Fanny Yang is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at ETH Zurich . She previously held postdoctoral positions at Stanford University and a Junior Fellowship at the Institute for Theoretical Studies at ETH Zurich, advised by Nicolai Meinshausen . Her PhD was completed at the EECS Department of UC Berkeley , supervised by Martin Wainwright . Research Interests : Theoretical foundations of machine learning and statistics , particularly focusing on overparameterized models and high-dimensional data . Developing trustworthy ML models with emphasis on distributional robustness , domain generalization , and interpretability . Applications in medical diagnostics and treatment effect analysis , aiming to address reliability issues in real-world domains. Recent Work Trends : 2025 Articles : Theoretical analysis of semi-supervised multi-objective learning , test-time scaling with verifiers, and foundation models for efficient randomized experiments . 2024 Articles : Studies on robust mixture learning , privacy-preserving data synthesis via optimal transport , confounding quantification in causal inference , and semi-private learning frameworks. 2023 Articles : Investigations into active vs. passive learning in high dimensions, inductive bias in noisy interpolation , and semi-supervised novelty detection using model ensembles .
Minh Q. Phan is an Associate Professor of Engineering at Dartmouth College's Thayer School of Engineering. His expertise spans system identification, iterative learning control, model predictive control, robotic swarm control, and intelligent control systems. He holds a BS from the University of California, Berkeley, and MS/M.Phil/PhD degrees from Columbia University in Mechanical Engineering. Dr. Phan has contributed to over 50 peer-reviewed publications and serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics. His research focuses on advancing control theory applications in robotics, structural health monitoring, and sustainable construction materials. Key contributions include the development of OKID (Observer/Kalman Filter Identification) methods and bilinear system identification frameworks. Education History: Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, UC Berkeley, 1985 Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering, Columbia University, 1986 Master of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering, Columbia University, 1988 Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering, Columbia University, 1989 Research Interests: Advanced control methodologies for dynamic systems Model-based predictive control strategies Applications in robotics and aerospace engineering Structural health monitoring via system identification Machine learning for materials science Teaching Responsibilities include courses like ENGG 149 (Systems Identification), ENGS 145 (Modern Control Theory), and ENGG 148 (Structural Mechanics). His work bridges theoretical control systems with practical industrial applications, including automation in food processing and sustainable construction practices. Dr. Phan has collaborated on projects addressing viral epidemiology in Vietnam and coastal erosion mitigation strategies.
Prof. Niki Kilbertus is an Assistant Professor at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in the Department of Informatics, and Group Leader at Helmholtz AI. His research focuses on causal machine learning, ethical AI systems, and applications in healthcare, climate science, and dynamical systems. He earned his PhD from the University of Cambridge (2020) and has held positions at DeepMind, Google, and Amazon during his studies. His research interests include causal discovery, fairness in AI, counterfactual reasoning, and integrating physics-based constraints into neural networks. Key contributions include foundational work on fair machine learning (e.g., avoiding discrimination through causal models) and developing methods for causal inference in complex systems like healthcare and climate modeling. Recent work emphasizes generative models for causal interventions, robust treatment effect estimation, and physically consistent neural differential equations. He leads a large interdisciplinary group with over 20 students and postdocs working on projects funded by Helmholtz Association, ERC, and industry collaborations. Notable awards include the Leopoldina Prize for Young Scientists (2024) and membership in the Junge Akademie. His lab maintains active partnerships with ELLIS, MCML, and the Zuse Institute Berlin.
Heng Huang is the Brendan Iribe Endowed Professor in the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park . He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Dartmouth College and holds prior degrees from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. His research focuses on advancing the foundations and applications of artificial intelligence, particularly in machine learning, data mining, natural language processing, computer vision, and biomedical informatics . His work integrates large-scale optimization, fairness, and robustness in deep learning systems. Heng Huang’s recent publications demonstrate a strong trend in large language models, federated learning, model watermarking, continual learning, and medical image analysis . His work appears consistently in top venues like NeurIPS, ICML, CVPR, ICLR, and MICCAI, reflecting a broad impact across theoretical and applied AI. He actively mentors students and postdocs, seeking highly motivated researchers in machine learning and related domains. His work has significant implications for healthcare, privacy, and trustworthy AI.
