Alex Rutherford

Alex Rutherford is a PhD Student at the University of Oxford and a Teaching College Lecturer in Engineering at Pembroke College, affiliated with the Oxford Robotics Institute. Supervised by Prof. Nick Hawes, Dr. Bruno Lacerda, and Prof. Jakob Foerster, he currently maintains academic status while on leave due to Long Covid as of July 2025.

His research centers on reinforcement learning with specialized focus on multi-agent systems, open-ended learning, and curriculum design. He investigates environment optimization frameworks, regret approximation techniques, and uncertainty management in robotic decision-making. His work bridges theoretical AI with practical robotics applications through frameworks like JaxMARL.

Recent publications demonstrate progression from foundational motion planning (2021) to advanced multi-agent RL systems (2024-2025), with increasing emphasis on curriculum design and environment optimization. His work consistently connects reinforcement learning theory with real-world robotics challenges, particularly in multi-robot coordination and uncertain environments.

Beyond research, Rutherford organizes the Tolkien Lecture series at Pembroke College and has represented Oxford in competitive fencing. He actively shares resources through his personal website and blog, including the JaxMARL open-source library for multi-agent reinforcement learning.