Rina Dechter is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), affiliated with the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS). She specializes in automated reasoning, probabilistic and constraint-based graphical models, and causal inference. Dechter has held leadership roles, including Co-Editor-in-Chief of Artificial Intelligence since 2011 and editorial board memberships in journals such as the Constraint Journal and Journal of Machine Learning Research . Education : Ph.D., Computer Science, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) M.S., Applied Mathematics, Weizmann Institute B.S., Mathematics and Statistics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem Research Interests : Dechter’s work focuses on computational aspects of automated reasoning, constraint processing, probabilistic reasoning, and causal inference. She develops efficient algorithms for graphical models, emphasizing tractable reasoning tasks and anytime search strategies. Her recent projects include causal decision-making frameworks funded by a $5M NSF grant. Awards : Presidential Young Investigator Award (1991) AAAI Fellow (1994) ACP Research Excellence Award (2007) ACM Fellow (2013) Elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2025) Grants & Collaborations : She leads a multi-institutional NSF-funded project on causal foundations of AI decision-making. Her work emphasizes trustworthiness in AI through causal models, with applications in robotics and public health.
Theo Damoulas is a Professor of Machine Learning at the University of Warwick with a joint appointment in the Department of Computer Science and Statistics. He is a Turing AI Fellow (2021-2026) through UK Research and Innovation, an ELLIS member, and a Visiting Professor at New York University's Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP). He founded and leads the Warwick Machine Learning Group and has directed major projects at The Alan Turing Institute including Project Odysseus and the London Air Quality project. Education includes: PhD in Probabilistic Multiple Kernel Learning (University of Glasgow, 2009) MSc in Informatics (Distinction, University of Edinburgh, 2004) MEng in Mechanical Engineering (1st Class, University of Manchester, 2003) His research focuses on probabilistic machine learning and Bayesian statistics, emphasizing the integration of structural priors, spatiotemporal dependencies, physical laws, and causal relationships. Key applications include Digital Twins, urban science, and computational sustainability. His work advances robust and scalable inference methodologies for complex real-world systems. Publications demonstrate strong emphasis on Bayesian methods, spatiotemporal modeling, and uncertainty quantification, with applications spanning battery modeling, urban mobility, federated learning, and causal inference. Recent work shows increased focus on physics-informed models, federated learning frameworks, and causal abstraction techniques. Major scientific awards: Turing AI Acceleration Fellowship (2021-2026) Best Paper Awards (Wilkes 2024, AISTATS 2022, IEEE ICMLA 2010) ACM SIGMOD Most Reproducible Paper (2017) Dissertation Award (Classification Society 2012) Teaching Excellence nominations (Warwick 2015-2017) He actively advises PhD students and secured significant grants including the £multi-million Turing AI Fellowship. Current doctoral researchers investigate federated learning, causal inference, and spatiotemporal modeling. He leads the Warwick Machine Learning Group, a cross-departmental team developing foundational ML methods for scientific and societal challenges.
John Paisley is an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at Columbia University's Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, and a member of Columbia's Data Science Institute (DSI). He holds a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Duke University (2004-2010), followed by postdoctoral research in Computer Science at Princeton University and UC Berkeley. His research focuses on Bayesian models, posterior inference techniques for Big Data, and applications in data analysis, recommendation systems, information retrieval, and compressed sensing. He has pioneered methods like Bayesian Gaussian Process ODEs and Double Normalizing Flows, with recent work emphasizing uncertainty quantification in environmental modeling and neuroimaging analysis. His collaborative workflows (e.g., bneR ) address air pollution exposure and PM2.5 concentration uncertainties, combining Bayesian nonparametric ensembles with geospatial data. He has also developed frameworks for neural network interpretability, image denoising, and compressed sensing MRI. Paisley's work bridges statistical theory and applied machine learning, with applications in healthcare, environmental science, and geophysics. His academic contributions include over 50 publications since 2016, spanning topics like deep metric learning, adversarial learning, and variational inference optimization. He maintains an active research group and serves on editorial boards for machine learning and signal processing journals.
