Festschrift dedicated to Hermann Maurer on the Occasion of his 70th Birthday#
Cristian S. Calude, Grzegorz Rozenberg, Arto Salomaa (Eds.)
Preface#
This book is dedicated to Hermann Maurer on the occasion of
his 70th birthday in April 2011. The title word Rainbow
reflects the beauty and variety of the achievements of this
outstanding scientist, as well as the diversity and depth of current
computer science. Hermann is a true Renaissance man, polymath, Homo
Universalis, but he still has kept most of his activities on his
native Austrian soil. He has been able to combine an exceptionally
high level in scientific work with remarkable successes in high
administrative and organizational positions. In computer science he
has combined profound theory with high-level and unique
applications. The high admiration that Hermann enjoys in the
scientific community all over the world was witnessed by the
enthusiastic response we received to our request to contribute to this
book.
Hermann's studies took place in Vienna, where he also had his first
positions. After that he was an Assistant and Associate Professor for
Computer Science at the University of Calgary 1966-1971 and a Full
Professor for Applied Computer Science at the University of Karlsruhe,
1971-1977. Then in 1978 he assumed his main academic position, a Full
Professorship at the Graz University of Technology, where he was also
the Dean of Studies and the Dean of the new school of computer
science. He has also had long-term visiting positions at SMU (Dallas),
University of Brasilia (Brazil), the University of Waterloo and the
University of Auckland where he was also an Honorary Research
Fellow. Moreover, he has been an Adjunct Professor at Denver
University, advisor to the University of Malaysia at Kuching (UNIMAS)
since 1998 and a visiting researcher at Edith Cowan University (Perth,
Australia). This list does not do any justice to Hermann’s work
because usually his stay at a university is not a normal visit but
brings forward important innovations.
Hermann's career as a researcher and teacher is outstanding. He is the
author of some 20 scientific books and approximately 650 papers in
various journals and conference proceedings. He has supervised roughly
400 M.Sc. theses and some SO Ph.D. theses. He has visited extensively
universities and research institutes all over the world, and given
invited or keynote lectures at numerous international
conferences. Hermann’s early pioneering research was in compiler
design, formal languages, automata, algorithms and
data-structures. His current main research and project areas are
networked multimedia/hypermedia systems; electronic publishing and
applications to university life, exhibitions and museums; web-based
learning environments; languages and their applications; data
structures and their efficient use; telematic services, computer
net-works, computer supported new media, dynamic symbolic language,
social implications of computers, techniques to fight plagiarism and
computers in Science Fiction. Recently Hermann has been an outspoken
critic of some data-mining activities in the web.
Hermann is or has been the chairman or a member of steering and
program committees of numerous international conferences. Apart from
his work on the Editorial Boards of many journals, Hermann founded one
of the very first electronic journals, Journal of Universal
Computer Science. He still continues to be the Editor-in-Chief of
this very successful journal.
To show Hermann's qualities in leadership and administration, we list
the following facts.
Hermann was the project manager of a number of pioneering
mu1timillion-dollar undertakings. They include a patent for optical
storage device, the development of a color-graphic microcomputer
(MUPID), an electronic teaching experiment COSTOC, multi-media
projects such as Images of Austria (Expo'92 and Expo'93),
various electronic publishing projects such as PC Library,
Geothek and Brockhaus Multimedial. He was responsible for the
development of the first second generation web-based information
system Hyperwave and a modern net-based teaching platform. Hermann
organized the multimedia pan of a number of museum projects, including
Ars Electronica Center (Linz, Austria), the Papa Tongarewa
(Wellington, New Zealand), as well as the Odyseeum (Cologne) opened in
2009. He also participated in or headed a number EU projects.
Hermann was the Director of the Research Institute for Applied
Information Processing of the Austrian Computer Society for 1983-1998,
the chair or vice-chair of the Institute for Information Systems and
Computer Media since 1988, the director of the Institute for
Hypermedia Systems of Joanneum Research for 1987-2006, the director of
the Austrian Web Application Center for 1997-2000, the co-founder and
chairman of the board of the Hyperwave AG Munich 1997-2005, the
vice-chairman of same company since then, as well as the founder and
scientific advisor of the first research center on Knowledge
Management in Austria. Hermann’s enthusiastic leadership often brings
forward remarkable results and innovations. Among the editors of this
book, the expression Hermann quality refers to a high level of
excellence.
It is no wonder that Hermann is one of the most decorated computer
scientists. He has received a number of awards, among them the Prize
for Merits for Information Processing in Austria, the "Enter-Prize" (a
play of words with "enterprise") of the Styrian Chamber of Commerce in
1999, the Integrata-Prize (for Human Software) in 2000, and the
"AACE Fellowship Award" of the Association for the Advancement of
Computing in Education in 2003. Hermann became a Foreign Member of the
Finnish Academy of Sciences in 1996 and a member of the Academia
Europaea in 2000, where he was elected chairman of the section
Informatics in April 2009. His invigorating work in this position is
already visible in many ways, for instance, exceptionally good and
useful web pages have been created for the whole Academy. He is a
life-long honorary member of MCCA, Vienna, and of the Computer
Engineering Society, Graz. In 2001 he was awarded the "Austrian Cross
of Honours for Arts and Science Class I", as well as the "Large Medal
of Honour of the Province of Styria". He received the Honorary
Doctorate of the Polytechnical University of St. Petersburg in 1991,
of the University Karlsruhe, Germany in 2002, and of the University of
Calgary in 2007.
Apart from science, Hermann being Homo Universalis is
clearly visible in his extra-curricula life and hobbies. Desire to
explore the world around us is one of his basic characteristics. Space
does not permit us to describe here in any detail Hermann's hobbies or
family life. The latter includes trips all over the world, as well as
various other activities with his wife Uschi, children and
grandchildren. Hermann's friends have the opportunity to learn every
year interesting facts about far-away lands and cultures, reading his
well-known Christmas letters, Hermann is a successful writer of
Science Fiction. His novels dwell mostly in the world of computers:
future possibilities such as teleportation, but also the dramatic
consequences if the administration of the web falls into wrong
hands. Hermann has always been very sportive-mountain climbing, scuba
diving and hiking belonging to his hobbies.
Each of the three editors of this book has a warm and close friendship
with Hermann, developed through many years. In particular, Cris is
grateful for being a role model and mentor, Grzegorz for so many years
of reliable friendship, and Arto for the happy and productive MSW
decade around 1980. We wish Hermann continuing success and
satisfaction in science, leadership and life in general, in the years
to come.
April 2011
Springer
ISSN 0302-9743
ISBN 978-3-642-19390-3
The complete volume with articles written by more than 40 scientists can be ordered from Springer-Verlag. In parallel to the printed book, the volume is published electronically in LNCS Online.
