Pepa Kostadinova Atanasova is a Tenure Track Assistant Professor in the Natural Language Processing Section of the Department of Computer Science , University of Copenhagen. She co-leads the CopeNLU group with Isabelle Augenstein and has special teaching duties for industry practitioners. Research Interests: Interpretability of Language Models Explainability Methods Factuality in Language Models Parametric Knowledge Analysis Human-AI Alignment Trustworthy AI Scientific Awards: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship ELLIS Best PhD Thesis Award Informatics Europe Best PhD Thesis Award Collaborations: Active in interdisciplinary research, including partnerships with Meta and Google, and a postdoctoral project combining language model explanations with trading behavior analysis.
Claudia Wagner is a full professor for Applied Computational Social Sciences at RWTH Aachen University and the Scientific Director of the Computational Social Science department at GESIS—Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences. She is also an External Faculty member at the Complexity Science Hub Vienna. Her work bridges computer science and the social sciences to study algorithmic systems and their societal impacts. Her research focuses on socio-technical phenomena such as inequality, sexism, and perception bias in algorithmically infused societies. She investigates methodological challenges in using digital behavioral data to study human behavior, attitudes, and group dynamics. Her interests span computational social science, algorithmic fairness, network science, and AI ethics. The analysis of her recent publications reveals a strong emphasis on bias, fairness, and methodological rigor in digital data analysis. Her work spans AI psychometrics, gender inequality in online platforms, and validation frameworks for digital traces. She frequently publishes in top-tier venues such as Nature , Science , and AAAI conferences. DOC-fFORTE fellowship from the Austrian Academy of Sciences Four best paper awards at international conferences (ICWSM, CSCW, WWW, AAAI) Associate Editor, EPJ Data Science Steering Committee Member, International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media Board Member, International Society for Computational Social Science Claudia Wagner has led and co-led substantial research projects funded by national and international agencies. She mentors a diverse group of PhD students working on topics like algorithmic bias, data quality, and dehumanization. She has organized training events such as the CSS Methods Summer School and delivered keynotes globally on inequality and computational social science. She leads the Computational Social Science department at GESIS and collaborates with interdisciplinary teams at RWTH Aachen and the Complexity Science Hub. Her group develops tools for measuring algorithmic impacts and visualizing disparities in socio-technical systems, such as the 'Planets of Disparity' dashboard.
Francisco Camara Pereira is a Professor and Head of Section at the Department of Technology, Management and Economics at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). His research focuses on Intelligent Transportation Systems, Machine Learning, and Data-Driven Decision-Making in transportation contexts. He actively contributes to advancing transportation science through interdisciplinary approaches combining simulation, optimization, and AI techniques. His work addresses challenges in public transport analysis, charging infrastructure planning, and multimodal demand prediction. Recent projects include developing graph-based optimization methods for electric vehicle networks and causal discovery frameworks for transportation systems. He supervises multiple PhD students in areas like federated learning for cyclist safety, causal graph neural networks, and socially aware AI models. Key contributions include publications on smart card data analysis for travel surveys, stochastic infrastructure expansion models, and transfer learning for bike-share systems. His research aligns with UN Sustainable Development Goals related to sustainable cities and innovation. Dr. Pereira collaborates internationally on transportation policy and infrastructure projects. His lab focuses on translating theoretical advancements into practical solutions for urban mobility challenges.
Ankit Kariryaa is a Tenure Track Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management , University of Copenhagen. His work bridges Machine Learning and Environmental Informatics , focusing on remote sensing, geospatial analysis, and ecological modeling. University of Copenhagen, Denmark Machine Learning Section, Department of Computer Science Geography, Land, Environment and Society, Department of Geosciences Kariryaa specializes in applying deep learning and computer vision to environmental challenges. His research includes: Automated tree detection and biomass estimation via satellite imagery Multi-modal geospatial representation learning Monitoring farmland tree decline and carbon sequestration potential Agroforestry system mapping using AI Developing AI tools for climate policy and sustainability Recent work trends show a focus on quantum-inspired machine learning , environmental monitoring , and cross-cultural AI applications . His 15 most recent publications span topics in remote sensing , ecological modeling , and AI ethics , with methods ranging from neural networks to tensor-based learning. He collaborates across disciplines, notably with researchers in ecology , climate science , and quantum computing . His outreach includes seminars on AI in agroforestry and ecosystem management , while his team contributes to global tree resource databases like TreeSense.