David Bindel is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Cornell University, affiliated with the College of Arts and Sciences, College of Engineering, and Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science. He earned his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley in 2006. His research focuses on applied numerical linear algebra, eigenvalue problems, and their applications in plasma physics, network analysis, and nonlinear systems. He develops methods for analyzing complex systems, including magnetic confinement in stellarators, stability of MHD systems, and community detection in networks. His work bridges theoretical foundations with practical computational tools, such as formal verification of linear algebra algorithms and scalable Gaussian process models. Bindel’s research explores the interplay between structure and computation, leveraging eigenvalue analysis to address challenges in computer vision, opinion dynamics, and engineering design. He has contributed to advancements in numerical methods for large-scale systems, including iterative solvers, spectral approximation techniques, and stochastic optimization. His interdisciplinary approach spans applied mathematics, computer science, and physics, with applications in fusion energy, machine learning, and network science. Recent work highlights include high-order expansions for magnetic confinement, adaptive filtering for dynamical systems, and Bayesian optimization strategies. His publications emphasize rigorous analysis alongside computational scalability, addressing both theoretical and practical aspects of modern scientific computing. Despite no explicitly listed awards, his contributions reflect significant impact in his fields.
Sainyam Galhotra is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Cornell University. His research focuses on developing data science tools for trustworthy analytics, integrating causal inference, data management, and machine learning to enhance robustness, explainability, and fairness in algorithmic systems. PhD: University of Massachusetts Amherst (2020), advised by Barna Saha B.Tech: Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (2014), advised by Amitabha Bagchi Postdoctoral Research: University of Chicago (Computing Innovation Fellow) His work spans artificial intelligence, causal inference, and responsible data science, emphasizing ethical algorithm design and reliable data integration. Recent publications highlight advancements in fair clustering, causal feature selection, and entity resolution frameworks. His research trends from 2023–2024 include contributions to spatio-temporal data correlation, community detection in geometric graphs, and distribution-aware dataset search. Key themes are fairness in machine learning, causal modeling, and scalable data management solutions. Computing Innovation Fellowship (2021) DAAD AInet Fellow (2021) ACM SIGMOD Entity Resolution Programming Contest Finalist (2021) Krithi Ramamritham Computer Science Scholarship (2019) BEST Paper Award in SIGSOFT FSE 2017 He actively seeks PhD or Master’s students interested in data science and trustworthy AI. Contact via email: sg@cs.cornell.edu .
Benedict King is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, where he contributes to the Comparative Oceanic Linguistics (CoOL) team. His research focuses on constructing phylogenetic trees of language relationships using Bayesian methods to explore language origins, spread, and evolutionary dynamics. He holds a BA in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge (UK), a PhD in Evolutionary Biology from Flinders University (Australia), and previously worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Naturalis Biodiversity Center (Netherlands). King’s research interests bridge evolutionary biology, paleontology, and linguistics. He investigates evolutionary transitions in early vertebrates (e.g., placoderms, coelacanths) and applies computational models to study language evolution. His work emphasizes improving phylogenetic methodologies and integrating fossil evidence with statistical frameworks. Notable projects include analyzing Philippine language migrations and reconfiguring actinistian phylogenies through Devonian fish fossils. His publications reflect interdisciplinary strengths, combining vertebrate paleontology with linguistic phylogenetics. Recent work supports rapid Austronesian expansions and hybrid Indo-European language origins. Awards include the Oxford University Press Prize for Biosciences and recognition for his PhD publication. King actively engages in public science communication through platforms like The Conversation and GitHub repositories.
