The Gutenberg-Gesellschaft in Mainz e.V. extends its warmest congratulations to its board member Frank Mittelbach: On March 19, 2026, Masaryk University in Brno (Czech Republic) awarded him an honorary doctorate in computer science. Together with physician Prof. Jakub Tolar, Mittelbach was honored for his life’s work—work that has shaped how scientific texts are created, designed, and made accessible worldwide.

The ceremony took place in the Karel Engliš Grand Auditorium of the Faculty of Law. After the deans who nominated them introduced the laureates, both took the traditional academic oath and received diplomas as well as gold commemorative medals. Rector Martin Bareš emphasized that the appointments had been confirmed unanimously and honored the long-standing ties of both honorees to the university.

Frank Mittelbach has led research and development efforts related to LaTeX, the open-source system for professional typesetting and structured documents, for over four decades. Masaryk University highlights three aspects in particular: typographic quality, innovation in document and software engineering, and a strong commitment to accessibility, ensuring that complex scientific content is freely available and usable by as many people as possible. In his acceptance speech, Mittelbach emphasised that the award was not only for him personally, but also for the international open-source and LaTeX community, which has continuously improved scientific communication for years.

For the Gutenberg Society, this honour is about more than academia: LaTeX stands for the connection between content, form and the dissemination of knowledge — and thus for a core concern that ties in directly with Gutenberg’s media revolution. Just as the printing press created new audiences, LaTeX continues to ensure that research worldwide can be published precisely, reliably and reproducibly — and increasingly, in an accessible manner.

We warmly congratulate Frank Mittelbach and thank him for his dedication on the board and beyond.