The IFIP community is deeply saddened by the passing of Alfred Hoffmann (1954-2026), whose long-standing partnership with IFIP helped shape the dissemination of computer science research around the world.
Alfred retired in 2022 after nearly 30 years with Springer, where he most recently served as Vice President for Computer Science Books.
During his distinguished career, he played a pivotal role in building one of the world’s leading computer science publishing programmes. He helped shape the development of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series, which remains one of the world’s largest refereed publication series, and championed conference proceedings as a trusted medium for communicating peer-reviewed research.
For IFIP, Alfred’s contribution was especially significant. After the Springer-Kluwer merger, he assumed responsibility for the IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology (AICT) series, together with IFIP volumes published in LNCS. For more than 15 years, he was instrumental in strengthening the partnership between Springer and IFIP, working closely with successive IFIP Presidents, conference organisers and editors to ensure that research presented at IFIP conferences reached the global scientific community.
Alfred was also an early advocate for expanding access to scientific knowledge. He played a leading role in Springer’s open access initiatives, overseeing the publication of the publisher’s first open access book in 2011 and helping to pave the way for broader dissemination of research.
Those who worked with Alfred remember not only his professionalism, vision and deep commitment to scientific publishing, but also his generosity, kindness and genuine willingness to support colleagues, editors and authors. Through his work, he made a lasting contribution to both IFIP and the wider computer science community.
On behalf of the IFIP community, we extend our sincere condolences to Alfred’s family, friends and former colleagues. His contributions to scientific publishing and to IFIP will be remembered with gratitude.