News Story

Farewell to Prof Stefan Rueger: a reflection on his legacy of pioneering in Knowledge Media

Nancy Pontika, Monday 9 Sep 2024

This past Tuesday, KMi announced Prof. Stefan Rueger’s retirement; we all gathered to celebrate his contributions to computer science and multimedia research in a career that spanned several decades. Stefan has had a significant impact in the fields of artificial intelligence, machine learning and visual processing.

Stefan’s journey began with a degree in physics at the Freie Universität Berlin and a PhD in computer science at the Technische Universität Berlin, where his work on artificial neural networks laid the groundwork for his future development with a highly prestigious EPSRC Advanced Research Fellowship at Imperial College London. In 2006, he joined KMi as a Professor in Knowledge Media.

Stefan’s research has had a broad impact, particularly in the field of automated multimedia understanding, with applications that range from image recognition to machine learning insights. Applied insights include multimedia mining of large datasets such as TV news archives and his work on commonly seen secondary images has opened up new ways to bridge gaps between the real and digital worlds.

(Prof. Rueger and KMiers after his valedictory lecture.)

Throughout his time at KMi, Stefan has not only been a passionate researcher but also an exceptional leader, serving as Director of Research from 2010 to 2021, spearheading two submissions to the Research Excellence Framework. In this role, he was instrumental in shaping the strategic direction of the institute’s research agenda, fostering innovation and collaboration across multidisciplinary teams nationally and internationally. In addition to his research, Stefan has been an excellent mentor; eager to support and guide researchers to climb the challenging academic ladder.

KMi Director; Harith Alani said “Stefan is a professor with a beautiful mind, vision, scientific rigour, and altruistic nature, who has significantly contributed to KMi at every level for nearly 20 years.“ Harith also said that “Stefan’s contributions to KMi, The OU and the wider world of science will certainly continue through his new Emeritus Professor status here at the OU.”

We wish you Stefan a very happy and fulfilling retirement!