Sep 12, 2025
1st Archimedes Science Award: TUD’s Rector bestows accolade on AI pioneer Cordelia Schmid
The AI pioneer Dr. Cordelia Schmid (3rd from right holding the certificate) receives the first Archimedes Science Award. The award was presented by TUD’s Rector Ursula Staudinger (2nd from right) and Saxony's Minister President Michael Kretschmer (right). Joining the award winner in the festivities were (from left): Sebastian M. Schmidt (HZDR), Claudia Felser (MPG), Walter Rosenthal (HRK), and Holger Hanselka (Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft).
First award in Saxony for cutting-edge research: The Rector of TUD Dresden University of Technology, Prof. Ursula Staudinger, presented the 1st Archimedes Science Award alongside the Minister President of Saxony, Michael Kretschmer. The award ceremony took place as part of the Building Bridges Conference at Hellerau’s Festspielhaus in Dresden. Other guests of honor included Sebastian Gemkow, the Saxon Minister of Science, Claudia Felser, Vice President of the Max Planck Society, Holger Hanselka, President of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Walter Rosenthal, President of the German Rectors' Conference, and Sebastian M. Schmidt, Scientific Director at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR).
Prof. Staudinger had also previously held a laudatory speech on the scientific significance of Schmid's work. The Rector emphasized the ease with which the very high-caliber jury came to a decision. Cordelia Schmid is one of the pioneers of AI research and has made fundamental contributions to the real-time recognition of complex objects in images and videos, which have had a lasting impact on her field. Furthermore, Schmid's receiving this award underlines the relevance of AI for solving global challenges.
Prestigious jury
The Archimedes Science Award is one of a kind. It is the first internationally recognized accolade for scientific excellence in Saxony – and has an extraordinary jury. The jury consists of the heads of the four major German research organizations: Helmholtz Association, Max Planck Society, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Leibniz Association as well as the President of the German Rectors' Conference and the Chair of the Board and Vice Chair of the DRESDEN-concept Alliance.
Background: Award winner Dr. Cordelia Schmid
Dr. Cordelia Schmid received her Diplom in Computer Science from TH Karlsruhe (now KIT) and completed her doctorate and habilitation at the Institute National Polytechnique de Grenoble. She is Research Director at France’s National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology (Inria) and also works at Google DeepMind.
Schmid conducts research into computer vision, machine learning and robotics and has had a decisive influence on her field. With her contributions, she has revolutionized the automated recognition of complex objects in images and videos – with applications in search engines and multimodal AI systems, for example. She has also mentored numerous early-career researchers and played a key role in shaping the scientific community in leading roles at renowned journals and conferences.