32.4079, All: In memory of Jürgen Wedekind

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LINGUIST List: Vol-32-4079. Fri Dec 31 2021. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 32.4079, All: In memory of Jürgen Wedekind

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Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2021 22:20:13
From: Bolette Pedersen [bspedersen at hum.ku.dk]
Subject: In memory of Jürgen Wedekind

 
In memory of Jürgen Wedekind

It came as a shock to us when we were informed just before Christmas that
Jürgen was seriously ill with lung cancer. A few days ago, we were notified by
Jürgen’s wife, Susanne, that he had passed away, only 65 years old.
Jürgen joined the Centre for Language Technology (CST) in 1999 as a Senior
Researcher and stayed with the Centre when it joined the University of
Copenhagen and eventually the Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics. He
came from previous research positions at the Universities of Stuttgart and
Tübingen after obtaining his Doctoral degree and his ‘Habilitation’ in
Computational Linguistics at the University of Stuttgart. When he joined the
Centre, Jürgen was already an important figure in the LFG community. He had an
intense collaboration with Ron Kaplan that lasted throughout Jürgen’s career
and which has benefited many of us at the University of Copenhagen. Jürgen was
a computational linguist in the most classical sense of the word and an
esteemed researcher in formal grammar and parsing, especially within the
theory of LFG. He wrote several influential articles on these topics, some
published in Computational Linguistics at MIT Press. 
Jürgen was a respected and loyal colleague. In addition to being an
uncompromising and conscientious researcher, he was one of the driving forces
behind the successful Master's Programme ‘It and Cognition’ at the University
of Copenhagen. He served as the coordinator of the Programme for several years
and was a well-liked lecturer and supervisor for many students. Most recently,
he played an important role in the evaluation of the Programme. We could
always rely on Jürgen as a competent, as well as a pleasant colleague in
assessment and hiring committees.
Although Jürgen could be a little reserved on a daily basis, we have fond
memories of him relating to private aspects of his life. He quickly learned
Danish and soon learned to appreciate the famous Danish humor. He was in fact
often amused by our strange Danish customs – such as our lack of restraint
when we played games at the annual Christmas lunch. On such occasions, he
liked to enjoy a good beer – provided it was the regular thing, not any fancy
special beers. On his birthdays, we would always be treated to his wonderful
‘Kirschtorte’ with chocolate and cherries – Susanne’s creation as far as we
know. Jürgen was an active swimmer and passed on this passion to his son,
Timon, just as he was a big car enthusiast and enjoyed playing around with the
spare parts on his old Volvo.
It is hard to understand that Jürgen is not among us anymore. Our thoughts are
with the bereaved, Susanne and Timon. We will miss Jürgen as a friend and a
colleague. Let us honour his memory!

His colleagues at CST, University of Copenhagen
 


Linguistic Field(s): Computational Linguistics



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