Daniel Hershcovich is a Tenure Track Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science (Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen) specializing in Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning . His research focuses on cross-cultural adaptation of language models, integrating human values into AI, and analyzing food-related cultural narratives for sustainable diets. Education: Ph.D. in Computational Neuroscience from Hebrew University of Jerusalem B.Sc. in Mathematics and Computer Science from Open University of Israel Recent publications highlight his work on multimodal models (haptic captioning, visual assistants for the blind), historical text analysis (Danish/Norwegian literature, euphemism detection), and cross-cultural NLP (recipe adaptation, cultural value alignment, climate awareness). His projects frequently combine AI ethics with domain-specific applications like food studies, historical linguistics, and accessibility research. Key collaborative networks include institutions in Denmark, Israel, and international partnerships through conferences like ACL, EMNLP, and workshops on cross-cultural NLP. The NLP section at DIKU serves as his primary affiliation for these efforts.
Stephen Alstrup is a Professor in the Algorithms and Complexity section at the Department of Computer Science (DIKU), University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Science. His research bridges theoretical computer science with practical applications in modern computational challenges. His primary research interests include: Algorithm design and analysis Graph algorithms and data structures Big Data processing techniques Streaming algorithms and Internet distribution Theoretical foundations with practical implementations Alstrup's work demonstrates how theoretical algorithm research can lead to real-world applications, as evidenced by his development of Octoshape technology for large-scale Internet streaming. His research spans from fundamental theoretical problems to applications in Big Data, cloud computing, and information retrieval systems. He has published extensively with 93 research outputs including journal articles, conference proceedings, and books. His recent work focuses on graph spanners, semantic hashing, recommendation systems, and universal graph structures, showing continued productivity in theoretical computer science. Alstrup actively engages with industry and media, contributing to discussions about Big Data applications, technology innovation, and how businesses can collaborate with universities to access cutting-edge knowledge and funding opportunities. His work has been featured in 10 media contributions discussing practical applications of algorithms in education, municipal IT projects, and business innovation.
Isabelle Augenstein is a Professor at the University of Copenhagen, Department of Computer Science (DIKU), where she heads the Copenhagen Natural Language Understanding (CopeNLU) research group and the Natural Language Processing section. She is also a co-lead of the Danish Pioneer Centre for Artificial Intelligence, Denmark's largest research center initiated by the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science. In October 2022, she became Denmark's youngest ever female full professor. Dr. Augenstein earned her undergraduate degree in Computational Linguistics and Psychology from Heidelberg University, followed by a Master's in Computational Linguistics. She completed her PhD in Computer Science at the University of Sheffield under the supervision of Dr. Diana Maynard and Prof. Fabio Ciravegna. In 2021, she earned a Habilitation at the University of Copenhagen in Explainable Fact-checking. Professor Augenstein's primary research focuses on fair and accountable Natural Language Processing, with particular emphasis on explainability, factuality, and bias detection. Her work spans multiple subfields including automated fact-checking, stance detection, gender bias analysis, and cultural bias in language models. She has pioneered research in explainable fact-checking, developing methods that not only predict claim veracity but also provide meaningful explanations of the decision-making process. Her research group has produced numerous influential papers on measuring model fragility, quantifying gender biases, and developing robust fact-checking systems that account for distribution shifts. Her significant contributions have been recognized with several prestigious awards: ERC Starting Grant on 'Explainable and Robust Automatic Fact Checking' DFF Sapere Aude Research Leader fellowship on 'Learning to Explain Attitudes on Social Media' Karen Spärck Jones Award from the British Computing Society and Bloomberg Hartmann Diploma Prize from the Hartmann Foundation Member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters since 2024 Professor Augenstein has secured significant research funding including her ERC Starting Grant supporting five years of blue-sky research. She actively mentors PhD students and postdoctoral researchers through her 'ExplainYourself' project. She served as President of SIGDAT (which organizes the EMNLP conference series), having previously held leadership roles as Vice President and Vice President-Elect. She is a co-founder of Widening NLP (WiNLP), an initiative to increase diversity in the NLP community, and maintains the BIG Directory of underrepresented groups in NLP. She leads the Copenhagen Natural Language Understanding (CopeNLU) research group, which relocated to the historic Østervold Observatory in Copenhagen's Botanical Gardens in 2023. The group focuses on developing methods for explainable and robust natural language understanding, with applications in fact-checking, bias detection, and social media analysis. Professor Augenstein also co-leads the Speech and Language collaboratory at the Pioneer Centre for Artificial Intelligence, where her team investigates how language models can better serve diverse populations while maintaining accountability and transparency.
