Education

1972

Graduation from Max-Planck Gymnasium, Delmenhorst (summa cum laude)

1972 - 1977

Student of Computer Science (Major) and Theoretical Linguistics (2nd Major) at the University of Hamburg, Germany

1977

Diploma degree in Computer Science/Theoretical Linguistics at the University of Hamburg (summa cum laude)

1981

Doctorate in Computer Science at the University of Hamburg (summa cum laude)

1978 - 1981

Postdoctoral Research Associate in the project HAM-RPM at the University of Hamburg (Principal Investigator: Prof. W. v.Hahn)

1981 - 1993

Project Leader and Principal Investigator of the project HAM-ANS at the University of Hamburg

1982

Tenured Associate Professor of Computer Science at Saarland University, Saarbrücken

1984 - present

Tenured Full Professor of Computer Science at Saarland University, Chair of Artificial Intelligence, Saarbrücken

1984

Full Professorship at the University of Karlsruhe offered, declined

1985

Full Professorship at the University of Hamburg offered, declined

1985 - 1995

Member of the Executive Board of the Collaborative Research Center (SFB 314) "Artificial Intelligence Knowledge-based Systems" of the German Research Foundation (DFG)

1987

Visiting Professor at the University of California, Berkeley and first visitor of the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI), Berkeley

1988 - present

Scientific Director of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence DFKI GmbH) in Saarbrücken

1992 - 2000

Member of the Executive Board of the Post-Graduate College on Cognitive Science of the German Research Foundation (DFG)

1993 - 2000

Scientific Director and Principal Investigator of the Verbmobil Project on speech-to-speech translation

1996 - present

Director and CEO of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI GmbH) in Saarbrücken and Kaiserslautern

1996 - 2007

Member of the Executive Board of the Collaborative Research Center (SFB 378) "Resource-adaptive Cognitive Processes" of the German Research Foundation (DFG)

1999 - 2003

Scientific Director and Principal Investigator of the SmartKom Project Consortium on intelligent multimodal dialog systems

2000 - present

Joint Appointment as a Professor in the Department of Computational Linguistics at Saarland University, Saarbrücken

2001 - 2007

Member of the Executive Board of the International Post-Graduate College in Language Technology and Cognitive Systems as a cooperation between Saarland University (Departments of Computational Linguistics, Phonetics, and Computer Science) and the University of Edinburgh (School of Informatics) of the German Research Foundation (DFG)

2004 - present

Scientific Director of the SmartWeb Consortium on mobile multimodal access to semantic web services

2007 - present

Member of the Board of the Cluster of Excellence on Multimodal Computing and Interaction, Saarbrücken, Germany

2009 - present

German Academic Representative on the Executive Steering Board of the European Institute for Innovation and Technology (EIT) ICT Labs, Brussels, Belgium

2009 - present

Member of the Strategy Board of the Leading-Edge Cluster Software Innovations for Digital Enterprises

1972 - 1977

Scholarship of the German National Merit Foundation, that is granted to 0.25% of the German student population (http://www.studienstiftung.org/)

1991

Fritz Winter Award for seminal technical contributions to natural language dialog systems"

1993

AAAI Fellow, elected for pioneering work in the development of dialog systems, and outstanding service to the artificial intelligence community"

1995

Information Technology European Award for WIP a plan-based generation system for adaptive multimedia presentations"

1998

Degree of Doctor Honoris Causa from the Institute of Technology at Linkoeping University, Sweden.

1999

ECCAI Fellow, elected for significant and sustained contributions to the field of artificial intelligence (AI) in Europe"

2000

Karl Heinz Beckurts Award for pioneering and sustained scientific contributions to language technology and intelligent user interfaces and for the transfer of these results into industrial applications"

2001

Second Honorary Doctorate from Darmstadt University of Technology in Germany

2001

2001 German Future Prize - German's highest scientific prize -, presented by the President of Germany, Dr. Johannes Rau for outstanding innovations in language technology and intelligent user interfaces"

2002

Second German Computer Scientist elected Full Member of the German Academy of Sciences and Literature, Mainz

2003

First German computer scientist elected Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm

2004

Elected Full Member of the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina

2004

Appointed Saarland Ambassador by Prime Minister Peter Müller

2004

GI Fellow (German Informatics Association) elected for "outstanding interdisciplinary contributions to computer science, linguistics, and psychology"

2004

Elected Full Member of Acatech, the Council for Engineering Sciences at the Union of the German Academies of Science and Humanities

2004

Inclusion on the "Wall of Fame for Pioneers of Computer Technology" at HNF, the world's largest computer museum, one of the four AI scientists featured on the electronic wall

2005

Appointed as Spokesman of the Saarland Ambassadors

2006

Recipient of the Federal Cross of Merit, First Class, the Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany by President of Germany

2008

Elected Full Member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Berlin

2010

Elected Honorary Member of the GFFT for Outstanding Achievements in Research Transfer, Darmstadt, Germany

2012

Eagle of Saint Venceslao Award, the highest recognition given by the Autonomous Province of Trento, Italy for his research on intelligent user interfaces and more than 15 years of scientific consulting services to the IRST research institute in Trento, Italy

1982

Program Chair of the 6th German Conference on AI, GWAI-82, Bad Honnef

1984 - 1985

Department Chair, Department of Computer Science, Saarland, Saarbrücken

1986 - 1988

Chair of the German AI Association (GI/KI)

1991 - 1993

Chair of the Board of Trustees of IJCAII, International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence

1991

Chair of the Association of German AI Institutions

1992

General Chair of IJCAI-93, Chambery, France

1996

Program Chair of the European Conference on AI, ECAI-96, Budapest

1996 - 2000

Chair of ECCAI, the European Coordination Committee for Artificial Intelligence

1997

Program Co-Chair of the ACL/EACL Conference, Madrid

2000

President of the Association for Computational Linguistics

2002 - present

Trustee of the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI); Berkeley, USA

2003

Program Co-Chair of the Fifth International Conference on Multimodal Interfaces (ICMI), Vancouver

2003 - 2009

Member of the International Scientific Advisory Board of the Alberta Ingenuity Center for Machine Learning at the Univ. of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

2003 - 2010

German Representative of the Highest Advisory Panel for Computer Science/IT Funding Programs, the ISTAG Information Society Technologies Advisory Group of the European Commission

2004 - present

Member of the International ICT Research Advisory Board of Alberta (IRAC), Canada

2005

Program Co-Chair of the International Conference on Intelligent Technologies for Interactive Entertainment (INTETAIN), Madonna di Campiligio

2006 - present

Germany's Chief Academic Advisor for Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the Research Union of the German Government under Federal Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel

2007 - present

Member of the International Scientific Advisory Board of the National Institute of Informatics (NII), Tokyo, Japan

2007

Chair of the Jury for the European ICT Prize of the European Commission

2008 - 2011

Member of the International Scientific Advisory Board of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), SIMTech, Singapore

2008 - present

Member of the SAP Next Business & Technology Advisory Board

2008 - present

Member of the University Council of the University of Hamburg

2008 - present

Chair of the Technology and Innovation Council (TIR) of the Berlin Senate

2009 - 2011

Chair of the International Scientific Advisory Board of the Center for Advanced Security Research (CASED), Darmstadt, Germany

2009 - present

Member of the Governance Board of the Intel Visual Computing Institute

2011 - present

Member of the Scientific Committee of Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK), Trento, Italy

2012 - present

Chair of the International Scientific Advisory Board of the Future Internet Public-Private Partnership of European Commission

2013 - present

Member of the Feigenbaum Prize Committee of AAAI