Laura Dietz

Laura Dietz is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of New Hampshire. She leads the TREMA lab and focuses on text-based machine learning, information retrieval, and environmental data science. Her academic journey includes postdoctoral roles at Mannheim University and the University of Massachusetts, alongside a PhD from the Max Planck Institute for Informatics.

Education: PhD in Computer Science (Max Planck Institute, 2011), followed by postdoctoral research at UMass (2012–2015) and Mannheim (2015–2016). Tenure-track appointment at UNH since 2016.

Research Interests:

• IR+NLP: Integrates knowledge graphs, entity retrieval, and machine learning to automatically generate comprehensive articles. This work is supported by an NSF CAREER Award (2019–2023).
• Watershed Data Science: Analyzes storm event impacts using time-series forecasting, with grants from the Northeast Big Data Hub.
• Machine Learning: Develops methods for sequential data analysis across domains like social media and environmental science.

Grants & Awards:

• NSF CAREER Award (Utilizing Fine-Grained Knowledge Annotations)
• Elite Postdoc Program of BW-Stiftung (2016–2019)
• Best Paper at JCDL 2018 for Entity-Aspect Linking

Service & Leadership:

• Organized HIPstIR Workshop on non-mainstream IR research
• Coordinated TREC Complex Answer Retrieval Track (2017–2019)
• Keynote speaker at ECIR, NAACL, and SPIRE

Labs & Teams: Head of TREMA Lab at UNH, focusing on query-driven knowledge synthesis and environmental data science. Collaborates with faculty in Natural Resources and the Environment Department.