I2R’s Researcher Selected by the Board of Nokia Foundation as One of Their `Nokia Visiting Professors' for 2009

Singapore, Singapore, January 13, 2009 --(PR.com)-- A*STAR’s Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R) is proud to announce that Dr. Li Haizhou has been selected by the Board of Nokia Foundation as one of their `Nokia Visiting Professors' for 2009.

Grants for Nokia Visiting Professors are given to distinguished foreign professors to work in Finland, or they must typically participate in research work, give lectures and make corporate appearances.

Dr. Li, who is Department Head of Human Language Technology and one of the architects of the robotic butlers showcased at the official opening of Fusionopolis recently, will receive a grant of 10,000 Euros.

Finnish researchers in his field nominated Dr. Li for this award to recognise his contributions to Speaker and Language Recognition research. Nokia Foundation only disbursed two Visiting Professor grants this year. The other Visiting Professor is Parviz Babak, Seattle, USA. It is hence significant that a multi-national corporation like Nokia has recognized the impact of Dr. Li's research at I2R and bestowed this honour upon him. The grantholders for year 2009 were announced and presented diplomas by Mr Jorma Ollila, Chairman of Nokia at an Awards Ceremony of the Nokia Foundation held on Tuesday, 18 November 2008 in Helsinki.

Professor Lye Kin Mun, Deputy Executive Director (Research) said, “I2R is indeed proud to have the brightest and finest in the industry working with us and Dr Haizhou is no exception. I congratulate him on this significant achievement and the recognition it has brought to A*STAR and thank him for his part in highlighting I2R’s technological discoveries on the global platform.”

The only other Asian Visiting Professor Award winner was Hu Tao from Rutgers University in 2006 for the work in ‘LTCC modules with Novel integrate technique for MEMS’. Similarly, in 2006 Oulasvirta, Antti Olavi from University of California, Berkeley, USA won the award for the work in ‘Inferences of Others Through Social Software: Field Trials and Theory Development’. In 2004, El-Sallabi Hassan was the Visiting Professor Award recipient for the work in Development of MIMO Channel models for 4G Mobile Communication Systems from Stanford University, USA.

The mission of the Nokia Foundation is to support the scientific development of information and telecommunications technologies and to promote education of the sector in Finland. Multidisciplinary research that bridges approaches from other fields, like social, behavioral, business and services sciences, is highly valued.

The Foundation makes available grants and awards for the purposes mentioned above. Decisions are made by the board of the Foundation consisting of four representatives of the Finnish universities and three representatives of Nokia.

Established at the initiative of Nokia Oyj, Nokia Foundation was entered in the Finnish foundation registry in August 1995. However, Nokia Foundation is not part of Nokia Oyj. Its mandate is limited to granting funds in the scope of the mission.

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