Telenor's Research Prize 2004 awarded to Swedish pioneer

Press release
Fornebu
6 minute read
Telenor's Nordic Research Prize of NOK 250,000 has been awarded to Professor Claes Wohlin at Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden. He received the prize for his research on the quality and efficient development of software engineering, a field where he is ranked a leading international researcher.

Morten Karlsen Sørby, Executive Vice President of Telenor, handed over the prize during a research seminar at Fornebu on Tuesday. The award ceremony was part of the Telenor Week 2004, which is currently being held at the Telenor headquarters.

Each year a subject for the research prize is chosen by Telenor in co-operation with the internationally composed prize committee. The subject for 2004 is "Software of importance for the creation or improvement of communication services".

The field of software is a large and complex one, and the prize committee have had a hard job evaluating achievements from very diverse fields. In their grounds for selection the committee write: In a short time the winner has established himself in the forefront of his field, which is quality and efficient development of software engineering. The field encompasses research and industrial practice in development methods, architecture and structuring of software, project management and quality. The paramount objective is to develop software with the right functionality, quality and output - at the right time and cost.

Professor Claes Wohlin received his PhD in 1991 and has since produced an impressive range of academic publications, as well as being a pioneer in working with the industry on various questions. He has also established vigorous research environments both at the University of Lund and at Blekinge Institute of Technology. Professor Wohlin is a Nordic pioneer and has been ranked one of the 10 - 15 leading experts in his field in the world. His speciality is to develop methods for quality testing and software certification.

On this year's award, Berit Svendsen, head of the prize committee and CTO Telenor, comments: "Telenor are pleased that through the Research Prize we are able to help visualize and reward some of the enormously important work to create new, valuable knowledge in the Nordic countries. This year's winner is another example that research has great economic importance for both society and business. Telenor spend billions on large software systems. Through his work Professor Claes Wohlin has contributed greatly so that we get what we have paid for and the customers get solutions of excellent quality."

The international committee is composed as follows:

Berit Svendsen, Executive Vice President and CTO of Telenor ASA (Head of the committee)

Peter T. Kirstein, Professor at University College in London

Erik Bohlin, Ekonomie Dr. at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg

Mads Christoffersen, PhD, Associate Professor at the Center for Technology, Economics and Management at the Technical University of Denmark

Gunnar Stette, Professor at the Norwegian University of Technology and Science in Trondheim

Olli Martikainen, Professor at the University of Oulo

This year is the eighth time Telenor's Nordic Research Prize is awarded. Previous winners have been

- Dr. Gisle Bjøntegaard, Telenor (1997)

- Professor Stephen Pink, University of Luleå (1998)

- The Telepathology Group in Tromsø (1999)

- Professor Peter Andrekson, Chalmers University of
Technology, Gothenburg (2000)

- Professor Jon Bing, University of Oslo (2001)

- Professor Christian Jensen, University of ؅lborg (2002)

- Dr. Håkon Bryhni, Birdstep (2003).

Besides, in 1997 an additional prize of NOK 50,000 was awarded to Birger Møller-Pedersen, Dag Belsnes and ؘistein Haugen for their work on defining SDL92 at the Norwegian Computing Center.