Frank Mittelbach

Germany

Frank Mittelbach is a world-renowned expert in the field of informatics. Since the 1980s, Frank Mittelbach has been involved in research and development in the fields of digital typography, system design, and macro programming for computer typesetting, areas that have also been developed at MU over many years. In particular these include architecture, design, implementation, and project management of large international open-source software projects (LaTeX2e, LaTeX3, project for generating accessible Tagged PDF documents); research into algorithms and methods for global optimization of automated line and page breaks; design of languages for macro programming or conception, design, and implementation of the expl3 programming language. Joint projects and cooperation between Masaryk University academics and Frank Mittelbach date back to the late 1980s, when he took over responsibility for Leslie Lamport's LaTeX typesetting system project as an extension of Donald Knuth's TeX program. LaTeX was used in Czechoslovakia not only by academics, but also by the dissident movement.

A proposal to grant an honorary degree of Doctor Honoris Causa in the field of Informatics was submitted by the Faculty of Informatics of Masaryk University. The graduation ceremony was held on 19 March 2026. A brochure introducing the nominee was issued on the occasion of the awarding of this honorary doctorate.