Prof. Lonneke van der Plas is an Associate Professor in Natural Language Processing (NLP) at the University of Lugano (USI) since October 2024. She leads the Computation, Cognition & Language group at Idiap Research Institute (since 2021) and holds adjunct roles in USI's Faculty of Informatics. Previously, she was an Associate Professor at the University of Malta (2014–2020) and Junior Professor at the University of Stuttgart (SFB 732). She earned her PhD in Humanities Computing from the University of Groningen and an M.Phil in Computer Speech and Language Processing from the University of Cambridge. Her research focuses on cross-lingual NLP, computational creativity, and low-resource languages. Key projects include the NCCR Evolving Language (Swiss National Science Foundation, 2024–2028), C-LING (computational models of creativity), and SEM24 (multilingual skill extraction for HR). She has supervised multiple PhD students and postdocs, including notable advisees such as Molly Petersen and Mete Ismayilzada. Her work spans theoretical linguistics and applied NLP, with collaborations in cognitive science, finance, and healthcare. Awards include the ELSI Best Paper Award (2020) for work on societal impacts of AI ethics. Current initiatives include open PhD positions in NLP for cognitive modeling and mental health applications. Education: PhD (University of Groningen), M.Phil (University of Cambridge) Key Projects: NCCR Evolving Language, C-LING, SEM24, LT-BRIDGE Grants: SNSF, Innosuisse, Hasler Foundation Lab/Team: Computation, Cognition & Language Group at Idiap