Abdulkadir Çelikkanat is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Aalborg University, Denmark, where he is part of the DKW (Data Science and Knowledge) research group. His research focuses on genome representation learning, graph representation learning, and machine learning applications in bioinformatics and network science. Research Interests: His work lies at the intersection of artificial intelligence and biological data analysis, with a strong emphasis on scalable methods for genome and metagenome representation using k-mer profiles, as well as modeling dynamic and complex networks. He develops novel machine learning models to capture the structure and evolution of graphs over time. Recent Research Trends: His recent publications, appearing in top-tier venues like NeurIPS, AAAI, and AISTATS, demonstrate a consistent focus on improving scalability and effectiveness in representation learning. Key themes include revisiting traditional k-mer methods for modern deep learning, modeling citation dynamics, and developing continuous-time node embedding techniques. His work bridges theoretical advances with practical applications in genomics and network analysis. Scientific Awards: Best Paper Award, TGL Workshop @ NeurIPS 2023 Top Reviewer, LoG 2024 Conference Advising and Grants: While current advisees are not listed, he is actively leading research projects as evidenced by his recent publications and project organization (e.g., Nordic ProbAI summer school). His work is supported through institutional affiliations and likely competitive research funding, given the high-impact venues of his publications. Labs and Teams: He is affiliated with the DKW group at Aalborg University. Previously, he was part of the Inria OPIS team and the Centre for Visual Computing during his Ph.D., and worked in the Section for Cognitive Systems at DTU Compute as a postdoctoral researcher.
Fariba Karimi is a Professor of Social Data Science at Graz University of Technology and leads the Algorithmic Fairness research group at the Complexity Science Hub (CSH) in Vienna. Her work sits at the intersection of computational social science, network science, and AI ethics, with a strong focus on fairness, inequality, and bias in algorithmic systems. She holds a PhD in Physics and Computational Science from Umeå University, Sweden (2015), and was a Postdoctoral Researcher at GESIS – Leibniz Institute for Social Sciences, Germany. Her research combines large-scale data analysis, agent-based modeling, and network science to study how social structures and algorithms interact to shape disparities, particularly for underrepresented groups. Computational Social Science Algorithmic Fairness and Bias Network Science and Homophily Digital Humanism Urban Inequality and Implicit Bias Gender and Age Equity in Academia Her recent publications reveal a consistent focus on understanding and mitigating algorithmic and structural inequities. Themes include the visibility of minorities in networks, the impact of segregation on health and cognition, gender citation gaps in physics, and the development of fair ranking and recommendation systems. She employs interdisciplinary methods to analyze both digital and real-world social systems. Fariba Karimi has received several prestigious recognitions, including: Young Scientist Award from the German Physical Society (2023) ERC Starting Grant (2024) Nomination for the Hedy Lamarr Award (2021) She leads the 'Humanized Algorithms' project at CSH, funded by the ERC, and co-leads an EU Horizon project (MAMMOth) on multi-criteria fairness in AI. She advises PhD researchers such as Lisette Espín-Noboa and collaborates with institutions like the University of Mannheim and the Centre for Social Sciences. Her work contributes to both academic knowledge and practical solutions for fairer AI systems and more equitable societies.
