Paola Merlo

Paola Merlo is an Associate Professor at the University of Geneva, leading the Computational Learning and Computational Linguistics (CLCL) research group. Her work integrates linguistic modeling with machine learning, focusing on statistical language properties, lexical semantics, and syntactic/semantic parsing. She co-developed the Quantitative Computational Syntax framework and serves as Deputy Director (Geneva) for the NCCR Evolving Language center, investigating language evolution through computational methods.

Education: Studied theoretical linguistics at the University of Venice and earned a PhD in Computational Linguistics from the University of Maryland, USA. She held visiting positions at the University of Pennsylvania (Institute for Cognitive Science), University of Edinburgh (School of Informatics), Stanford University, and Uppsala University, where she currently holds an adjunct professorship.

Professional Service: Past editor of Computational Linguistics (MIT Press), member of ACL executive committees, and chair of major conferences (EMNLP 2011, EACL 2021). Served on the ERC panel for 'The Mind and its Complexity' (2020).

Research Grants: Received an SNSF Advanced Grant (2021) for interdisciplinary work on linguistic intelligence. Her research emphasizes computational approaches to language universals and automatic generalization across languages.

Dissemination: Active in science communication, including talks at the Collège de France and a video for the NCCR Women campaign celebrating Swiss women's suffrage anniversary (2021).