Prof. Michael ten Hompel receives Federal Cross of Merit with Ribbon

"Prof. ten Hompel has helped shape Dortmund's development as a science and technology location to a special degree and far beyond his professional activities, and has left a lasting mark with his great personal commitment," said Mayor Westphal on the occasion of the handover. "With his excellent interdisciplinary research, he has made a significant contribution to establishing logistics as one of seven scientific fields of competence in Dortmund and also to making the Ruhr region internationally visible as a recognized center for logistics and IT."

Prof. ten Hompel has held the professorship for materials handling and warehousing at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at TU Dortmund University since 2000 and is the managing director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics (IML) - until 2018 also for Software and Systems Engineering (ISST). In addition, ten Hompel has been one of the directors of the Lamarr Institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence since 2022. He is a member of the German Academy of Science and Engineering and has been a member of the international "Logistics Hall of Fame" since 2012.

Numerous innovations can be traced back to ten Hompel's research

Today, Prof. ten Hompel's work focuses on Industry 4.0, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence in logistics, logistics system planning, logistics software, warehouse management and the development of material flow systems. Numerous innovations in logistics can be directly traced back to his research. He is considered one of the inventors of shuttle technology in intralogistics, which he and his team have continued to research, most recently resulting in the development of several AI-based vehicles. In addition, ten Hompel is considered one of the fathers of the Internet of Things. In 2010, together with 120 member companies and 11 research institutions, he initiated the BMBF's top cluster EffizienzCluster LogistikRuhr - the largest research project of his career.

Together with his team from Fraunhofer IML, Prof. ten Hompel drove the establishment of a European Blockchain Institute, which the state government is now funding with 7.7 million euros. Blockchain technology stores data in a decentralized, secure and transparent manner. This enables companies to share data securely with each other.

Champion of sustainability

In addition to technological expertise, Prof. ten Hompel's social and ethical commitment is particularly important. For decades, he has been one of the advocates of sustainability with regard to the mobility of people and goods, as well as social responsibility in the age of robotics and data economies.

Prof. ten Hompel has received numerous awards for his work, including the Innovation Award of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia in 2020, and in 2018 he was honored as a "Citizen of the Ruhr" - an award for personalities who have rendered outstanding service to the Ruhr region through their work.

The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany is awarded to German and foreign citizens* for political, economic-social and intellectual achievements, as well as for all special services to the Federal Republic of Germany, such as in the social and charitable fields. It is the only general award of merit in Germany and thus the highest recognition given by the Federal Republic for services to the common good.

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