Distinguished Service Award 2025

Professor Frank van Harmelen has been awarded the EurAI Distinguished Service Award 2025 for his sustained contributions to Artificial Intelligence.

His exemplary service includes his significant influence within the Dutch AI organisation (BNVKI) and his leadership in AI research across seven universities and 50 Ph.D. students. Van Harmelen has made major contributions to EurAI, serving as Programme Chair for ECAI 2002 and General Chair for ECAI 2016. He has been a constant co-chair for the AAAI Spring Symposium on Machine Learning and Knowledge Acquisition series (yearly from 2019), and has contributed extensively to numerous review processes over 100 conference panels, including AAAI, IJCAI, and ECAI. Beyond organisational roles, he has tirelessly advocated for AI research in Europe through his work in various governmental committees and by engaging with a wider public.

Complementing his service, his exemplary frontier research, particularly his foundational work in the semantic web, including co-designing and implementing OWL, now a global standard for ontologies. His commitment to galvanising young researchers and stimulating colleagues, while showing respect for diverse opinions, further solidifies his suitability for this prestigious award, for which he is the first Dutch recipient.

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