Yolanda Gil

Dr. Yolanda Gil is a Research Professor in Computer Science and Spatial Sciences at the University of Southern California, where she serves as Principal Scientist and Senior Director for Strategic Initiatives in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science at the Information Sciences Institute (ISI). She is also the Director of AI and Data Science Initiatives in the Viterbi School of Engineering and leads the USC Center for Knowledge-Guided Interdisciplinary Data Science (CKIDS).

Dr. Gil received her Licenciatura in Computer Science from the Polytechnic University of Madrid and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University, with a focus on artificial intelligence and cognitive science.

Her research focuses on developing AI approaches that use knowledge to accelerate scientific discovery processes. Her key research interests include knowledge capture and representation, semantic workflows, ontology tools, scientific discovery methods, task-based collaboration, provenance tracking, knowledge networks, reproducibility in science, and machine learning for data analysis. She collaborates with scientists across multiple domains to improve how scientific knowledge is created, shared, and used.

Dr. Gil's work has significant impact across multiple scientific domains including climate science, neuroscience, and omics research. Her projects demonstrate her commitment to building knowledge-guided systems that transform how scientists conduct research. She has pioneered approaches to capture the provenance of scientific experiments and to automate the analysis of complex scientific data.

• Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
• Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
• Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
• Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI)
• 24th President of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence
• Co-chair of the CRA/AAAI 20-Year Artificial Intelligence Research Roadmap for the US
• Initiator and leader of the W3C Provenance Group that resulted in a widely-used standard for web trust

As an educator and leader, Dr. Gil directs the Data Science Program in Computer Science and serves as Co-Director of multiple joint MSc programs including Communication Data Science, Spatial Data Science, Environmental Data Science, Public Policy Data Science, and Healthcare Data Science. She also leads the new dual degree USC-Tsinghua University on Communication Data Science. Her leadership extends to mentoring numerous students and researchers in AI and data science.

Through the USC Center for Knowledge-Guided Interdisciplinary Data Science (CKIDS), Dr. Gil organizes DataFest events each semester, fostering collaboration and innovation in data science across disciplines.