Dr. Peter Ingwersen is an internationally recognized researcher and teacher who received the 2003 Research Award from the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIST); and the 2007 Thomson ISI Outstanding Teacher Award from ASIST. He is also a recipient of the 2005 Derek de Solla Price Medal from the International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics; the 2005 Thomson Award of Excellence as the most highly internationally cited Danish researcher in the Social Sciences; the 1993 Jason Farradane Research Award from the Institute of Information Scientists, UK; Fellow of the Library Association, UK, 1990. He is a frequently invited speaker of prestigious lectures: The 1992 Anne V. Marinelli Lecture at the Texas Woman's University; the 1994 ASIST/New Jersey Distinguished Lectureship; the 2002 Lazerow Lecture at the Washington State University; the 2009 Lazerow Lecture at the University of Tennessee.
Dr. Peter Ingwersen is a productive scholar who has published more than 100 peer reviewed journal articles, conference papers, book chapters, and books. Among the many significant contributions to information science by Dr. Peter Ingwersen, the two most influential areas are the cognitive approach to interactive information retrieval and Webometrics. Being a rigorous researcher and scientist of original mind, he has been innovative and quick to identify and explore new ideas as well as to extend existing ideas to new purposes in new contexts. His landmark study (published in the Journal of Documentation 1982, Online Review 1984, etc.) pioneered naturalistic approach to investigation of user-intermediary interaction in real world situations. Through sustained and systematic research, Dr. Ingwersen developed a theoretical model for IR named the cognitive model of IR interaction as articulated in his class book Information Retrieval Interaction, 1992, which has sold more than 2000 copies and being accessed 17,000 times since it was made free on the Web in 2002. In collaboration with Kalervo Jarvelin, he published another landmark book The Turn: Integration of Information Seeking and Retrieval in Context,2005, which was bridging user-centered approach with system-based approach for advancing IR research. The book was nominated for the 2006 ASIST Best Book Award. Both books have been translated and published in Chinese, Japanese and Korea.
He coined the notion ”Webometrics” and formulated a new line of IR research to observe the Web as an information retrieval system. Today, this is a fast growing area of research. His contribution was recognized by the 2005 Derek De Solla Price Award, selected by the international peers in Scientometrics and Informetrics. Dr. Ingwersen’s important contribution to the field is also reflected by his teaching and mentoring of new generation of researchers in information science. Many of his students and mentees have become successful researchers and award winners. For example, Lennart Björneborn, his doctoral student, received the 2005 Best Dissertation Award from the ASIST. As a luminary of the field, Dr. Ingwersen not only encourages the new generation of researchers but also recognizes junior researchers by citing their works in his publications. His willingness to pay attention to tyros' publications and promote their good works is truly exemplary given the long-observed phenomenon of scholarship: "a junior citing upward, but being ignored by the (cited) grandees" (Cronin & Shaw, Identity-creators and image-makers, Scientometrics, 2002, p. 44). His students and protégés nominated him for the ASIST Outstanding Information Science Teaching Award.