Ljubljana - Jadran Lenarčič, the former director of the Jožef Stefan Institute (IJS) who has made a name for himself in robotics research, was honoured with the lifetime achievement award in computer science as part of the 25th IS 2022, an international conference on information society, computer science and informatics, on Friday.

The conference started on Monday and is traditionally organised by the Jožef Stefan Institute, one of the country's top research institutions.

Lenarčič, 67, who holds a PhD in electrical engineering, has done extensive research in robotics, robot kinematics, biorobotics and humanoid robotics.

He started working at ISJ in 1979, led its robotics lab (1985-1995), the department of automation, biocybernetics and robotics (1995-2005) and then IJS (2005-2020).

He is also a member of the Slovenian Engineering Academy and a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences in Italy's Bologna.

He has received two top state orders abroad - Italy's Cavaliere Ufficiale nell'Ordine al Merito and France's Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérit.

Since 2020, he has edited several books from the Advances and Robot Kinematics series for publisher Springer and co-authored two monographs on robotics.

The award for best achievement of the past year in IT was given to the group at the National Institute of Public Health that introduced zVem, a portal for heath services.

The group that introduced the digital identity card received the Strawberry award, while the Lemon for "worst achievement" went to "censorship on social media and the internet".