Arnold Smeulders awarded Honorary Medallion from the UvA

The University of Amsterdam (UvA) has started a new tradition: the annual Medallion Day. On this day each year, the UvA will award Honorary Medallions to individuals who have made a special contribution to the university. At the first Medallion Day, which took place on Friday 25th June, there were six laureates and the Informatic Institute's Arnold Smeulders was one of the winners.

The Laureates are: Arnold Smeulders, Wil van Zijl-Barbe, Tom Verhoek, Arne Brentjes, Willem Bouten and Marcel Levi.

‘The laureates are six very different people working in different fields of activity, but they have important similarities,” explains president of the Executive Board, Geert ten Dam. ‘They all do their work with great passion and commitment. Moreover, all six of them are connectors, bridge-builders, who are not afraid to think outside the box. People like them are invaluable to the university and make the UvA the UvA. The laureates’ commitment and achievements have been extraordinary. By awarding them with UvA Honorary Medallions, we want to demonstrate our appreciation to everyone.”

Arnold Smeulders

Smeulders is an inspiration to many in computer science and AI, but above all he is a pioneer. He has played a crucial role in the success of the Informatics Institute and the very strong research portfolio that the UvA has in the fields of AI, Computational Science, Data Science, and Systems and Networking. He was far ahead of his time in pioneering public-private partnerships in ICT and was at the forefront of the COMMIT programme and ICAI.

In the field of research valorisation, Smeulders played an important role in bringing a highly successful start-up – EUVision – to fruition. This resulted in QUVA, the very first ICAI lab. As emeritus professor, Smeulders is still active and an ambassador for the ELLIS network, a European network that connects the best AI ecosystems in Europe.

 

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