Call for Bids to Host ICPR 2028

The International Conference on Pattern Recognition (ICPR) is the major scientific event organized under the auspices of the International Association for Pattern Recognition (IAPR). The aim of this conference is to bring together international experts to share their work and experiences and to promote research and development in Pattern Recognition.

The conference is hosted by an institution under the auspices of an endorsing IAPR member organization (national pattern recognition society). Any such institutions interested in making a proposal to host an ICPR must proceed according to the rules outlined in the latest version of the guidelines.

It has been the tradition that the location of ICPR conferences follows a rotating schedule among different continents. Hence, proposals from Europe are strongly encouraged. However, high quality bids from other locations will also be reviewed for consideration.

Please see the official call for bids on the ICPR Proposals page for additional details.

IAPR Prizes and Awards 2022

Biennially, at the International Conference on Pattern Recognition, the IAPR awards three prestigious prizes and names its Fellows.

ICPR 2022 will take place August 21-25, 2022 in Montréal, Québec, Canada. 

The IAPR encourages geographic, ethnic, and gender diversity in nominations for its prizes and awards.

Calls for Nominations have been posted at the IAPR website for:

  • The King-Sun Fu Prize, given in recognition of an outstanding technical contribution to the field of Pattern Recognition. Deadlines:  April 2, 2022 (nomination); April 4, 2022 (endorsements)
  • The J. K. Aggarwal Prize, given to a young scientist (under 40 at the nominations deadline) who has brought substantial contribution to a field relevant to the IAPR community and whose research work has had a major impact on the field. Deadline:  May 1, 2022 (all forms)
  • The Maria Petrou Prize, given to a female scientist/engineer who has made substantial contributions to the field of Pattern Recognition (or a closely related field) and who may be regarded as a model to aspiring and established researchers. Deadline:  May 1, 2022 (all forms)
  • The IAPR Fellow Award, conferreed on persons to acknowledge their distinguished contributions to the field of Pattern Recognition and to IAPR activities. Deadline:  January 31, 2022 (all forms)

Call for Nominations for IAPR Fellows

Deadline for Submission of Nomination and Endorsement Forms is January 31, 2022.

We welcome nominations for IAPR Fellowship (FIAPR). In particular, the IAPR would like to see nominations from a broader geographical region and from under-represented ethnicities and genders.

Information about eligibility and details on how to submit a nomination can be found here: 

Call for Nominations for IAPR Fellows

The IAPR appreciates your efforts to support its fellowship program!


The IAPR Fellow Committee:
  Massimo Tistarelli,  Chair
  Rita Cucchiara
  Sven Dickinson
  Stan Z. Li
  Umapada Pal
  Rene Vidal
  Josiane Zerubia

Call for Nominations: 2021 Young Biometrics Investigator Award

Deadline:  June 30, 2021

The Young Biometrics Investigator Award is presented biennially to an outstanding scientist, under the age of 40 at the nomination deadline,

who has made substantial contributions to the IAPR Biometrics community and whose research has had a major impact in biometrics. 

The prize consists of a cash amount and a suitably inscribed certificate. The recipient of the 2021 award will deliver a plenary talk at IJCB 2021 (http://ijcb2021.iapr-tc4.org/). 

A full Call for Nominations has been posted here https://iapr.org/fellowsandawards/awards_ybiometrics.php with links to nomination and endorsement forms.

Spring 2021 Survey

Dear IAPR Community Members,


Please take a few minutes to respond to the IAPR Spring 2021 Survey (https://tinyurl.com/iaprsurvey2021), an anonymous, short, online form focusing on your opinions and attitudes in the face of the pandemic and our recovery from it as an international research community.


Together we can make your IAPR even better.

Many thanks,

The IAPR 2020-2022 ExCo

Dan Lopresti, Lale Akarun, Terence Sim, Arjan Kuijper, Bob Fisher, and Apostolos Antonacopoulos

In Memoriam: Herbert Freeman

It is with great sadness that we report the passing of Herb Freeman, a pioneer in our field and one of the founders of the IAPR more than 40 years ago.  The ExCo expresses our deepest condolences to Herb’s family, friends, and colleagues on behalf of the entire IAPR community.

Herb had a long and productive career that touched many, many people. He worked on the development of the first electronic computers in the early days of computing, and helped initiate computing engineering as a discipline at three major U.S. universities.  He published over 100 papers, authored a number of books, and helped to establish important journals. He was one of the select group of founders who organized the first “ICPR” in 1973, which marked the start of his leadership service that culminated in his role in the formal founding of IAPR in 1978.  Over the years Herb served as a Vice President, Treasurer, and ultimately President of the IAPR.  He was awarded the K.S. Fu Prize in 1994.

Herb’s numerous important contributions in the early days of our field place him in very rare company; he will be missed. I encourage you to read the personal remembrances of Herb in the January 2021 Special Issue of the IAPR Newsletter.

With deep sympathy,

Dan Lopresti, IAPR President

2020 J. K. Aggarwal Prize

It is our pleasure to announce that the recipient of the 2020 J.K. Aggarwal Prize is Professor Abhinav Gupta, Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh,PA, USA.

The citation for the prize is:
“For pioneering contributions to unsupervised and self-supervised
learning in computer vision and robotics.”

The prize will be presented to Professor Gupta prior to his award lecture at ICPR2020 Virtual-Milano, 4 p.m. (CET) on January 12, 2021.

Congratulations to Professor Gupta on this achievement.

Apostolos Antonacopoulos

IAPR President

2020 King-Sun Fu Prize

It is our pleasure to announce that the recipient of the 2020 King-Sun Fu Prize is Professor Ching Yee Suen, Centre for Pattern Recognition and Machine Intelligence (CENPARMI), Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

The citation for the prize is:
“For pioneering research and exceptional contributions to handwriting recognition and document understanding in theory, practice, and education.”

The prize will be presented to Professor Suen prior to his award lecture at ICPR2020 Virtual-Milano, 1 p.m. (CET) on January 12, 2021.

Congratulations to Professor Suen on this achievement.

Apostolos Antonacopoulos

IAPR President

2020 Maria Petrou Prize

It is our pleasure to announce that the recipient of the 2020 Maria Petrou Prize is Professor Maja Pantic, Professor of Affective and Behavioral Computing, Imperial College, London, UK, and AI Scientific Research Lead at Facebook London.

The citation for the prize is:
“For contributions to artificial intelligence (AI), particularly in computer vision and machine learning applied to automatic analysis of human faces, machine understanding of human behaviour, and multimodal recognition of human emotions.”

The prize will be presented to Professor Pantic prior to her award lecture at ICPR2020 Virtual-Milano, 1 p.m. (CET) on January 13, 2021.

Congratulations to Professor Pantic on this achievement.

Apostolos Antonacopoulos

IAPR President