Ralf Steinmetz new member of the Academy of Europe

Professor Dr. Ralf Steinmetz, President of IMDEA Networks’ Board of Trustees and Full Professor at the Multimedia Communications Lab (KOM) of the Technical University of Darmstadt (Germany), has been appointed member of the prestigious Academy of Europe. This appointment recognizes Steinmetz’s role as one of the world leaders in the research and development of adaptive seamless multimedia communications.

16 October 2019

Professor Dr. Ralf Steinmetz, President of IMDEA Networks’ Board of Trustees and Full Professor at the Multimedia Communications Lab (KOM) of the Technical University of Darmstadt (Germany), has been appointed member of the prestigious Academy of Europe. This appointment recognizes Steinmetz’s role as one of the world leaders in the research and development of adaptive seamless multimedia communications.

Ralf Steinmetz has been managing director of the “Multimedia Communications Lab” at the Techn. Univ. Darmstadt for 23 years, and President of the Board of Trustees at the international research institute IMDEA Networks, Madrid, Spain from 2007. He has been appointed as a Member of the prestigious Academy of Europe for his contributions in the advancement of excellence in scholarship, recognizing his role as one of the world leaders in the research and development of adaptive seamless multimedia communications.

Founded in 1988, the Academy of Europe is the only pan-European academy encompassing all branches of knowledge. It is composed of eminent scientists and scholars working towards the advancement and propagation of excellence in scholarship and education for the public benefit. Steinmetz has been appointed member of the Informatics Section of the Academy. In that capacity he will contribute his scientific expertise on a well understood adaptiveness of seamless multimedia communications, which has the potential to create a future where people from all over the world may easily collaborate and communicate, regardless of geographical constraints and technology heterogeneity. Ralf and his Team at TU Darmstadt have contributed to over 900-refereed publications.

Academy of Europe membership invitations are made only after peer group nomination, scrutiny and confirmation as to the scholarship and eminence of the individual in their chosen field, and election is confirmed by the Council of the Academy. Members are drawn from Council of Europe states and other nations across the world. Current membership stands at around 4000 and amongst them are seventy-three Nobel Laureates.

About Ralf Steinmetz

Professor Steinmetz obtained his PhD in Electrical Engineering Communications from the Technical University of Darmstadt (Germany) in 1986. After further research and management activities at Philips and IBM from 1987 to 1996, he completed his habilitation in 1994 at the Department of Informatics at the Goethe University in Frankfurt on the subject of multimedia technology: fundamentals, components and systems. From 1997 until late 2001, he directed the Fraunhofer Integrated Publications and Information Institute (IPSI). In 1999, he founded the Hessian Telemedia Technology Competence Center (HTTC), where he holds a chair position.

He has served as Chair, Vice-Chair and Member of numerous program and steering committees of communications and multimedia conferences and as editor-in-chief and editor of various IEEE, ACM, and other journals. As first German scientist, he was awarded the honors of Fellow of both, the IEEE (1999) and the ACM (2002). In 2014 he was awarded with a Chair of Excellence at the University Carlos III, Madrid, Spain. In 2017 he was among the first three scientists being awarded a fellowship of the VDE ITG and he is a Fellow of the GI. Since 2019 he is also member of the Academia Europaea.