Bernd Girod
Bernd Girod is a Stanford professor emeritus whose research in image, video, and multimedia systems includes mobile visual search. He earned engineering degrees at Georgia Tech and Hannover, held academic posts at MIT and in Germany, and joined Stanford in 1999. He co-founded Vivo Software and later served as Chief Scientist at RealNetworks. He became a EURASIP Fellow in 2008, received the IEEE Signal Processing Society's Technical Achievement Award in 2011, and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2015. As of October 2026, he is Stanford's Hancock Professor Emeritus and Faculty Director of the Stanford Center for Image Systems Engineering.
- Now at
- Stanford University
- Works
- 790
- Citations
- 26,042
- h-index
- 78
Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 15 October 2026.
Timeline
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1980–1987
Engineering degrees
He earns an M.S. in electrical engineering from Georgia Tech in 1980 and an engineering doctorate from the University of Hannover in 1987.
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1990–1999
Academic posts in Germany
He serves as an assistant professor at MIT's Media Laboratory until 1990, then becomes Professor of Computer Graphics and Technical Director at Cologne's Academy of Media Arts from 1990 to 1993. From 1993 to 1999, he holds the Chair of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications at Erlangen-Nuremberg.
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1993–2002
Video software ventures
He co-founds Vivo Software in 1993 and serves as its Chief Scientist through 1998. After Vivo's acquisition, he becomes Chief Scientist at RealNetworks from 1998 to 2002.
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1999–2016
Leading Stanford research centers
He joins Stanford as a tenured professor in 1999 and directs its Center for Image Systems Engineering and the Max Planck Center for Visual Computing and Communication. He becomes founding director of the Brown Institute for Media Innovation in 2012 and serves as Senior Associate Dean of the School of Engineering from 2012 to 2016.
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2008
A EURASIP fellowship
He becomes a EURASIP Fellow in 2008.
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2011
Mobile visual search
In 2011, he coauthors an article on mobile visual search and the emerging MPEG standard. The IEEE Signal Processing Society gives him its 2011 Technical Achievement Award for contributions to video communications, search, and processing.
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2015
National Academy election
He is elected to the US National Academy of Engineering in 2015 for contributions to video compression, streaming, and multimedia systems.
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As of October 2026
Professor emeritus at Stanford
As of October 2026, he is the Robert L. and Audrey S. Hancock Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering at Stanford and Faculty Director of its Center for Image Systems Engineering. In 2025–26, he teaches the Seminar Series for Image Systems Engineering (EE 292E).
Sources and credits
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