Date added: 2026-06-17
Professor Edward Szczerbicki has won the prestigious KES International Award
The award was presented in 2026 to mark the 30th anniversary edition of the ‘International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information and Engineering Systems’ — KES 2026. The award highlights both Professor Edward Szczerbicki’s outstanding academic achievements and his long-standing, consistent commitment to developing the international KES research and academic network.
KES International is a global organisation that supports knowledge transfer, the development of scientific networks and scientific research. It focuses primarily on intelligent systems and technologies for sustainable development. It organises numerous international scientific events, publishes academic journals and brings together over 5,000 professionals, engineers, researchers, PhD students and managers from more than 50 countries. KES’s areas of activity include, amongst others, artificial intelligence, knowledge-based engineering, sustainable construction, smart energy and digital media.
The official statement explaining the award reads as follows:
"Professor Szczerbicki is an internationally renowned scholar, researcher, educator, and leader whose distinguished career has had a profound impact on the global research community. His outstanding achievements, sustained excellence, and exceptional service have earned him widespread respect and recognition throughout the world.
Over more than two decades, Professor Szczerbicki has made extraordinary and sustained contributions to the KES community. His service has extended far beyond the normal expectations of academic involvement and includes delivering influential inaugural speeches, keynote addresses, chairing numerous conference sessions, presenting high-quality research papers, serving for 20 years as an Associate Editor of the KES Journal, and actively encouraging and mentoring researchers and PhD students to participate in KES conferences and activities.
His multiple keynote presentations have consistently been insightful, inspiring, and intellectually stimulating. They have broadened perspectives, introduced innovative ideas, and significantly enriched the academic discourse within the KES community. Through his scholarship and leadership, he has played a major role in advancing knowledge and fostering excellence in intelligent systems, knowledge-based systems, and related disciplines.
Professor Szczerbicki has also been for over 25 years an outstanding ambassador for KES, promoting its activities internationally and helping to strengthen its global reputation. His dedication, professionalism, generosity, and commitment to nurturing the next generation of researchers have had a lasting and positive impact on his countless colleagues, students, and conference participants.
The KES community has benefited enormously from his vision, wisdom, and unwavering support. His exceptional record of scholarly achievement, leadership, service, and mentorship makes him an exceptionally worthy recipient of this honour."
Professor Edward Szczerbicki and his team have been participating in the annual KES conferences since 2001, when the KES’2001 conference was held in Osaka, Japan. During this time, the team has published around 50 papers in the KES conference proceedings, presenting research findings and examples of practical applications of concepts developed within Professor Szczerbicki’s research group.
One of the key areas of this research is the concept of Decisional DNA — DDNA, which concerns the collection, representation and utilisation of experience by human-created artificial systems. Since 2001, Professor Szczerbicki and his team have been developing both the theoretical foundations of this concept and its practical applications.
This approach has been applied in areas such as decision support, medicine, Industry 4.0/5.0 manufacturing systems, economics, genetics and robotics. The team’s presentations at the KES conference focused primarily on these areas of implementation and the interdisciplinary applications of their research.