltar Campus, named after the mansion which owned the grounds, where it is now located. The Lindholmen College Campus was created in the early 1990s and is located on the island Hisingen. Campus Johanneberg and Campus Lindholmen, as they are now called, are connected by bus lines.

Student societies and traditions
Traditions include the graduation ceremony and the Cortège procession, an annual public event.


 * Chalmers Students' Union
 * Chalmers Aerospace Club – founded in 1981. In Swedish frequently also referred to as Chalmers rymdgrupp (roughly Chalmers Space Group). Members of CAC led the ESA funded CACTEX (Chalmers Aerospace Club Thermal EXperiment) project where the thermal conductivity of alcohol at zero gravity was investigated using a sounding rocket.
 * Chalmers Alternative Sports - a student association organizing trips and other activities working to promote alternative sports. Each year arranges the Chalmers Wake a Pond wakeboard contest in the fountain outside the architecture building at Chalmers.
 * Chalmers Ballong Corps
 * Chalmers Baroque Ensemble
 * Chalmers Business Society (CBS)
 * CETAC
 * Chalmers Choir
 * Chalmersspexet – Amateur theater group which has produced new plays since 1948
 * Chalmers International Reception Committee (CIRC)
 * XP
 * Chalmers Program Committee – PU
 * Chalmers Students for Sustainability – [CSS] promoting sustainable development among the students and runs projects, campaigns and lectures.
 * Föreningen Chalmers Skeppsbyggare, Chalmers Naval Architecture Students' Society (FCS)
 * Chalmers Sailing Society

Ties and partnerships
Chalmers has partnerships with major industries mostly in the Gothenburg region such as Ericsson, Volvo, and SKF. The University has general exchange agreements with many European and U.S. universities and maintains a special exchange program agreement with National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) in Taiwan where the exchange students from the two universities maintains offices for, among other things, helping local students with applying and preparing for an exchange year as well as acting as representatives. It contributes also to the Top Industrial Managers for Europe (TIME) network.

A close collaboration between the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Chalmers and ICVR at ETH Zurich is being established. As of 2014, Chalmers University of Technology is a member of the IDEA League network.

Rankings
In the 2011 International Professional Ranking of Higher Education Institutions, which is established on the basis of the number of alumni holding a post of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) or equivalent in one of the Fortune Global 500 companies, Chalmers University of Technology ranked 38th in the world, ranking 1st in Sweden and 15th in Europe.

In the latest QS World University Rankings (2016), the university was ranked 139th in the world (overall). In the latest Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2016/2017, Chalmers ranked 251-300 of all global universities. In the latest Academic Ranking of World Universities (2016), the university was ranked between places 201-300 of all universities in the world.

Notable alumni

 * Gustaf Dalén, Nobel Prize in Physics
 * Leif Johansson, former CEO Volvo
 * Leif Östling, CEO Scania AB
 * Hans Stråberg, former President and CEO of Electrolux
 * Peter Nordin, computer scientist and entrepreneur
 * Sigfrid Edström, director ASEA, president IOC
 * Carl Abraham Pihl, engineer and director of first Norwegian railroad (Hovedbanen).
 * Rune Andersson, Swedish Industrialists, owner of Mellby Gård AB and billionaire
 * Gert Wingårdh, architect
 * Margit Hall, first woman architect in Sweden
 * Abraham Langlet, chemist
 * Abbas Anvari, former chancellor of Sharif University of Technology
 * Christopher Ahlberg, computer scientist and entrepreneur
 * Linn Berggren, artist and former member of Ace of Base
 * Claes-Göran Granqvist, physicist
 * Mats Hillert, metallurgist
 * Ivar Jacobson, computer scientist
 * Erik Johansson (artist), photographic surrealist
 * Olav Kallenberg, probability theorist
 * Hjalmar Kumlien, architect
 * Ingemar Lundström, physicist, chairman of the Nobel Committee for Physics
 * Carl Magnusson, industrial designer and inventor
 * Semir Mahjoub, businessman and entrepreneur
 * Åke Öberg, biomedical scientist
 * Richard Soderberg, businessman, inventor and professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
 * Ludvig Strigeus, computer scientist and entrepreneur
 * Per Håkan Sundell, computer scientist and entrepreneur
 * Jan Wäreby, businessman
 * Jan Johansson, jazz musician

Presidents
Although the official Swedish title for the head is "rektor", the university now uses "President" as the English translation.