In the presence of the rector and the dean of the University of Athens, Professor George Dimitriadis, head of the 2nd Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Athens Hospital, praised Roden’s scientific achievements. In his laudatory address, he emphasized that the intensive scientific discourse had advanced many projects with regard to metabolic diseases. From this, successful collaborations have evolved between the medical faculty of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and the medical faculty of the Heinrich Heine University of Düsseldorf. “I feel very honored to receive this award – especially since it is from a university in the city where academic teaching first took place,” said Professor Roden, director and chairman of the board of the DDZ, at the festive ceremony in Athens.

Biography
Professor Michael Roden is professor of Internal Medicine, Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases at the University of Düsseldorf, director of the Department of Endocrinology and Diabetology at Düsseldorf University Hospital, and scientific director of the German Diabetes Center (DDZ, Leibniz Center for Diabetes Research). Since 2009 he has been one of the speakers of the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD) and coordinates the German Diabetes Study, which examines patients with newly diagnosed diabetes.
Professor Roden earned his doctorate and received his specialist training in internal medicine, endocrinology and metabolism in Vienna. As Max Kade fellow, he conducted research at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. He was associate professor and senior physician in the Department of Internal Medicine III, Medical University of Vienna, and subsequently head of the 1st Medical Department and coordinator of Hanusch Hospital, a teaching hospital in Vienna. 
Roden is (co)author of more than 400 peer-reviewed papers and editor of the book "Clinical Diabetes Research” (Wiley, London). He received the Ferdinand Bertram Award (2001), the International Novartis Award USA/Europe (2004), the ESCI Award of the European Society for Clinical Investigation (2006), the Oskar Minkowski Prize of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD, 2006) and the Somogyi Award (2014). Roden is an adjunct professor at Christian Medical College, Vellore, India, honorary doctor of the medical faculty of the University of Belgrade, an associate editor of Diabetologia and J. Mol. Med., an editorial board member of Diabetes and Am. J. Physiol and board member and honorary treasurer of the EASD.