Wolfgang Bibel

Leonhard Wolfgang Bibel (born on 28 October 1938 in Nuremberg) is a German computer scientist, mathematician and Professor emeritus at the Department of Computer Science of the Technische Universität Darmstadt.

He was one of the founders of the research area of artificial intelligence in Germany and Europe and has been named as one of the ten most important researchers in German artificial intelligence history by the Gesellschaft für Informatik.

Bibel established the necessary institutions, conferences and scientific journals and promoted the necessary research programs to establish the field of artificial intelligence.

Bibel has worked in the fields of automated deduction, knowledge representation, architecture of deductive systems and inference, planning, learning, program synthesis, as well as on topics concerning the implications of AI technology for society.

His most outstanding scientific contribution was his connection method, which allows logical conclusions to be drawn automatically in a very compact way.

Finally, in 1958, he began studying mathematics and physics at the University of Erlangen, majoring in physics.

The first year of his studies was a challenge for Bibel, as the content was unknown to him, unlike his fellow students who came from science schools.

During his semester breaks, he completed another internship at Siemens-Schuckertwerke.

He received his intermediate diploma on May 4, 1961.

From 1962 he completed part of his studies at the University of Heidelberg.

With the change of his focus to mathematics, he moved to the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU), where he studied until 1964 and obtained his diploma in mathematics.

His diploma thesis dealt with the proof of Remmert's theorem of illustration.

From 1964 to 1966, he was then a scientific assistant at the Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics in Munich, then headed by Werner Heisenberg.

At the Max Planck Institute he met Peter Mittelstaedt, who offered him a scholarship and supervision.

Mittelstaedt proposed to Bibel to work on the solution to the problem of reversal in scattering theory for his doctoral thesis but it later became known that the solution had long since been found.

At the time, Mittelstaedt had not been aware of this.

Later it turned out that Mittelstaedt had accepted a professorship at the University of Cologne.

Bibel moved with Mittelstaedt to the University of Cologne, where he worked as a scientific assistant.

The solution already found, the suddenly accepted professorship of Mittelstaedt and the distance to his girlfriend led to his resignation after a short time.

In 1968 he received his doctorate with cum laude in mathematical logic under the supervision of Kurt Schütte from LMU.

From 1969 to 1987 he was scientific assistant at the Institute of Computer Science at the Technical University of Munich (TUM).

Actually, Bibel intended to habilitate at the university.

In December 1974 he submitted his habilitation thesis for examination.

His supervisor was Klaus Samelson.

Surprisingly, however, Friedrich Ludwig Bauer, who headed the institute at the time, vetoed his habilitation, which meant he was denied eligibility, which was unusual given the accomplishments of Bibel.

He recommended that he continue his research for another five years before considering a habilitation.

Outside of TUM, however, his achievements were recognized, which is why he tried to initiate a habilitation procedure without Bauer's approval, as Bauer vehemently opposed it.

During this period, he was appointed as a lecturer by the Department of Computer Science at the Bundeswehr University Munich from 1975 to 1976.

In addition, in the summer semester of 1975 he represented the chair of Jacques Loeckx at Saarland University and was called upon by the Dean of the Department of Mathematics/Computer Science of the Paderborn University to apply for a professorship.

The chairman of the habilitation commission was Karl Heinz Helwig, who appointed reviewers who had no knowledge of his subject, automated theorem proving.

He then turned to the then President of the Technical University of Munich, Ulrich Grigull, but without success.

According to Bibel's impression, Grigull said that tradition needed no explanation and that he should have listened to Bauer.

During this time, Bibel held further positions and obtained additional opinions, which were positive.

These included assessments by Bruno Buchberger and Woody Bledsoe, but in 1977 his application was rejected with 31 dissenting votes and 3 abstentions.

Out of desperation, he tried to withdraw the motion.

He knew only a few reasons for his rejection from indiscreet discussions.

However, he did not get insight into the reasons for the rejection.

Bibel received the 2006 Herbrand Award for Distinguished Contributions to Automated Reasoning.

Wolfgang Bibel was born in Nuremberg, Germany.

Before his studies, he had to demonstrate industrial experience, which is why he completed an internship at a large power plant in Franken.