- Presented by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales at Wikimania, the annual global conference for volunteers on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, the “Wikimedian of the Year” awards honor exceptional individuals and communities who have made significant contributions to Wikimedia projects.
- Volunteers from Cameroon, Canada, India, Côte d’Ivoire, Netherlands, Nigeria, Poland, and Singaporerecognised for their efforts to make reliable knowledge available to people around the world.
The Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit that supports Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, is proud to announce the 2025 Wikimedian of the Year awards. The awards, presented by Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales at this year’s Wikimania 2025 event, honor the extraordinary volunteers around the world (known as “Wikimedians”) who contribute to Wikimedia projects and help make reliable knowledge accessible for people worldwide.
Wikipedia is among the top ten most-read websites in the world, and the only one that is run by a non-profit, the Wikimedia Foundation. Nearly 260,000 volunteers create the information in over 300 languages on Wikipedia, which is viewed more than 15 billion times every month. Through a process of open collaboration, these volunteers help to power the backbone of the internet with reliable information for all. Together, they compile and share information on notable subjects, according to Wikipedia’s editorial policies and guidelines. Volunteers discuss, debate, and often disagree until a shared consensus can be reached on what content to include. This process is done entirely out in the open for all to see. The Wikimedia projects demonstrate how hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life can effectively reach consensus based on facts.
The Wikimedian of the Year award winners are recognized across several categories, from new contributors to long-time volunteers, highlighting the diverse and vibrant community that makes the Wikimedia projects possible.
● The 2024 Wikimedian of the Year: Wikipedia user Robertsky (Singapore)(The Wikimedian of the Year award is the highest recognition, honoring an individual who has made substantial contributions to the Wikimedia projects and volunteer community. It highlights exemplary dedication, impactful contributions, and leadership.)
Since 2019, Robertsky has made over 79,000 edits on Wikipedia, many of them focused on improving and expanding coverage of Singapore-related topics on English Wikipedia. In 2024, he became an administrator (editors who have been granted the technical ability to perform certain special actions to protect pages on English Wikipedia), a reflection of his thoughtful contributions and trusted presence in the community. He has adopted and maintained the Index of Singapore-related articles, a valuable resource he rescued from neglect by creating a custom script to semi-automate its updates. Due to his efforts, the index remains active, accurate, and easy to use for editors interested in Singapore’s representation on Wikipedia. In 2023, he helped launch the Wikimedians of Singapore User Group, organizing regular meetups to bring local editors together to share knowledge and build a sense of community. He also serves on the ESEAP Hub Preparatory Council, which is responsible for growing regional cooperation.
● Wikimedia Laureate: Wikipedia user Risker (Canada) (Wikimedia Laureate: This award recognizes long-standing contributors who have over many years made a significant impact, often in administrative, technical, or organizational roles, supporting the Wikimedia projects’ infrastructure and governance.)
For 20 years, Risker has been an active Wikipedia editor and has played a crucial role in the improvements of reliable content on Wikipedia and in enabling more inclusive spaces for Wikimedia volunteers. She has helped shape policies, test and improve technical tools, stop vandals and bad actors on Wikipedia. actively shaping up the strategic direction of Wikimedia projects, Risker’s contributions have helped create a promising future for generations of Wikimedia volunteers. To help Wikimedia volunteers and staff learn from her own experiences, she also created a “Risker’s checklist” for future developers to avoid common risks in early phases of creating tool extensions for Wikipedia. She also serves as an Wikipedia Administrator, and an Arbitration Committee member on English Wikipedia, roles that are crucial in preserving and protecting the platform from bad actors.
● Media Contributor of the Year: Wikipedia user 1Veertje (Netherlands)(Media Contributor of the Year: This award celebrates individuals who have significantly contributed to the Wikimedia projects through media, including photography, illustrations, or other visual content.)
1Veertje is a passionate photography contributor who started volunteering on Wikipedia in 2010. Since joining, she has contributed over 86,000 photographs that have been used on 4,000 pages in 134 language Wikipedias. 1Veertje’s impact goes beyond the multimedia content she shares. With programming skills and metadata know-how, she has also catalogued tens of thousands of images from other sources for use across the Wikimedia projects. She’s also a regular at the Wikimedia Hackathon, where she connects with other tech-minded Wikimedia volunteers to share tools and develop technical improvements for projects such as Wikimedia Commons.
● Newcomers of the Year: Wikipedia user Dadrik (Côte d’Ivoire)(Newcomers of the Year: This award is given to individuals or groups who have made remarkable contributions as new members of the Wikimedia community, often bringing fresh perspectives and energies to the projects.)
