Wolfgang Wahlster (born February 2, 1953) is a German

Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech ...

researcher. He was CEO and Scientific Director of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence and full professor of

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

at Saarland University,

Saarbrücken Saarbrücken (; french: link=no, Sarrebruck ; Rhine Franconian: ''Saarbrigge'' ; lb, Saarbrécken ; lat, Saravipons, lit=The Bridge(s) across the Saar river) is the capital and largest city of the state of Saarland, Germany. Saarbrücken is ...

. Wahlster remains Chief Executive Advisor of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence. In May 2019, he was honored by the

Gesellschaft für Informatik The German Informatics Society (GI) (german: Gesellschaft für Informatik) is a German professional society for computer science, with around 20,000 personal and 250 corporate members. It is the biggest organized representation of its kind in the ...

as one of 10 most important heads of German Artificial Intelligence history. He is sometimes called the inventor of the "

Industry 4.0 The Fourth Industrial Revolution, 4IR, or Industry 4.0, conceptualizes rapid change to technology, industries, and societal patterns and processes in the 21st century due to increasing interconnectivity and smart automation. The term has bee ...

" term. Wahlster was one of the initiators of the Hermes Award, given each year since 2004 at the Hannover Messe and for many years was the Chairman of the Hermes Award Jury. In 2016, he was elected to the University Council of the

Technische Universität Darmstadt The Technische Universität Darmstadt (official English name Technical University of Darmstadt, sometimes also referred to as Darmstadt University of Technology), commonly known as TU Darmstadt, is a research university in the city of Darmstadt ...

Education

Wahlster graduated from the Max-Planck Gymnasium in Delmenhorst. From 1972 to 1977 he studied computer science and theoretical linguistics at the

University of Hamburg The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vo ...

, where he received his diploma in 1977. In 1981 he received his doctorate in computer science from the University of Hamburg.

Awards and recognition

Wahlster was awarded the ''

Deutscher Zukunftspreis The German Future Prize award is considered one of the most prestigious conferred for science and innovation within Germany. The award is worth 250,000 euros The euro (symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the ...

'' ("German Future Award") in 2001 and has been a foreign member of the Class for Engineering Sciences of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) is one of the royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special responsibility for prom ...

since 2003. In 2004, he was elected as a fellow of the

.GI-Fellow citation
retrieved 2012-03-09. In 2020, Wahlster was awarded an honorary title doctor honoris causa of Czech Technical University (CTU) in Prague and in 2021 elected as an honorary foreign member of the Engineering Academy of the Czech Republic (EACR).

External links

Wahlster
at the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence

References

1953 births Living people Artificial intelligence researchers German computer scientists Fellows of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Recipients of the Saarland Order of Merit Academic staff of Technische Universität Darmstadt Fellows of the European Association for Artificial Intelligence Presidents of the Association for Computational Linguistics University of Hamburg alumni {{Compu-bio-stub