PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Josef Kittler

Josef Kittler is a Distinguished Professor at the University of Surrey whose work spans statistical pattern recognition and computer vision. With Pierre A. Devijver, he co-authored the 1982 book Pattern Recognition: A Statistical Approach, and his research includes nearest-neighbour classification, feature selection and multiple expert fusion. He founded Surrey's Centre for Vision, Speech and Signal Processing, served as IAPR president and chaired ICPR. His distinctions include election as an IAPR Fellow, the King-Sun Fu Prize and the IET Faraday Medal.

Works
1,158
Citations
55,970
h-index
92

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 14 October 2026.

Photo of Josef Kittler

Timeline

  1. 1973–1985

    Early research appointments

    After a Cambridge PhD in 1974, he held research posts at Cambridge and Southampton, a Royal Society fellowship in Paris, and an IBM fellowship at Oxford. He later spent five years at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

  2. 1982

    Writing statistical pattern recognition

    With Pierre A. Devijver, he co-authored Pattern Recognition: A Statistical Approach in 1982. His statistical pattern-recognition work included k-nearest-neighbour classification, feature selection and multiple expert fusion.

  3. Since 1986

    A Surrey vision centre

    He joined Surrey as a Reader in Information Technology in 1986 and became Professor of Machine Intelligence in 1991; he gained the title Distinguished Professor in 2004 and remains in that role. He founded the Centre for Vision, Speech and Signal Processing in 1986.

  4. 1994–1996

    Leading the IAPR

    He served as IAPR Second Vice President before becoming its president from 1994 to 1996.

  5. 1998–2000

    Engineering fellowships

    IAPR elected him a Fellow in 1998, and the Royal Academy of Engineering elected him a Fellow in 2000.

  6. 2001

    Taking biometrics into industry

    He co-founded OmniPerception Ltd in 2001 as a spin-off to apply his biometrics research.

  7. 2004–2024

    Guiding IAPR conferences

    He served as General Chair of ICPR in 2004, 2018 and 2024, while holding IAPR committee roles throughout 2004–2024.

  8. 2006–2008

    Two field honours

    The IAPR named him the King-Sun Fu Prize winner in 2006, and he received the IET Faraday Medal in 2008.

Sources and credits

Photo: surrey.ac.uk; Prof Josef Kittler | University of Surrey; creator not stated. License: Not stated by source. Source: surrey.ac.uk. Cropped to a square and resized. Ask us to remove or replace this photo.

  1. Prof Josef Kittler | University of Surrey surrey.ac.uk. Checked 14 October 2026.
  2. Professor Josef Kittler | University Defence Research Collaboration (UDRC) udrc.eng.ed.ac.uk. Checked 14 October 2026.
  3. The British Machine Vision Association : Josef-Kittler bmva.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  4. Pattern Recognition: A Statistical Approach - Pierre A. Devijver, Josef Kittler - Google Books books.google.com. Checked 14 October 2026.
  5. About CVSSP | University of Surrey surrey.ac.uk. Checked 14 October 2026.
  6. Josef Kittler – International Association for Pattern Recognition iapr.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  7. Alphabetical List of IAPR Fellows – International Association for Pattern Recognition iapr.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  8. King-Sun Fu Prize – International Association for Pattern Recognition iapr.org. Checked 14 October 2026.