Visionaries

The International Eugen Wüster Prize is awarded every three years to individuals with an outstanding life record in the field of terminology. Although it carries the name of the Austrian engineer and industrialist, Eugen Wüster, who is often called the “father of terminology science,” the bestowal of the Prize is by no means based on the ideas—some say ideology—of the late Wüster. However, Wüster’s ideas were quite in line with the positivist scholars of science theory and applied linguistics of the first half of the 20th century. He was a layman or amateur (in the originally positive sense of these words) applied linguist who tried to integrate the theories and methods of applied linguistics and communication, information and documentation and science theory (and later on early computer science) into a comprehensive theory of terminology (which he modestly called “Terminologielehre” [Terminology Studies]). The dimension of his intentions go far beyond what can be gathered from his published works, but can be seen from his unpublished material in the Eugen Wüster Archive at Vienna University.

Even more than his scholarly endeavors, financially facilitated by his inherited enterprise, Wüster & Co in Wieselburg (Lower Austria) – which still exists today, although no longer in the hands of the Wüster family – Wüster’s devotion to the subject of terminology was remarkable, nothing short of an obsession. His ideas were not mainstream, however, so they faced many obstacles and much opposition in Austrian and German society, especially in academia and public administration after the Second World War.

It is this devotion for a lifetime of work that is the motivation behind the Eugen Wüster Prize. On behalf of Infoterm, I am pleased to announce that this year’s winners—Prof. Teresa Cabré at the Institute for Applied Linguistics (IULA) at Pompeu Fabra University, and Prof. Alan K. Melby at Brigham Young University (BYU)—can truly be called worthy recipients according to this criterion.

Many interesting facts and stories can be recounted about our dear colleague and friend, Alan Melby. Born in 1948, he has always led an active life, including in his career as adult leader in Boy Scouts of America. Similar to Eugen Wüster, he has many children, but unlike Wüster, he (hopefully) has not neglected them! After his studies and graduation from the Department of Linguistics and English Language at Brigham Young University, he became Assistant Professor in 1977 and later on Full Professor at his home university. In addition, he has quite a record as an industry entrepreneur and consultant.

Alan Melby started off as a scholar with a strong belief in the existence of one universal set of language-independent concepts underlying all human languages. However, over time, his theoretical approach has evolved towards a denial of the existence of an absolute set of language-independent concepts. At the same time, Alan has avoided radical relativism, which would ultimately result in the incapability of human communication across cultural and social boundaries. In this aspect, he is not that far from Wüster in his assumptions, i.e., acknowledging that concepts evolve over time, and that different concepts emerge under differing cultural and social circumstances, and coping with this “fluidity” through a synchronic and harmonizing approach. Both Alan’s and Wüster’s aim has been to facilitate and to make possible domain communication across social and cultural boundaries.

Alan joined the terminology field in 1986 in preparation for the first TKE Conference on Terminology and Knowledge Engineering, in which he had developed an interest due to his scholarly engagement in the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI). He became a loyal and active contributor to the following TKE Conferences held every three years. Later, on he helped to establish the TAMA series of TermNet conferences on Terminology in Advanced Microcomputer Applications (which has now evolved into Terminology in Advanced Management Applications) in line with contemporary topicalities. This has gone hand-in-hand with his increasing engagement in the activities of ISO/TC 37 (also a Wüster creation), which was then called Terminology (principles and co-ordination). TC37—not least because of his influence—has since expanded its scope and activities, and is now called Terminology and other language and content resources.

Alan has always emphasized the connections between the theoretical and applied branches of his research fields, both in human and machine translation (MT). Human translation, which can also be considered as a kind of communication facilitator, will not fade away, nor will machines or MT replace all human translation. This realization, coupled with challenges experienced by competing commercial vendors of translation and localization technology products, led Dr. Melby to the conclusion that terminological and lexicographical data first of all required standards to enable exchange and later on interoperability (in the ultimately true sense of semantic interoperability). He has thus not only helped to propel ISO/TC 37 into a new age, but also tested his approaches and the emerging standards in practical cooperation with industry.

Given his devotion for and achievements in the field of terminology over many years, it is difficult to imagine any other person more worthy to receive the Eugen Wüster Prize than Dr. Alan Melby.

Klaus-Dirk Schmitz is Full Professor of Terminology Studies at Cologne University of Applied Sciences in Germany. His teaching, research and writing focus on terminology theory and terminology management, along with software localization and computer tools for translators. He has taken a leadership role in national and international forums and currently serves as President of the International Information Centre for Terminology (Infoterm) and Chairman of the German Standards Committee on Computer Applications in Terminology. He is also Managing Director of the Institute for Information Management at Cologne University. Prof. Schmitz can be reached at klaus.schmitz@fh-koeln.de.