Honorary Doctorate for Prof. Dr. Raúl Rojas
Compter Scientist at Freie Universität Recognized with Honorary Doctorate from National Institute for Astronomy, Optics, and Electronics (INAOE) in Mexico
№ 401/2016 from Nov 17, 2016
The computer scientist Prof. Dr. Raúl Rojas from Freie Universität Berlin was awarded an honorary doctorate in computer science from the National Institute of Astronomy, Optics, and Electronics (INAOE) in Mexico on November 11. The selection committee stated that Professor Rojas earned the award for his long-standing achievements in the field of artificial intelligence and robotics and his efforts to establish scientific cooperation between Mexico and Germany. INAOE is the most important research center in Mexico in the field of astronomy. It offers master’s and doctoral degrees in astronomy, electronics, and computer science within the framework of its research projects.
Raúl Rojas González was born in 1955 in Mexico City. He majored in mathematics and physics in Mexico and economics and social sciences at Freie Universität Berlin. In 1993 he completed the habilitation process in computer science at Freie Universität. His topic was artificial neural networks. From 1994 to 1997 Rojas was a professor of artificial intelligence at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. He has been teaching at Freie Universität since 1997.
Rojas has received numerous awards for his research, including the WissensWerte technology transfer prize from the Technologie-Stiftung-Berlin. In 2014 the German Association of University Professors and Lecturers (Deutscher Hochschulverband, DHV) named him "University Teacher of the Year." For his investigations into the history of the computer, especially with regard to the technical and theoretical reconstruction of important computing machines, he was awarded the Wolfgang von Kempelen Prize from the Austrian Computer Society in 2005 and in 2014 the Tony Sale Award of the British Computer Society. Rojas is a member of the Mexican Academy of Science. In 2015 he won the Mexican National Prize for Arts and Sciences.
The National Institute of Astronomy, Optics, and Electronics (INAOE) was founded in 1971 and is one of the major research facilities in Mexico. It operates several telescopes that work in the visible range and are also suitable for radio and gamma astronomy. Researchers at INAOE are involved in the global Event Horizon Telescope, a network of nine radio telescopes around the world that observe the center of the Milky Way. In addition, INAOE offers master's and doctoral programs as part of the Excellence Initiative of CONACYT, the Mexican National Council for Research and Technology. During the honorary doctorate award ceremony, Rojas gave a talk about his robotics projects to those graduating from the INAOE programs. Within the framework of the Germany-Mexico Year, Freie Universität Berlin developed autonomous model vehicles for the universities in Mexico. The robotics group at INAOE is one of the twelve Mexican members in the initiative started by Professor Rojas.
Press Photos
(from left to right) Dr. Víctor Carreón Rodríguez, Director Adjunto de Planeación y Evaluación del Conacyt; Dr. Leopoldo Altamirano Robles, Director General del INAOE; Prof. Dr. Dr. Raúl Rojas, Freie Universität Berlin; René White Herrera, Director de Investigación y Desarrollo de la Secretaría de Marina Armada de México.
Credit: Sala de Prensa del IANOE
The photo may be downloaded by media representatives and used free of charge when reporting in the context of the press release, provided that due credit is given.
Contact
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Raúl Rojas, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Freie Universität Berlin, Tel.: +49 30 838-75102, Email: rojas@inf.fu-berlin.de