Prof. Albert Heuberger celebrates his 60th birthday

Prof. Albert Heuberger, Director of Fraunhofer IIS, turned 60 in August and organized a celebratory symposium in Erlangen-Tennenlohe to mark this occasion.

The highlight of the event was Prof. Heuberger being honored with the Fraunhofer Medal. He was awarded the medal by Fraunhofer President Prof. Reimund Neugebauer in recognition of all that he has done for the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. Among other things, Prof. Neugebauer pointed out how positively collaboration with the universities in the region has developed thanks to Prof. Heuberger’s efforts.

High-profile guests from science and politics expressed their attachment to the Institute Director, including Ilse Aigner, President of the Bavarian state parliament, Prof. Neugebauer, President of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Prof. Joachim Hornegger, President of Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, and Dr. Dietmar Schill, Divisional Director at Sony Deutschland GmbH and Chairman of the Advisory Board.

Dr. Christoph Bosbach, CEO of Diehl Metering, Prof. Sami Haddadin, Chair of Robotics and System Intelligence at the Technical University of Munich, and Prof. Dieter Kempf, President of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), held lectures on IoT, artificial intelligence and digitalization.

Prof. Heuberger joined Fraunhofer IIS in 1987 and was promoted to Deputy Director in 1999 before becoming Institute Director in 2011. In this period, the institute has seen a dynamic development – from just over 700 employees to some 1050 today; its budget back then was less than 100 million euros and is now more than 160 million euros. The institute was restructured under his management: seven divisions were formed to bring together similar topics, new strategic topics identified and clear priorities set with the two key guiding topics of “audio and media technologies” and “cognitive sensor technology.”

Prof. Heuberger is also a member of the Scientific and Technical Council of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, a member of the Board of Directors of Medical Valley Europäische Metropolregion (EMN) e.V., a member of the University Council of the Nuremberg Institute of Technology and Coburg University of Applied Sciences and Arts, and a member of the Communication and Navigation Program Committee of the German Aerospace Center. In 2017, he was appointed a member of acatech, the German National Academy of Science and Engineering. From the start of 2020, he will assume the position of spokesperson of the Fraunhofer Group for Microelectronics.