The title of honorary senator of the University of Ljubljana was bestowed upon Prof. Dr. Miloslav Vojtech for exceptional merit in spreading Slavic and Slovenian studies at Comenius University in Bratislava, and for establishing a joint master’s study programme in Central European studies at the Universities of Ljubljana, Bratislava, Prague and Krakow. He was actively involved in promoting the Slovene language and expanding the related language and culture programme at the Faculty of Arts at Comenius University, where he has been Vice Dean for first- and second-cycle programmes since 2011. The long-standing Slovene language programme was strengthened in the 1990s, and its activities expanded to include translations of Slovenian literature and films, research projects, as well as the last year’s acclaimed exhibition “The Slovenian-Slovak Dimension” (2014–2019). Over the past decade, the Slovene language programme has been conducted at four levels in eight semesters; in the 2007/2008 academic year, it grew into a cultural studies-based Central European Studies programme in the first and second cycles, with Slovene as one of the main languages on offer. Prof. Dr. Vojtech initiated the programme at the Faculty of Arts in Bratislava and served as its coordinator from the very beginning. His work is focused on realising a clearly defined vision and furthering the understanding of national philologies within a broader comparative context, as well as promoting intercultural dialogue between Slavic academic spaces in pedagogical and scientific fields and in cultural diplomacy.

Prof. Dr. Aleš Leonardis graduated from the University of Ljubljana in Electrical Engineering in 1985 and received his master’s degree in 1988. In 1993, he received his doctorate in computer and information science from the then Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing. He has built a successful academic career with a great impact on the research communities in Slovenia and abroad. He has always shared his international standing and recognition with the University of Ljubljana. Throughout this time, he was very active as a teacher. He has taught 12 courses at different universities, mentoring a number of students, including 20 doctoral students. He has made an important contribution with his research into computer vision; his ability to think outside the box led him to a number of new findings, published in more than 315 bibliographic units, including more than 40 articles in the most prestigious publications in the field of computer vision. He established the Visual Cognitive Systems Laboratory at the Faculty of Computer and Information Science of the University of Ljubljana, and strongly integrated it into the international research community. For the past eight years, he has been conducting research at the University of Birmingham, while maintaining excellent relations with the Faculty of Computer and Information Science, where he still lectures and mentors doctoral students. The strong link between the two universities is demonstrated by the visits of young researchers at the University of Birmingham, as well as the jointly organised annual Visual Object Tracking challenge, which is the most important event in the field of visual tracking on a global scale.

Prof. Dr. Christoph Enders was born in 1957 in Stuttgart. After studying law at the University of Freiburg and passing both state exams, he became an associate of Dietrich Murswiek, focusing on state and constitutional law and international environmental protection law. He received his doctorate with a thesis on rules for compensation in immission control laws. In 1996, he received his habilitation with a work on human dignity in the constitutional order. In 1998, Prof. Dr. Enders was invited to the University of Mainz, and since 1998 he has been Head of the Chair of Public Law, Political and Constitutional Theory at the University of Leipzig.

Prof. Dr. Michael Kahlo was born in 1950 in Hanover. He studied at the University of Frankfurt. After passing his second state exam, he worked as a lawyer for several years. In 1988, he received his doctorate with a thesis on the problem of the violation of due conduct in improper crimes of omission. In 1996, he received his habilitation with a paper on legal-philosophical and criminal law evaluations of conduct in crimes of omission. He worked as a university teacher in Frankfurt and Marburg for a short period of time. In 1997, he was invited to the University of Leipzig, where he was Head of the Chair of Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure Law and Philosophy of Law until 2016. 

Since 2001, both professors have been the driving force in organising annual Slovenian-German seminars for students from the law faculties of the Ljubljana and Leipzig universities.