Dieter Fensel (born 10 October 1960 in Nuremberg, died 29 December 2024 in Innsbruck) was a German researcher in the field of formal languages and the semantic web.
Fensel studied mathematics, social science and computer science at Berlin, and received his doctorate in economics in 1993, studying under Dr Rudi Studer at the University of Karlsruhe.
In 1998 he received his habilitation and started work at the Institute for Applied Computer Science and Formal Description Procedures (AIFB), focusing, inter alia, on knowledge management and formal languages.
He was hired by NUI Galway to direct the Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI); he resigned this position after a dispute with Science Foundation Ireland over whether he could be reimbursed for chartered aircraft, used to simplify the otherwise-complicated travel connections between Galway and Innsbruck.
[2] Fensel has published numerous articles in technical periodicals,[3][4] has been giving keynote speeches [5] and co-organized conferences.