Stefan Decker

Timeline

1. 1988–1995

   Computer science at Kaiserslautern

   From 1988 to 1995, he studies computer science at the University of Kaiserslautern and earns the Diplom-Informatiker degree.

2. October 1995–February 2002

   Doctoral studies at Karlsruhe

   From October 1995 to February 2002, he pursues doctoral studies in economic sciences at the University of Karlsruhe.

3. 1998

   An RDF query system

   In 1998, with Dan Brickley, Janne Saarela, and Jürgen Angele, he creates the first query and inference system for RDF, described in the QL’98 paper.

4. 1999

   A DARPA grant at Stanford

   While he is a postdoc at Stanford, he secures a US$1 million DARPA grant in 1999.

5. 2006–2015

   Leading DERI in Galway

   From July 2006 to August 2015, he is Professor for Digital Enterprise at NUI Galway and executive director of DERI. In 2007, DERI researchers build a Semantic Web search engine that answers queries over more than seven billion RDF statements.

6. 2010

   Royal Irish Academy membership

   In 2010, the Royal Irish Academy elects him to membership.

7. September 2015–October 2026

   Directing Fraunhofer FIT

   In September 2015, he becomes director of Fraunhofer FIT and accepts the RWTH Aachen chair in Information Systems and Databases. In 2025, FIT advances the practical use of generative AI in applications, new work practices, and training specialists and managers; during the 2025/26 winter semester, he mentors an advanced lab at RWTH Aachen. As of October 2026, he is Fraunhofer FIT’s managing director and a professor at RWTH Aachen, and he holds a doctorate from the University of Karlsruhe.