Sonja Smets

Sonja Smets is a full professor of Logic and Epistemology at the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC) at the University of Amsterdam, holding a double affiliation between the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Humanities (Department of Philosophy), with each faculty accounting for 50% of her employment. She joined the ILLC in 2012 and served as its scientific director from June 2016 until July 2021. Previously, she held a Rosalind Franklin Fellowship at the University of Groningen (2008-2012) and conducted postdoctoral research at the Center for Logic and Philosophy of Science in Brussels.

Her research spans multiple domains at the intersection of logic, philosophy, and computer science. Smets has made significant contributions to quantum logic, developing logical frameworks for understanding quantum information and computation. She has pioneered work in dynamic epistemic logic applied to social networks, belief revision, and information flow. Her recent work increasingly addresses the philosophical and logical foundations of artificial intelligence, particularly focusing on AI ethics, fairness, and the societal impact of algorithmic decision-making systems.

Smets has received numerous prestigious awards recognizing her interdisciplinary contributions, including the Hermann Lotze Prize (2015) and the Birkhoff-Von Neumann Prize (2012). She has secured major research funding through a VIDI award from the Netherlands Science Foundation (2009) and an ERC starters grant for the LogiCIC project (2011-2016). Currently, she serves as co-PI of the University-wide Research Priority Area on Human(e) AI (2019-2023) at the University of Amsterdam, which examines societal consequences of AI development.

• Corresponding member of Academie Internationale de Philosophie des Sciences (2021)
• Fellow of Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (2021)
• Member of Academia Europaea (2019)
• Hermann Lotze Prize (2015)
• Birkhoff-Von Neumann Prize (2012)
• Rosalind Franklin Fellowship
• VIDI award from Netherlands Science Foundation
• ERC starters grant

Smets has been instrumental in building research communities, co-organizing numerous workshops and conferences including the LogiCIC workshops, Quantum Logic workshops, and recent events on Reasoning about Responsible Agency in AI. She serves on multiple editorial boards including the Journal of Logic and Computation, Synthese, and Foundations of Science, and has held leadership positions in professional organizations such as FoLLI (Association for Logic, Language and Information) where she serves as vice-president. Her research group at the ILLC bridges formal logic with practical applications in AI, quantum computing, and social network analysis.