Dr. Ursula Schoch-Gruebler IPI Award Recipient 2003
(Source PIUG Discussion List; IPI-Institute Discussion List; May 2003)
Dr. Ursula Schoch-Gruebler, Senior Vice-President, BASF Group Information Center at BASF in Germany, is being honored as the recipient of the 'International Patent Information (IPI) Award' 2003.
The news was heard by over 300 information professionals attending a luncheon at the Patent Information Users Group (PIUG) Annual Conference in Chicago on May 5th, 2003. The announcement took place in the elegant 15th floor ballroom of the conference hotel, with its splendid picture windows and views of the city, its waterways, bridges and historic architecture.
Presiding over the event were members of the IPI-Award Selection Board, an international body responsible for reviewing the nominations. As Master of Ceremonies, the proceedings were commenced by Mr. Ford Khorsandian, who is also the founder of the Award. The other Board members present included Ms. Lucy Akers, Mr. Jeffrey Forman, Mr. Koh Ishii and Mr. Yutaka Wada.
Following an introduction by Trudi Jones (on behalf of Award sponsors Technology & Patent Research International, Inc.), the name of the recipient for 2003 was jointly announced by Ms. Lucy Akers (Chairperson of the PIUG), and by fellow Board member, Mr. Jeffrey Forman. Ms. Akers and Mr. Forman praised the achievements of Dr. Schoch-Gruebler, remarking that: "She has been unstinting in her pursuit of excellence in patent information and has had significant influence on key vendors. She has been an outstanding advocate and leading spokesperson for the user community over a sustained period." The audience enthusiastically greeted the announcement with applause and was delighted to hear the comments of Dr. Schoch-Gruebler herself via a live telephone link-up from her office in Ludwigshafen in Germany.
Trudi Jones, on returning to the podium to share with the audience some highlights of Dr. Schoch-Grueblers illustrious career, aptly rounded off the impressive list of achievements by declaring, This lady is a mover and a shaker!
Mr. Yutaka Wada and Mr. Koh Ishii, the IPI-Award Selection Board Members from Japan, congratulated Dr. Schoch-Gruebler on behalf of the Selection Board and the conference attendees. Dr. Schoch-Gruebler responded by addressing the PIUG audience, saying: "Thank you to all the members of the IPI Selection Board and also, of course, the people who nominated me. I still don't really believe it. It is indeed a great honor to receive the IPI-Award and I feel extremely privileged. When Ian Sinclair, Chairman of the IPI-Award Selection Board, called me, I really wasn't prepared for the news and I just thought that I must have misunderstood him. The next thought was: Why me? After all, I've just been doing my job one that is a reward in itself, working in such a stimulating and exciting field and with so many creative and motivated colleagues. For me it is still unbelievable that I am to join my role-models in the IPI Award Hall of Fame. These are people who greatly influenced my mindset and it really is a great honor to be joining them.
Dr. Schoch-Grueblers ongoing pro-active work with patent information providers such as Thomson Derwent, Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), FIZ-Karlsruhe and the European Patent Office is widely recognized. During such interactions, the underpinning theme for Dr. Schoch-Gruebler has always been one of advocating quality. Ms. Suzan Brown, Marketing Director at CAS and Mr. Bob Stembridge, Corporate Business Manager at Thomson Derwent, were present at the Announcement to offer their congratulations to Dr. Schoch-Gruebler on behalf of their respective organizations and to invite her to share some anecdotes from her career. These stories were very much enjoyed by the audience and can be enjoyed again by clicking on the link below to see a full transcript of the announcement proceedings.
Click here for a full transcript of the announcement made at the PIUG Annual Conference, including Dr. Schoch-Grueblers remarks.
Click here for a report of the
presentation ceremony to Dr. Schoch-Gruebler made at the European Patent
Offices EPIDOS Annual Conference 2003, including Dr. Schoch-Grueblers
remarks.
A Role Model for Patent
Information Users
Ursula Schoch-Gruebler was born, grew up and was educated in Germany. She gained her Doctorate in Chemistry under the supervision of the Nobel laureate Prof. Georg Wittig at the University of Heidelberg, and with that, her career was off to a flying start.
She joined the former Documentation Department at BASF in Ludwigshafen as an information officer in 1976 and progressively rose through the ranks to the position of Senior Vice-President, Scientific Information. In 2002, the Department expanded to include business information and become the BASF Group Information Center.
Dr. Schoch-Grueblers list of achievements in founding patent information groups and being an active participant in committees responsible for shaping the future of patent information is impressive:
Past President of the Patent Documentation
Group (PDG), an organization founded in 1957 to represent the interests of
European companies regarding patent information;
Founding member of ARPAD (working group for
patent applications and documentation, under the auspices of the German Society
for Information Science) and IMPACT (Impact of Patent Laws on Documentation,
formed within the PDG);
Former Chairperson on the Scientific
Advisory Board of FIZ-Karlsruhe;
User representative at the European Patent
Office Hearing in 1997, which helped establish the framework of the EPOs
information policies;
Member of the German Ministry for Education
and Research Steering Committee to devise a strategy for the future of
scientific and technical information.
Dr. Schoch-Grueblers contributions have not gone un-noticed. She has been the recipient of several awards in the field of patent information, including the Economics Medallion from the German federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg; as well as the Gmelin-Beilstein Commemorative Medallion awarded by the German Chemical Society.
Dr. Schoch-Gruebler was originally nominated for the IPI-Award by Professor Schultheiss of FIZ Karlsruhe, and received independent nominations in subsequent years from Irmgard Fischli of Novartis, and Stefano Caporusso of Dow.
Anyone wishing to send a congratulatory message to Dr. Schoch-Gruebler may reply to Trudi Jones, trudi@IPI-Institute.com , and the greeting will be forwarded.
The presentation of the actual IPI-Award plaque to Dr. Schoch-Gruebler will take place at the PATINNOVA & EPIDOS Annual Conference in Luxembourg on 10th November, 2003. The event attracts several hundred delegates, including representatives from the EPO and leading patent information experts from many countries around the world.
Award Background and Philosophy
The International Patent Information (IPI) Award is presented in association with the International Patent Information (IPI) Institute and is sponsored by Technology & Patent Research (TPR) International Inc. The IPI-Award selection process is directed by a Board of eminent patent information industry professionals representing Europe, the United States and Japan. The IPI-Award consists of a plaque and an honorarium of $3000.
"The International Patent Information Award has been established to pay tribute to one individual each year who, through their career as a dedicated patent information professional, has made a significant positive impact on patent information. It is intended to highlight the patent information profession in general and how the profession is valued by others. The IPI-Institute is an organization which builds upon this theme and has been formed to work alongside national patent information user groups and associations for the benefit of the profession. The Award is made on an international level and has been set up to represent the pinnacle of achievement in the patent information profession," explains Ford Khorsandian, President of TPR.
From its base in San Diego, California, TPR International specializes in in-depth searching of both patent and non-patent information through online databases, manual searching of document collections held worldwide, and provides patent searching services to multi-national R&D based corporations and patent law firms.
For further information on the
IPI-Award, the IPI-Institute or the specialist patent information conference
and exposition, IPI-ConfEx, which is to take place in Lisbon in March 2004,
contact: Trudi Jones, trudi@IPI-Institute.com;
(858) 592 9084
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