Isaac L. Auerbach Award Holders
The most prestigious award given by IFIP is the Isaac L. Auerbach Award, named in memory of one of the founders and first president of IFIP. It is presented in even years for extraordinary support of IFIP in its mission. The Isaac Auerbach Award is specifically for exceptional services rendered to IFIP or exceptional contributions to the IFIP mission and goals or exceptional furthering of the position of IFIP on different levels. You can learn more about IFIP’s founding president by reading an excerpt of his article “Personal Recollections on the Origin of IFIP”.
Prof. Sebastiaan von Solms (ZA) | 2024
IFIP President (2007-2010)
Von Solms has played an active role in IFIP for over 40 years, serving as chair of WG 11.1 from 1982-88 and then chairing TC11 from 1995-2001. Von Solms was the South African representative from 1995-2013, during which time he also served stints as IFIP Vice President (2002-2006) and IFIP President (2007-2010). He became an Honorary Member in 2014 for his service to IFIP and received the coveted Kristian Beckman Award in 2010. In 2024, he was ranked 5th in the world for lifetime contributions to cybersecurity research by ScholarGPS, highlighting his immense impact to the field.
Prof. Dipak Khakhar (SE) | 2010
IFIP Honorary Treasurer
Professor Khakhar served as the Swedish representative to the General Assembly of IFIP for over 20 years, beginning in 1989, and served as Honorary Treasurer of IFIP for eight years. IFIP decided to give this award to professor Khakhar specifically for his initiative to start the World Information Technology Forum (WITFOR), which has developed into an international event that has added immense value to IFIP and the use of information and communication technologies in developing countries.
Prof. Asbjorn Rolstadas (NO) | 2000
IFIP President (1992-1995)
Asbjørn Rolstadås is Professor Emeritus of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Faculty of Engineering. He is honorary member and former IFIP President, and initiated IFIP Working Group 5.7 on Production management. Among his accomplishments, he is the author over 30 books and 300 papers in his field and is honorary member of the Norwegian Computer Society.
Prof. Heinz Zemanek (AT) | 1998
IFIP Vice President (2020-2025)
Heinz Zemanek is considered one of the fathers of the computer in Austria and was a founding member of the OCG (Austrian Computer Society). He studied communications engineering and, after the Second World War, taught at the Technical University of Vienna, where he dealt with the development of computers. In 1955, he led the project for the development of the first Austrian computer, the “Wiener Mailüfterls” (Viennese May Breeze), which went into operation in 1958.
Prof. Lubomir Iliev (BG) | 1996
IFIP Vice President (1974-1977)
A strong advocate of international scientific and technical collaboration, Prof. Lubomir Iliev served as Bulgaria’s first official representative to the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) from 1965 to 1982. He was also President of the Bulgarian National IFIP Committee from 1970 to 1982. During this period, he appointed Bulgarian representatives to IFIP Technical Committees and, under his leadership and with IFIP sponsorship, numerous workshops, symposia, and conferences were organized in Bulgaria.
From 1974 to 1977, Prof. Lubomir Iliev served as an IFIP Vice President and was awarded the IFIP Silver Core in recognition of his distinguished service. He was also the second scientist worldwide to receive the IFIP Isaac L. Auerbach Award.
The first three IFIP Presidents
Mr. Leon Strous (NL) | 2018
IFIP President (2010-2016)
In addition to serving as IFIP President for six years from 2010 to 2016, Leon has led and participated in numerous committees, forums, steering groups and task forces over his 25+ years of involvement in the global professional body. Most notably, he was Chair of Technical Committee 11 (1995-2007), Chaired the WITFOR Steering Committee (2007), the World Computer Congress Steering Committee (2012), the Membership Task Force and WG 11.5. He initiated the Domain Committee on IoT, was Publications Chair for WCCs 2004, 2006 and 2010, and held leadership roles for various other events over the years.
He continues to Chair the IFIP International Liaison Committee, the Domain Committee for the Internet of Things and is a member of the Digital Equity Committee and Technical Committee 11 (Security). Leon is a past recipient of the IFIP Silver Core Award and also holds the Order of Orange-Nassau from his home nation in The Netherlands.
Prof. Wilfried Brauer (DE) | 2002
IFIP Vice President (1994-1998)
In IFIP, Wilfried Brauer was highly engaged in many areas and functions. Starting in IFIPs TC-3 “Education”, he was an active member of the International Program Committee of TC- 3s World Computer Congress on Education (WCCE) in Marseille (1975).
As co-author of the IFIP-UNESCO “Modular Curriculum in Computer Science” (1984), he was an important contributor to the studies of Informatics and Computer Science in many countries. Wilfried Brauer was an engaged German representative, and he was TC-3’s vice chair and subsequently TC-3 chair (1985-1990). In the IFIP General Assembly, Wilfried Brauer represented Germany from 1987 until 1998. Among several important functions, he was chair of the Publication Committee as well as of Technical Assembly. From 1994 until 1998, he was IFIP Vice President. Among many events which he shaped as chair or member of the related Program Committees, his activities as chair of the International Program Committee of IFIP World Computer Congress in Madrid (1992) as well as his activity as General Congress Chair of IFIP World Computer Congress in Hamburg (1994) will remain in our memories as outstanding contributions.
Prof. Calvin Gottlieb (CA) | 1994
IFIP Vice President (2020-2025)
Prof. Calvin Gottlieb was the first recipient of the prestigious Isaac L. Auerbach award. A pioneer of the computer industry, Prof. Gottlieb earned a PhD in physics from the University of Toronto in 1947. In 1948, he became a founding member of the university’s Computation Centre and began teaching computer science there in 1951. Over the course of his career, his research interests evolved from computer hardware to software and computer applications, and later to the socioeconomic impact of computing technology.
Prof. Gottlieb played a key role in the establishment of the Computing and Data Processing Association of Canada in 1958, an organization that later became the Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS). In 1964, he founded Canada’s first graduate department of computer science at the University of Toronto.