Johannes Bjerva is a Full Professor at Aalborg University's Department of Computer Science (Campus Copenhagen), leading the Copenhagen branch and conducting interdisciplinary NLP research integrating linguistic typology. His work focuses on low-resource languages, language model security, and societal AI impact. PhD (University of Groningen, 2017): Thesis on multitask/multilingual lexical modeling M.A. & B.A. in Computational Linguistics (Stockholm University) Research interests span linguistically-informed NLP , language model security , and low-resource language technology . Current projects include the DFF Sapere Aude grant (2025) for language model detection security and the LM2-SEC project (2025–2030). His 2024 ACL paper on embedding inversion security and 2024 EMNLP paper on typological diversity exemplify recent work. Scientific awards include: 2021: Teacher of the Year (AAU Computer Science) 2019: Google Cloud research credits 2022: Carlsberg Semper Ardens (5M DKK) 2024: Novo Nordisk Data Science grant (~10M DKK) Supervision includes 8 PhD students across projects like CreoleVal and HiFi-KPI . He serves on the Industrial Researcher Committee at Innovation Fund Denmark and is a member of Det Unge Akademi (2023–2028).
Tuukka Ruotsalo serves as Associate Professor in the Machine Learning Section at the Department of Computer Science, University of Copenhagen. His research bridges human cognition with computational systems through brain-computer interfaces and physiological computing. As Academy Research Fellow at University of Helsinki (2019-2024), he maintained dual institutional affiliations while leading cutting-edge work in neuro-linguistic modeling and affective relevance. His research focuses on brain-computer interfaces for information retrieval , where he pioneers methods to decode cognitive states from neural signals to improve search systems. Key areas include affective relevance modeling that integrates emotional states into search algorithms, and neuro-linguistic reconstruction that translates brain activity into language. His work on fairness-relevance tradeoffs in recommender systems established Pareto frontier evaluation frameworks now widely adopted in ethical AI research. Recent publications demonstrate how physiological signals like EEG and galvanic skin response can create more adaptive human-information interaction systems. Ruotsalo's scientific recognition includes the prestigious Academy Research Fellow position. His publications in IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems , Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology , and Communications Biology reveal growing interdisciplinary impact. His advising spans cognitive neuroscience and machine learning students, with notable collaborations across the SCIENCE AI Centre. Current projects include the TreeSense initiative for remote sensing of global tree resources and development of quantum-inspired neural architectures. His lab leverages the department's powerful compute cluster for large-scale physiological data analysis.
Arijit Khan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Aalborg University, Denmark. He leads the Data Engineering, Science and Systems group and is affiliated with the Technical Faculty of IT and Design. His research focuses on Graph Neural Networks , Blockchain , Data Management , and AI interpretability . He is the Principal Investigator (PI) of a major project on Data Management, Fundamental Algorithms, and Machine Learning for Emerging Problems in Large Networks (2022–2027). Research Interests : Graph Data Management & Machine Learning Blockchain Transaction Analysis Large Language Model + Knowledge Graph Synergies Healthcare AI (e.g., ICU glucose prediction) Explainable AI for Graph Neural Networks Research Trends : His publications emphasize neuro-symbolic systems , uncertain graph analysis , and AI-driven blockchain insights . Recent work bridges large language models with knowledge graphs and explores GPU performance optimization via shader code analysis. Awards & Grants : No explicit awards listed, but his active research grants include a 5-year project on large network analysis with interdisciplinary applications in life and health sciences. Funding emphasizes algorithmic innovation and data science integration. Labs/Teams : Head of the Data Engineering, Science and Systems research group, focusing on AI for societal impact ('AI for the People') and scalable graph data systems. Collaborations span blockchain analytics, healthcare informatics, and GPU architecture design.
