Dylan Hadfield-Menell

Dylan Hadfield-Menell is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, holding the Bonnie and Marty (1964) Tenenbaum Career Development Professorship. His research focuses on AI alignment and human-AI interaction within MIT's School of Engineering.

His research interests center on agent alignment problems in AI systems, particularly examining uncertainty in objective optimization for human-robot teams and societal oversight of machine learning systems. Key areas include the principal-agent alignment problem, assistance games frameworks, and robust preference learning that accounts for hidden contextual factors in reinforcement learning from human feedback.

His recent publications reveal strong trends toward multi-agent cooperation, formal contract mechanisms for resolving social dilemmas, and advanced evaluation methodologies for AI safety. The research spans theoretical frameworks like open-universe assistance games while addressing practical challenges in language model alignment and cultural bias assessment.

Scientific awards include:

• AI2050 Early Career Fellowship from Schmidt Futures
• Berkeley Fellowship
• NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
• C.V. Ramamoorthy Distinguished Research Award

His work bridges theoretical computer science with real-world AI governance challenges, as demonstrated through MIT's participation in AI policy white papers. Current research directions include developing frameworks for transparent AI systems and addressing fundamental limitations in aligning recommender systems with human values through interdisciplinary synthesis.