News archive

In memoriam Eric Backer
With sadness we inform you that Eric Backer has passed away on April 14, 2020, at the age of 79. Eric was a TU Delft (emeritus) professor, who was a frequent contributor to the WIC symposia in the early days of the WIC.
On behalf of the WIC Board,
Jos Weber
In memoriam Piet Schalkwijk
With sadness we have to inform you that WIC Honorary Member Piet Schalkwijk passed away on January 30, 2020. The cremation ceremony took place on Thursday February 6, 2020 in Eindhoven.
We will always remember Piet for his great contributions to information theory and the WIC.
On behalf of the WIC board,
Jos Weber (WIC chair).
[In memoriam by Han Vinck]
Ludo Tolhuizen honorary member of the WIC
At the WIC General Assembly on May 28, 2019, held at the WIC/SP Symposium in Ghent, Ludo Tolhuizen from Philips Research has been awarded the honorary membership of the WIC. Ludo very much deserves this tribute because of his extensive service to the WIC. He has served as a board member since 1998 (in the capacity of secretary in the years 1998-2006 and 2010-2019) and was for many years the head of the jury deciding on the best student paper/presentation awards at the annual WIC/SP Symposia. At the General Assembly Ludo stepped down as secretary, but fortunately he will remain a board member.
Kees Schouhamer Immink Prijs
Starting in 2019, a new prize will be awarded once every two years for outstanding research in computer science and telecommunications: the Kees Schouhamer Immink Prize. The prizes are awarded by the KHMW (Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen).
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Peter de With elected into Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen

WIC honorary member Peter de With has been elected a member of the Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen (Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities) of Haarlem. The KHMW was established in 1752 by seven distinguished burghers of the city of Haarlem, in order to promote science (in the broadest sense, including the 'arts'). It is the oldest learned society in the Netherlands and is constituted as a dual body comprising approximately 380 science promoters and about 480 scholars, drawn from the natural sciences, the humanities and the social sciences.
Peter de With is full professor of the Video Coding and Architectures group in the Department of Electrical Engineering at TU Eindhoven. He is an international expert on video compression and video and image analysis for health, surveillance and multimedia. Peter has been active in R&D of algorithms and systems design for about 35 years. He is a former chairman of the WIC.
February 9, 2019.
Kees Schouhamer Immink receives the IEEE Medal of Honor 2017

Our member Kees Schouhamer Immink has received the IEEE Medal of Honor 2017! This is the highest distinction within the IEEE. Kees received the medal "for pioneering contributions to video, audio, and data recording technology, including compact disc, DVD, and Blu-ray". Our sincere congratulations to Kees!
Kees is the President of Turing Machines Inc., Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He has been an active WIC member since the early days in the 1980's, serving as a board member and organizer of symposia.
On behalf of the WIC Board,
Jos Weber (chairman)
2016 IEEE Chapter of the Year Award for the Benelux IT Chapter
In Barcelona, at ISIT 2016, the IEEE Benelux Chapter on Information Theory received the 2016 Chapter of the Year Award. See page 15 and 16 of the IEEE ITS newsletter.
Frans Willems appointed as professor
Frans Willems has been appointed as professor in information theory and its applications at TU Eindhoven, as of March 1, 2016. On behalf of the WIC, the board congratulates Frans with this appointment.
Prof.ir. IJsbrand Boxma, founding father and honorary member of the WIC, passed away on June 19, 2015, at the age of 92.

He was emeritus-hoogleraar in information theory at Delft University of Technology, Ridder in de Orde van de Nederlandse Leeuw and Officier in de Orde van Oranje-Nassau. He organized the first WIC Symposium on Information Theory in the Benelux, which was held in Zoetermeer in 1980. In 2015 we had the 36th edition of this annual symposium taking place in Brussels, showing the success of the series that he started, binding the various information theory activities in the Benelux. Professor Boxma also served as a board member in the early WIC years, mid 1980's. He retired in 1987, but seventeen years later he was present as an honorary guest at the dinner of the silver jubilee symposium. We remember him as a very dedicated WIC member, who has been of great importance and inspiration to our community.
On behalf of the WIC,
Jos Weber (chairman), Ludo Tolhuizen (secretary).
Liesbet Van der Perre, KUL/IMEC-professor and former WIC board member, has been awarded an honorary doctorate at Lund University. The official press release was on May 29.
The 36th WIC Symposium on Information Theory in the Benelux, 5th Joint WIC/IEEE Symposium on Information Theory and Signal Processing in the Benelux (SITB/SPS 2015) was held in Brussels, Belgium, May 6-7, 2015. There were about forty participants. The winner of the best student paper award was Nanang Susyanto, for his paper "Semiparametric Score Level Fusion: Gaussian Copula Approach", co-authored with C.A.J. Klaassen, R.N.J. Veldhuis, and L.J. Spreeuwers. The winner of the best student presentation award was Giel J. Op 't Veld, for his paper "Caching (a pair of) Gaussians", co-authored with M.C. Gastpar.
The European School of Information Theory 2015, co-sponsored by the WIC, was held in Zandvoort, The Netherlands, April 20-24, 2015.
The IEEE Information Theory Society bestowed its 2015 Aaron D. Wyner Distinguished Service award to Han Vinck. Amongst his many services to the Information Theory community, professor Vinck served as a chairman of the WIC from 1998 to 2001.
The WIC board congratulates him with this prestigious award.
Prof.ir. E.W. (Willem) Gröneveld, founding father and honorary member of the WIC, passed away on January 20, 2015, at the age of 88. Gröneveld was professor in network, information, communication, and system theory at the University of Twente. We remember him as a very constructive and conscientious WIC member, who has been of great importance to our community.
On behalf of the WIC,
Jos Weber (chairman)