Tijs Slaats is an Associate Professor in the Software, Data, People & Society section at the Department of Computer Science, University of Copenhagen. His research focuses on Business Process Management with particular emphasis on declarative and hybrid process notations to provide flexible workflow support for knowledge workers, funded by the Danish Council for Independent Research. His educational background includes: M.Sc. in Information Technology from IT University of Copenhagen Ph.D. in Computer Science from IT University of Copenhagen (supervised by Thomas Hildebrandt) Dr. Slaats specializes in declarative process modeling, particularly Dynamic Condition Response (DCR) graphs which enable flexible workflow systems. His work bridges theoretical foundations with practical applications in cross-organizational settings. Recent research extends into blockchain technologies, smart contracts, and applications in sensitive domains like asylum processing and refugee law. He combines formal methods with empirical evaluation to ensure both correctness and usability of workflow systems. His publication pattern shows increasing application of process mining techniques to blockchain technologies and socially impactful domains, while maintaining core research in Business Process Management. Notable trends include integration of DCR graphs with smart contracts, privacy-preserving techniques for asylum data, and object-centric approaches to process discovery. Research funding includes: Hybrid Business Process Management Technologies project (Danish Council for Independent Research) Technologies for Flexible Cross-organizational Case Management Systems (FLExCMS) industrial Ph.D. project Alongside his academic work, Dr. Slaats maintains strong industry connections through Exformatics A/S where he developed the DCR Graphs workflow solution (www.dcrgraphs.net), and previously worked as a software engineer in the Dutch e-commerce sector. His dual expertise in academia and industry ensures his research addresses real-world workflow challenges while maintaining theoretical rigor.
Schahram Dustdar is a Full Professor of Computer Science and head of the Distributed Systems Group at TU Wien (Vienna University of Technology), Austria. He has held significant international academic positions, including Honorary Professor at the University of Groningen (2004–2010) and Visiting Professor at the University of Seville (Dec 2016–Jan 2017) and UC Berkeley (Jan–Jun 2017). His research interests lie at the intersection of distributed computing, cloud services, and intelligent data systems. He actively contributes to advancing the fields of services computing, cloud infrastructure, web technologies, and data-driven financial modeling. His work emphasizes scalable, robust, and knowledge-aware systems, particularly in financial data visualization and transaction network analysis. The most recent publications highlight his focus on modeling financial transaction networks using constraint satisfaction and developing visualization frameworks that incorporate incremental domain knowledge. These works reflect a strong trend toward integrating formal methods with interactive data systems for enterprise and financial applications. ACM Distinguished Scientist (2009) IBM Faculty Award (2012) IEEE Fellow (2016) Elected Member of Academia Europaea Schahram Dustdar has supervised multiple research projects and leads a vibrant research group at TU Wien. He has been involved in editorial leadership as Editor-in-Chief of Computing (Springer) and Associate Editor for top-tier journals such as IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing, IEEE Transactions on Services Computing, ACM Transactions on the Web, and ACM Transactions on Internet Technology. His editorial roles and international visiting positions indicate extensive collaboration and grant-related activities, though specific grants are not detailed in the text. He leads the Distributed Systems Group at TU Wien, a research team focused on building next-generation distributed computing platforms, cloud services, and intelligent data processing systems with real-world applications in finance, enterprise systems, and large-scale data analytics.
Giovanni Colavizza holds a dual academic appointment as Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Copenhagen and Associate Professor at the University of Bologna (since November 2023). His research bridges information science, digital humanities, and open science practices. His primary research areas include: Quantitative analysis of open research practices (data/code/preprint sharing) and citation impact Wikipedia's role in scientific knowledge dissemination and news source reliability assessment Digital tools for humanities including knowledge graphs and NLP applications for historical archives Recent publications (2024-2025) reveal strong interdisciplinary trends, combining scientometrics with natural language processing to analyze scientific communication patterns and colonial archival materials. His work appears in leading venues including PLoS ONE, Scientometrics, and IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics, demonstrating methodological innovation across information science and humanities domains.
