UCC professor wins world's top award in field of artificial intelligence

Professor Eugene C. Freuder, from University College Cork, has been recognised with the world's premier award in the field of artificial intelligence.

Prof. Freuder, who is Professor Emeritus in the School of Computer Science & Information Technology, has been granted the International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) Research Excellence Award.

The Research Excellence award is given to a scientist who has carried out a program of research of consistently high quality throughout an entire career yielding several substantial results.

There has been a total of 19 previous winners of the award, six of whom have also won the ACM Turing Award which is regarded as the Nobel Prize in Computer Science.

Herb Simon, who was recipient of the award in 1995 was also awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1978.

On receiving the prestigious award Professor Freuder said: “I am so honored to receive this award, and so pleased, for myself and my research community.

“I am grateful to my family, my colleagues and my students, and for the support I have received from University College Cork and Science Foundation Ireland,” he added.

Professor John O'Halloran, Interim President at University College Cork congratulated Professor Freuder on this outstanding recognition and described him as "a giant of Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science”.

“This global recognition for Professor Freuder's contribution is richly deserved and we are very proud of him and his contributions at UCC,” he said.

"I am delighted to hear that Gene's contribution to research has been recognised by this prestigious award,” said Professor Anita R. Maguire, Vice President for Research and Innovation.

“In addition to leading excellent research within his own research team over the past two decades in Cork, Gene's leadership, inspiration and international network has led to a thriving cluster of research teams in University College Cork focused on constraint programming and related areas which continue to push the boundaries in this field - a tremendous legacy from Gene's work.”