University of Tartu

The University of Tartu (Estonian: Tartu Ülikool, German: Universität Dorpat) is the national university of Estonia, and the one classical university in Estonia, located in the city of Tartu. The university is a member of the Coimbra Group and was established by King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden in 1632.

Faculty and Alumni

Notable Lecturers & Professors

Nobel laureate

• Wilhelm Ostwald, Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Humanities and Social Sciences

• Jüri Allik, psychologist
• Walter Anderson, folklorist
• Karl Bücher, economist and anthropologist
• Vladimir Dahl, lexicographer
• Wolfgang Drechsler, public administration scholar and political philosopher
• Gustav von Ewers, legal historian
• Lazar Gulkowitsch, Jewish Studies scholar, supported by Albert Einstein
• Theodosius Harnack, Lutheran theologian
• Siim Kallas, economist and politician (EU Commissioner; former Prime Minister)
• Emil Kraepelin, psychologist
• Jaan Kross, writer
• Etienne Laspeyres, economist and statistician
• Wilhelm Lexis, economist, insurance scholar
• Yuri Lotman, semiotician
• Alexander von Oettingen, Lutheran theologian, famous as statistics theoretician
• Ludwig Preller, philologist and antiquarian
• Rein Taagepera, political scientist
• Grigol Tsereteli, classicist and papyrologist
• Adolph Wagner, economist and social policy scholar

Natural Science

• Jaan Einasto, astrophysicist
• Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz, biologist and explorer
• Germain Henri Hess, chemist
• Matthias Jakob Schleiden, botanist
• Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve, astronomer

Notable Students

• Karl Ernst von Baer, zoologist and "father" of embryology
• Anton Hansen Tammsaare, eminent Estonian writer
• Adolf von Harnack, Protestant theologian and science administrator
• Nicolai Hartmann, philosopher
• Germain Henri Hess, (1802?1850), Swiss-born doctor and chemist
• Paul Keres, chess player
• Alberts Kviesis, Latvian statesman
• Heinrich Friedrich Emil Lenz, physicist
• Lennart Meri, Estonian politician
• Leo Michelson, painter
• Juhan Parts, one-time Prime Minister of Estonia (Res Publica)
• Grigol Robakidze, Georgian writer
• Leopold von Schrenck (1826-1894), zoologist, geographer and ethnographer
• Otto Strandman, former Estonian Prime Minister and Head of State
• Valentin Tomberg, "mystic" and "magician"

Honorary Doctorates

• Umberto Eco, semiotician and novelist
• Otto Kaiser, Protestant theologian
• Arvo Pärt, classical composer
• Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama