From 1988 onwards, Grill played a decisive role in the development of mp3 and AAC technology. In 2000, he received the German Future Prize from the Federal President jointly with Karlheinz Brandenburg and Harald Popp, on behalf of the wider team at Fraunhofer IIS, for their role as inventors of the mp3 process. Other awards included the Joseph von Fraunhofer Prize and the Eduard Rhein Award.

Grill had been head of the Audio department at Fraunhofer IIS since 2000; in 2011, he became head of the Audio and Multimedia research area, which is now recognized worldwide as a scientific and technological leader in many areas of audio signal processing.
 
mp3 is the first generation of a whole series of audio coding processes developed at Fraunhofer IIS. Over the past 30 years, Fraunhofer IIS has won all technical audio standardization competitions against the greatest international competition. The institute was able to repeat the success of mp3, including in a financial sense, with the second and third generations. Nowadays, all consumer electronics contain these technologies. The fourth generation is currently in its very successful launch phase – following the success with which the second and third generations were marketed, with well over 12 billion devices licensed, and even more devices licensed for mp3.

“With his energy and drive, Bernhard Grill and his team have achieved extraordinary things for Fraunhofer IIS and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. I thank him very much for that. I wish him all the very best on his birthday and look forward to further great deeds,” says Prof. Albert Heuberger, Executive Director of Fraunhofer IIS.