Softwarepark Hagenberg was founded by Univ. Prof. Dr. Bruno Buchberger in 1989 as a spin-off of the Johannes Kepler University Linz (JKU) and was developed under his management.
The provincial government of Upper Austria – at the time under the leadership of Dr. Josef Ratzenböck – financed the renovation of Hagenberg Castle. State governor Ratzenböck subsequently asked mathematics professor Univ.Prof. Dr. Bruno Buchberger to develop a concept which would stimulate the economically weak, rural region in the middle of the Mühlviertel. Buchberger’s answer was Softwarepark Hagenberg, which he founded as a spin-off of the JKU Linz. Buchberger subsequently moved his research institute RISC (Research Institute for Symbolic Computation) from the JKU Linz to the newly renovated Hagenberg Castle.
Even at that time, the basic idea of Softwarepark Hagenberg – the networking of research institutes, educational institutions and economic enterprises – was one of Buchberger’s main focuses.
2021: OPAL AWARD – The price for a sustainable entrepreneurial life's work
2018: Herbrand Award for Automated Reasoning
2016: Award for Life´s Achievement from OÖ Leistungspreis
2015: Cultural Award of the Upper Austrian Government
2014: Austrian Honorary Medal for science and art
2012: Honorary Doctorate from the University of Innsbruck (Austria)
2011: Honorary Doctorate from the University of Waterloo (Kanada)
2010: Austrian of the year from Presse (Austrian Newspaper)
2007: Kanellakis Award of the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) for Theory and Practice
2006: Julius-Raab Medal of the Austrian Union of Commerce
2005: Senior Research Fellow of the Johannes Kepler University Linz (Austria)
2005: Honorary Doctorate from the University of Bath (UK), School of Mathematics
2005: Verdienstkreuz (Cross of Merit) of Tyrol (for building up computer science at the University of Innsbruck)
2004: Honorary member of the Japanese Society for Symbolic and Algebraic Computation (JSSAC)
2003: Erwin Wenzl Award (Special Science Award of Upper Austria for Life’s Achievement)
2003: Austrian Cross of Honors for Science and Arts of the First Class (the highest science award in Austria)
2000: Honorary Doctorate from the University of Timisoara (Romania), School of Mathematics
1999: The Golden Cross Award of the Upper Austrian Raiffeisen Bank
1999: The Golden Medal of Honor of the Upper Austrian Government
1999: Hermes Award of the Wirtschaftsblatt (Austrian Newspaper for Economy)
1998: Honorary Citizen of Hagenberg (Austria)
1995: The Upper Austrian Cultural Award for Science
1995: The Wilhelm Exner Medal of the Austrian Association for Business and Trade
1994: The Rudolf Trauner Science Award of the Upper-Austrian Chamber of Commerce
1993: Honorary Doctorate from the University of Nijmegen, School of Mathematics and Computer Science
1991: Member of Academia Europea, London