Dadrik is this year’s Newcomer of the Year. He has been creating and improving articles related to Côte d’Ivoire and Africa and is a member of the Wikimedia Côte d’Ivoire community. He is also a patroller (trusted users who review newly created pages on Wikipedia) on French Wikipedia. Since joining Wikipedia, he has made over 19,000 contributions across all Wikimedia projects and also trains new volunteers across Africa on how to contribute reliable information to the platform. He has contributed immensely to Lingua Libre Workshops in Côte d’Ivoire that aim to add pronunciations of Ivorian cities and localities and words from Ivorian national languages to the French translation tool, Lingua Libre (a translation tool built by Wikimedia France). He has also led the Working Group for the creation of Baoulé Wikipedia. He is also proud of having participated and completed #100Wikidays challenge where he published articles that range from biographies, key events, and geographies in his country, helping to significantly increase access to reliable information on a diverse range of subjects.
● Functionary of the Year: Wikipedia User AramilFeraxa (Poland)(Functionary of the Year: This award acknowledges the essential behind-the-scenes work performed by functionaries—volunteers who take on administrative roles such asstewards,check users, andoversighters—ensuring the smooth and fair operation of Wikimedia projects.)
As a Wikimedia steward –a trusted volunteer elected by the global community – AramilFeraxa helps safeguard Wikimedia projects across languages and regions. Stewards use advanced tools to respond to problematic editing activities on Wikimedia projects, support communities without local administrators, and handle sensitive tasks that keep the projects running smoothly. It’s work that often goes unseen, but is essential to the resilience of the Wikimedia projects. In between steward and admin duties, AramilFerraxa has also improved 16 film articles that led them to be recognised as Wikipedia Featured articles, which are considered to be some of the best Wikipedia has to offer, as determined by Wikipedia’s editors.
● Tech Contributor of the Year: Wikipedia User Eugene233 (Cameroon)(Tech Contributor of the Year: is an award for the Wikimedians who support our technical infrastructure.)
Eugene has spent nearly a decade training other African volunteers on how to make technical contributions on Wikipedia. As a mentor with Wiki Mentor Africa, he plays a key role in training, tool development and building a strong and more inclusive space for volunteers to contribute to Wikipedia’s technology. He has contributed to the development of tools such as WikiSpeech (an open source text-to-speech tool to make Wikimedia projects more accessible for people that have difficulties reading), African German Phrasebook translation tool (a translation tool) and WDLexAudio, (a tool that matches audio files to support pronunciation of statements on Wikidata). Over a period of ten years, he has mentored over 1,000 aspiring and seasoned Wikimedia tech contributors, which has helped to spark long-term volunteer involvement across Africa. He’s currently a technical consultant to the Igbo Wikimedians User Group.
●Honorable Mention: Wikipedia User Nitesh Gill(India) (Honorable Mention: This recognition is given to individuals whose contributions, while perhaps not fitting into the other categories, have nonetheless had a significant impact on the Wikimedia community or projects.)
Beginning her journey on Wikipedia in 2014, Nitesh’s contributions are rooted in passion and purpose, with a focus on writing biographies of women. In 2017, she completed the #100wikidayschallenge, where volunteers create one new Wikipedia article every day for 100 days. Here she went on to write over 500 articles to ensure Punjabi Wikipedia contains more content on women. Over the years, Nitesh has become one of the most active contributors and the only woman administrator (editors who can perform certain actions to protect pages on Wikipedia) on Punjabi Wikipedia. She is also a lead member of the Punjabi Wikimedians User Group, which has created over 58,000 articles in the regional language. Her contributions have been instrumental in making Punjabi Wikipedia one of the language Wikipedias that has more articles about women than any other gender. Nitesh also led the She Leadsprogram that helps empower South Asian women to take on leadership roles within Wikimedia. Her global contributions include having key roles in organising several in-person events for the global Wikimedia communities, including WikiWomen Camp 2023 and the Wikisource Conference 2025 in Indonesia.
●Honorable Mention: Wikipedia User Ammarpad (Nigeria)(Honorable Mention: This recognition is given to individuals whose contributions, while perhaps not fitting into the other categories, have nonetheless had a significant impact on the Wikimedia community or projects.)
Ammarpad has worked for about five years supporting the software that powers all Wikimedia projects: MediaWiki. He has made more than 900 software changes, and code-reviewed hundreds of others. Ammarpad is also a long-time contributor to both English and Hausa Wikipedia (his native language). He began editing English Wikipedia in 2015, starting with Nigerian biographies. As he gained experience, he focused on improving the quality of Nigerian-related content across a range of topics. On Hausa Wikipedia, he has contributed both content and technical support: creating articles, developing templates and policies, and helping shape the project’s structure. He now serves as an administrator, supporting the growth of the project.