Mohamed Noureldin is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, Aalto University , Finland, with prior academic roles at Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea (2015–2022). His expertise lies in integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) with Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) , Structural Digital Twin , Predictive Maintenance , and Seismic Retrofitting . Research Focus : AI-powered sustainable structural design, smart retrofitting, predictive maintenance, structural material innovation, and next-generation performance-based seismic/wind design. Industrial Experience : 20+ years in offshore/onshore structural engineering (Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Engineering, Arab-Swiss Engineering Company, Zuhair Fayez Partnership). Teaching : Courses in structural analysis, seismic design, dynamics, and reinforced concrete at Aalto and Sungkyunkwan Universities. Laboratory : Leads the Structural Design AI Lab (SDAI), focusing on AI-driven resilient infrastructure. Contact : mohamed.noureldin@aalto.fi , +358504544861. His publications explore cutting-edge applications of AI, ML, and DL in seismic retrofitting, structural durability, soil stabilization, and hybrid damping systems. Collaborative work emphasizes life-cycle cost assessment and augmented reality for predictive maintenance.
Eva Ascarza is a Professor of Business Administration in the Marketing Unit at Harvard Business School (HBS) . She co-founded the Customer Intelligence Lab at HBS's D 3 Institute, focusing on responsible and effective customer data utilization. Research Interests include: Customer retention and churn analysis Algorithmic bias in marketing AI Field experimentation (A/B testing) for targeting optimization Customer lifetime value (CLV) modeling Dynamic personalization strategies Scientific Awards and Recognitions: 2023 Weitz-Winer-O'Dell Award (winner) 2022 Paul E. Green Award (PNAS publication) 2020 Marketing Science Institute (MSI) Scholar 2019 Erin Anderson Award for Emerging Female Scholar 2018 Paul E. Green Award (JMR publication) 2014 Frank M. Bass Outstanding Dissertation Award Her articles demonstrate cutting-edge applications of statistical modeling , Bayesian methods , and fair AI frameworks in modern marketing challenges.
Subhashis Ghoshal is a Goodnight Distinguished Professor in the Department of Statistics at North Carolina State University (NCSU). He holds a Ph.D. in Statistics from the Indian Statistical Institute (1995). His research focuses on Bayesian nonparametrics, high-dimensional models, asymptotic theory, and functional data analysis. He has authored influential books like *Fundamentals of Nonparametric Bayesian Inference* (2017) and contributed to methodologies in image processing and statistical inference. Key awards include the Goodnight Distinguished Professorship (2021), Dr. Cavell Brownie Mentoring Award (2014-15), and the De Groot Prize (2019). He has held editorial roles in journals like *Statistical Science* and *Annals of Statistics*. His work bridges theory and applications, addressing challenges in modern statistical problems such as uncertainty quantification and causal inference. He advises on graduate programs and actively contributes to academic leadership at NCSU.
Paolo Gardoni is the Alfredo H. Ang Family Professor and an Excellence Faculty Scholar in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, with additional professorial appointments in Industrial & Enterprise Systems Engineering and Biomedical & Translational Sciences. He also serves as Director of the MAE Center and Editor-in-Chief of Reliability Engineering & System Safety. Education Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, University of California, Berkeley (2002) M.A. in Statistics, University of California, Berkeley (2001) M.Eng. in Structural Engineering, University of Tokyo (1997) Laurea (BS+MS equivalent) in Structural Engineering, Politecnico di Milano (1997) Research Interests Gardoni’s scholarship integrates probabilistic methods with large-scale infrastructure systems to advance reliability, risk, and life-cycle analysis. His work quantifies the performance of deteriorating systems under natural and anthropogenic hazards, models societal impacts of disasters, and develops decision frameworks for sustainable and resilient infrastructure. He also examines ethical, social, and legal dimensions of risk, and investigates optimal strategies for hazard mitigation, disaster recovery, and climate adaptation. Across more than 250 refereed journal papers, he has advanced sub-fields ranging from probabilistic mechanics and earthquake engineering to catastrophe bond pricing and engineering ethics, leveraging tools such as stochastic differential equations, Bayesian networks, and physics-informed machine learning. Awards & Honors Alfredo Ang Award on Risk Analysis and Management of Civil Infrastructure (ASCE, 2021) Best Paper Awards