Michael N. Arbel

Michael N. Arbel is a Researcher at INRIA Grenoble - Rhône-Alpes, where he has been a core member of the THOTH research team since October 2022, following a Starting Research Fellowship position under Julien Mairal at the same institution.

His academic foundation includes:

• Ph.D. in Computational Neuroscience from University College London (2021), supervised by Arthur Gretton at the Gatsby Unit
• Master's Degree in Mathematics, Machine Learning and Computer Vision (MVA) from ENS Paris-Saclay
• Applied Mathematics specialization at École polytechnique

Dr. Arbel's research program integrates theoretical and applied machine learning, with significant contributions to bilevel optimization frameworks and generative modeling. Recent work includes foundational models for tabular data (February 2025), kernel bilevel optimization theory (December 2024), and NeurIPS 2024 spotlighted research on Functional Bilevel optimization. His methodological innovations bridge theoretical learning guarantees with practical representation learning applications.

He directs the ANR JCJC-funded BONSAI project, launched in April 2024, focusing on advanced optimization techniques for machine learning systems.

As an integral member of the THOTH team at INRIA Grenoble, he collaborates on cutting-edge machine learning research within France's national digital science institute.