The Free State of Saxony, together with TUD Dresden University of Technology, will confer the Archimedes Science Award for the first time on September 12, 2025. The award, which is endowed with EUR 50,000, honors scientific excellence that uses key findings to generate leverage in solving global challenges – in the spirit of Archimedes' law of the lever.

The first winner is the internationally renowned computer scientist and AI researcher Dr. Cordelia Schmid. Saxony's Minister President Michael Kretschmer will present Cordelia Schmid with the award, TUD Rector Prof. Ursula Staudinger will give the laudatory speech. Schmid will then give a keynote speech entitled Artificial Intelligence: Past, Present and Future.

The award ceremony will take place at the Festspielhaus Hellerau in Dresden as part of the Building Bridges Conference 2025, the theme of which this year is the “Latest Findings in Artificial Intelligence.”

Michael Kretschmer, Minister President of the Free State of Saxony: “Research and innovation are decisive factors in ensuring that we can continue to live well and secure our prosperity in the future. Our aim with the international science conference here in the Free State of Saxony is to provide a platform for top-level research from Saxony and abroad to share ideas with politics and business, thereby opening up new perspectives and collaborations. The Archimedes Science Award honors outstanding scientific achievements and celebrates successful collaboration across borders. The first-ever recipient of the award is Dr. Cordelia Schmid, an internationally renowned, leading researcher. I would like to congratulate the winner and thank the jury for their valuable work and selection. I would also like to expressly thank TU Dresden and Rector Prof. Staudinger for their active support.”

Prof. Ursula Staudinger, Rector of TUD and Chairwoman of the Executive Board of DRESDEN-concept e.V: “This first-ever presentation of the Archimedes Science Award signals a strong commitment to the visibility of scientific excellence in Saxony and beyond. The high-caliber jury – consisting of the presidents of the major German research organizations, the President of the German Rectors' Conference, and the head of the DRESDEN-concept Alliance – underlines the importance of both this award and the prizewinner. The fact that the award has been presented to Dr. Cordelia Schmid illustrates the relevance of AI for solving global challenges. With her fundamental contributions to the real-time recognition of complex objects in images and videos, Cordelia Schmid has had a lasting impact on her field of research and is one of the pioneers of AI research. Her core research areas in computer vision, machine learning and robotics also fit in perfectly with the strengths of TUD, which is one of the leading hubs for data-intensive science and AI with the ScaDS.AI Dresden/Leipzig Center and is at the forefront of research into human-machine interaction as part of the CeTI Cluster of Excellence. It is therefore a great pleasure for us at TUD to present this new award for the first time together with the Free State of Saxony and the DRESDEN-concept Alliance.”

High-caliber jury highlights the exceptional nature of the Archimedes Science Award

The Archimedes Science Award is one of a kind. It is the first internationally awarded prize for scientific excellence in Saxony – and has a high-caliber 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 young scientists and played a key role in shaping the scientific community in leading roles at renowned journals and conferences.

Background: Building Bridges Conference

Initiated by the Free State of Saxony, the international science conference Building Bridges is organized by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR). Every year, it brings together top international researchers with representatives from politics and business. This year, the fifth edition of the conference will focus on current developments in artificial intelligence in the fields of microelectronics, medicine and energy. In addition to the long-standing partners from Poland and the Czech Republic, the Baltic states will receive special attention this year. The 2025 conference will be held under the patronage of German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Czech President Petr Pavel.

Background: Archimedes Science Award

The Archimedes Science Award is presented annually during the Building Bridges Conference in Dresden. Named after Archimedes and his famous law of the lever, it honors scientific achievements that have particular leverage in finding solutions to global challenges.

More about the conference: https://building-bridges-conference.eu

Contact:

Saxon State Chancellery
Press Office
Tel.: +49 351 564-10326
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TUD Dresden University of Technology
Matthias Fejes
Press Officer of TUD
Tel.: +49 351 463-32882
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