Minister of Education and Research Liina Kersna congratulated and thanked the laureate. “Mare Koit is the first professor of language technology in Estonia and continues to be one of the most influential people in the field,” says Kersna. “Thanks to Mare Koit’s clear vision and continuous work as both a researcher and a lecturer, Estonian language technology has reached a very high level even internationally.”
As a researcher, Mare Koit is committed to the development of artificial intelligence, doing everything needed to ensure fluid communication with computers in Estonian. She has skilfully combined such seemingly distant disciplines as linguistics and computer science and has created a well-functioning language technology school in Estonia. She has supervised numerous dissertations on language technology and has inspired students, who are now actively and successfully advancing in the field of language technology in Estonia. Mare Koit has guided and managed the field, following the latest trends and opening up international opportunities for young colleagues.
The Wiedemann Language Award will be handed to the winner at the awards ceremony on 23 February. The award is 65,000 euros.
The F. J. Wiedemann Language Award is granted annually to one person for outstanding services in researching, organising, teaching, promoting or using the Estonian language. Last year, the Wiedemann Language Award was awarded to Jüri Viikberg, while the first to receive it in 1989 was Henn Saari.