in ASCE Journal of Sustainable Water in the Built Environment (2019) and Geotechnical Research (2018 Telford Premium Prize) Fellowships and named professorships: Alfredo H. Ang Family Professor, Excellence Faculty Scholar, and courtesy or honorary professorships at Tsinghua, IIT Guwahati, Tongji, Jianghan, and Loughborough universities. Research Leadership & Funding Gardoni has secured over $58 million in research funding from NSF, DHS, NIST, USAID, Qatar National Research Fund, and other agencies. He directs the MAE Center—formerly an NSF Engineering Research Center—focused on multi-hazard engineering approaches, and is Editor-in-Chief of Reliability Engineering & System Safety (Elsevier, IF 9.4). He founded and formerly led the journal Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure (Taylor & Francis) and serves on editorial boards of nine additional journals. Advising & Mentorship He has graduated 27 PhD and 35 Master’s students, many of whom now hold faculty positions worldwide. His group maintains an active pipeline of doctoral and post-doctoral researchers working on resilience analytics, infrastructure monitoring, and risk-informed decision-making. Laboratories & Collaborations He leads the MAE Center and is affiliated with the Critical Infrastructure Resilience Institute (CIRI) and the Biomedical and Translational Sciences group. International collaborations span the UK (Loughborough), India (IIT Guwahati), and China (Tsinghua, Tongji, Jianghan), fostering cross-disciplinary research in reliability and resilience engineering.
Moshe E. Ben-Akiva is the Edmund K Turner Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), affiliated with the School of Engineering and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He holds a B.S. from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology (1968), and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in transportation systems from MIT (1971, 1973). His research focuses on transportation systems analysis, intelligent transportation systems, demand modeling, econometrics, and infrastructure management. He has been recognized with prestigious awards, including election to the National Academy of Engineering (2025) for contributions to transportation systems modeling and demand analysis. His work spans theoretical and applied domains, including agent-based microsimulation for freight logistics, tradable credit schemes for congestion management, and behavioral dimensions of transport decarbonization. Ben-Akiva collaborates with industry and policymakers to design sustainable mobility solutions. His notable publications include foundational texts on discrete choice analysis and stated preference elicitation. He advises on transportation policy, urban planning, and emerging mobility technologies such as automated vehicles and urban air mobility. Current research explores impacts of automated mobility-on-demand systems, real-time tolling strategies, and e-commerce delivery demand modeling. His team develops tools like SimMobility Freight, an agent-based urban freight simulator. He remains active in teaching, focusing on demand modeling and econometrics courses at MIT.
Anocha Aribarg is a Professor of Marketing and Area Chair of Marketing at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, with additional faculty affiliation at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS). Her interdisciplinary research bridges psychological theory, consumer behavior, and advanced statistical modeling to address complex marketing challenges. Education: PhD in Marketing, University of Wisconsin, 2004 MBA, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 1998 BS in Statistics, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, 1994 Research Focus: Prof. Aribarg investigates cognitive processes in consumer decision-making, specializing in individual/joint choice dynamics, product search behaviors, and responses to marketing stimuli. Her methodology integrates Bayesian econometrics with physiological measures (eye tracking, skin conductance) and multi-method experimental designs to uncover hidden decision mechanisms. Publication Trends: Her 14 recent publications (2009-2024) reveal consistent innovation in choice modeling, with increasing emphasis on attention dynamics (2020), moral psychology in aesthetics (2022), and high-frequency service data integration (2023). Work appears predominantly in Marketing Science Journal of Marketing Research, and Psychological Science, demonstrating methodological rigor across consumer behavior, advertising, and service contexts. Academic Service: She serves as Associate Editor for Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing, and Journal of Marketing Research, while contributing to the Journal of Retailing editorial board. Teaching: Prof. Aribarg delivers graduate-level courses in Marketing Research and Analytics and Predictive Analytics at Ross, emphasizing data-driven decision frameworks.
