The award was presented by the speaker of the Rudolf Diesel Board of Trustees, Prof. Dr. Alexander Wurzer, in the presence of around 100 invited guests from the worlds of science, business, and politics. The Diesel Board of Trustees, which acts as an electoral body, consists of around sixty technology directors from world market-leading, medium-sized technology companies.
With this year’s award, the German Institute for Inventions honors the life’s work of Professor Wahlster, who has been a pioneer and bridge builder between excellent AI research and industrial application for over four decades.
He was appointed to the first German Chair of Artificial Intelligence at Saarland University in 1982 at the age of just 29. His work on language comprehension, translation systems, and dialogue technologies laid the foundation for today’s voice assistants and chatbots. As a pioneer of Industry 4.0, he not only coined the term in 2010, but also developed key concepts for the fourth industrial revolution – with a global impact. As a result of his contributions, Professor Wahlster is one of the most influential figures in European AI research.
In her laudatory speech, Dr. Diana Taubert, Managing Director of ETL IP Patentanwaltsgesellschaft mbH, paid tribute to Wahlster’s extraordinary role in the German innovation landscape:
“You are not only a pioneer of artificial intelligence – you are also an architect of innovation structures, a bridge builder between research and application, an enabler in the best sense of the word.” She emphasized that Prof. Wahlster has not only played a key role in shaping technological developments, but also ethical and normative standards – in ethics committees, standardization bodies, and public debates, “His work shows what is possible when curiosity meets structure, when excellence meets responsibility, and when vision meets implementation,” continued Dr. Taubert.
Prof. Dr. Antonio Krüger, CEO of DFKI and former doctoral student of Wolfgang Wahlster, congratulated Prof. Wahlster on behalf of the entire organization:
“The award of the Rudolf Diesel Medal not only recognizes the extraordinary scientific life work of Wolfgang Wahlster, but also his tireless commitment to innovations that enable the transfer of research into practice. Without his visionary strength and strategic foresight, DFKI would not be what it is today – one of the leading AI institutions worldwide.”
Since its introduction in 1953, the Rudolf Diesel Medal has been awarded to outstanding personalities from the IT world such as Konrad Zuse, Wolfgang Giloi, and Andreas Grünberg.
Hasso Plattner, Renate Pilz, and August-Wilhelm Scheer have also been honored.
Even after handing over his operational responsibility as CEO of DFKI in 2019, Professor Wahlster remains closely associated with the research center: as strategic chief advisor to management, a multi-supervisory board member, and a scientific mentor to numerous deep tech startups and innovation institutions.
About the Rudolf Diesel Medal
Since 1953, the Rudolf Diesel Medal – Europe's oldest innovation prize – has been awarded in memory of the innovator Rudolf Diesel for commercially successful, entrepreneurial innovation achievements. The award honors entrepreneurial personalities and companies who have demonstrated both their inventive spirit and their ability to successfully implement ideas in business.