Itsik Pe'er is a Full Professor and Vice-Chair in the Department of Computer Science at Columbia University's Fu Foundation School of Engineering & Applied Science, and holds a joint appointment as Professor of Systems Biology at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. His research focuses on computational methods in human genetics, including genetic variation analysis, disease association studies, and algorithm development for genomic data. He leads the Itsik Pe'er Lab of Computational Genomics, which develops tools like Xplorigin, Germline, and SEACells to address challenges in genomics and medical research. His work spans machine learning applications in healthcare, microbiome analysis, and cancer genomics. Notable contributions include studies on hypertensive disorders in pregnancy, bias correction in predictive models, and the development of non-Euclidean learning libraries like Manify. Pe'er has advised students including Vladimir Vacic, Anat Kreimer, and Arthi Ramachandran, and collaborates on grants addressing genetic epidemiology and computational biology. His lab's location is in the Computer Science Building at Columbia's Morningside Campus.
Peter K. Kitanidis is a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering at Stanford University . His research focuses on groundwater flow , hydrologic forecasting , and stochastic inverse modeling , with applications to pollutant remediation and CO₂ storage monitoring . Education : Diploma, National Technical University of Athens (1974) M.S., MIT (1976) Ph.D., MIT (1978) Research Interests : Groundwater modeling and contaminant transport Hydraulic tomography and aquifer characterization Stochastic methods for uncertainty quantification Bioremediation and enhanced in-situ pollutant decay Dilution and mixing processes in heterogeneous media Real-time river flow forecasting Scientific Awards : L.G. Straub Award (1979) W.L. Huber Research Prize (1994) ISI Highly Cited Researcher (2001) AGU Hydrologic Sciences Award (2011) ASCE Pioneers in Groundwater Lecturer (2011) Advising and Grants : Advised 20+ PhD and MS students (1978–2018) Principal investigator on NSF, EPA, and DOE-funded projects Developed software for groundwater data analysis and CO₂ monitoring Contributed to bioremediation protocols and hydraulic tomography algorithms Labs and Teams : Kitanidis Laboratory for groundwater crisis solutions Collaborated with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Stanford Hydrogeology Group Mentored postdocs (2000–2017) in reactive transport and inverse modeling
Suchi Saria is the John C. Malone Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins University , with appointments in the Whiting School of Engineering (Computer Science), the Bloomberg School of Public Health (Health Policy & Management), and the Whiting School (Applied Math & Statistics). She directs the Machine Learning and Healthcare Lab and co-founded the Bayesian Health startup. Education: PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University (advisor: Daphne Koller), NSF Computing Innovation Fellowship at Harvard (2011), prior research at UMass (Barto, Madhavan), and industry experience at Aster Data Systems (acquired by Teradata). Research Focus: Saria develops statistical machine learning tools to extract insights from heterogeneous clinical data (structured/unstructured EHRs, sensor streams). Her work enables counterfactual reasoning for personalized treatment plans, dataset shift mitigation in healthcare AI, and weak supervision frameworks for mobile health apps. Key applications include sepsis prediction , Parkinson’s symptom tracking , and critical care optimization . Article Trends: Recent publications emphasize AI safety (2024-2025), addressing racial bias , transparency frameworks , and dynamic monitoring for clinical deployments. Her work spans conformal prediction , causal modeling , and policy guidelines for health AI. Scientific Awards: Sloan Research Fellowship (2018) DARPA Young Faculty Award (2016) MIT Technology Review TR35 Innovator (2017) Popular Science Brilliant 10 (2016) IEEE Intelligent Systems AI’s 10 to Watch (2015) NSF Computing Innovation Fellowship (2011) Rambus Fellowship (2004-2010) Best Paper Awards in ML, Informatics, and Medicine venues Advising & Grants: Saria mentors PhD students/postdocs in machine learning and health informatics , including funded projects like the NSF Smart and Connected Health Grant (2014) and Google Research Award (2014). Her lab’s TREWScore system (Science Translational Medicine 2015) is deployed in hospitals, while her Bayesian Health startup commercializes AI solutions for provider experience.