Didier Trono is a Full Professor at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), where he leads the Laboratory of Virology and Genetics (LVG) within the School of Life Sciences. Formerly, from 2004 to 2012, he served as the founding dean of EPFL's Faculty of Life Sciences, orchestrating its development and growth during this formative period. Trono received his medical education at the University of Geneva, followed by clinical training in pathology, internal medicine, and infectious diseases in Geneva and at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. His scientific career began at the Whitehead Institute of MIT, and in 1990 he was recruited by the Salk Institute of San Diego to launch an AIDS research center. After seven years in the United States, he returned to Europe and eventually joined EPFL. Dr. Trono's research has evolved significantly over his career. Initially focusing on virus-host interactions, he studied pathogens like HIV and Hepatitis B virus, creating HIV-derived genetic transfer tools that are now successfully used in gene therapy. For approximately the last fifteen years, his research has centered on epigenetics, particularly exploring the impact of retroelements and their control mechanisms on development and physiology of higher organisms, including humans. His laboratory investigates how transposable elements and KRAB zinc finger proteins regulate gene expression, with important implications for understanding cancer biology and developing new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. Analysis of his recent publications (2022-2024) reveals a strong focus on transposable elements, KRAB zinc finger proteins, and their roles in gene regulation and cancer. His work combines molecular biology, genomics, and bioinformatics approaches to understand how these ancient viral remnants have been co-opted by the host genome to regulate development and cellular functions. The research spans basic molecular mechanisms to potential clinical applications in cancer diagnosis and therapy, with some recent work also addressing SARS-CoV-2 and immune responses. Throughout his career, Professor Trono has mentored numerous PhD students, including Bojkowska Karolina, Brandão Sanches Vong Martins Filipe Amândio, Bulliard Yannick, Coluccio Andrea, Corsinotti Andrea, Coudray Alexandre, De Tribolet-Hardy Jonas Caspar, and Dorschel Iris Arianna. His laboratory has received significant funding to support research at the intersection of virology, genetics, and epigenetics, contributing to EPFL's reputation as a leading institution in life sciences research. The Trono Laboratory continues to be at the forefront of research on retroelements and their regulatory mechanisms, maintaining a vibrant research environment that bridges fundamental biological questions with potential medical applications, particularly in cancer research and precision medicine.
Eric Eaton is a Research Associate Professor of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania , and a core member of the GRASP (General Robotics, Automation, Sensing, and Perception) Laboratory . His expertise centers on lifelong machine learning , transfer learning , and interactive AI , with impactful applications to robotics, precision medicine, and computational sustainability. Education & Affiliations Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) – dissertation on selective knowledge transfer advised by Marie desJardins Former Visiting Assistant Professor, Bryn Mawr College Former part-time faculty, Swarthmore College and UMBC Two years as Senior Research Scientist at Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories Research Interests Eaton’s research advances versatile AI systems that can learn multiple tasks over long lifetimes, transfer knowledge across domains, and interact effectively with humans and other agents. Core themes include: Lifelong & continual learning – continual acquisition and refinement of knowledge across tasks Knowledge transfer – selective, cross-domain, and zero-shot transfer techniques Interactive AI – human-in-the-loop learning and interpretable models Applications – autonomous service robotics, precision medicine, sustainability, and search & rescue Selected Scientific Awards IJCAI-16 Distinguished Student Paper Award for zero-shot transfer research IJCAI-15 Best Paper Nomination for autonomous cross-domain transfer ICML 2020 Workshop Best Paper Award for lifelong policy gradient learning Grants & Funding Current and past research is supported by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and Lockheed Martin, enabling large-scale projects in lifelong robotics and medical AI. Students & Postdocs Eaton has advised a diverse cohort of scholars including current PhD students David Isele, Seungwon Lee, Jorge Mendez, and Mohammad Rostami, as well as postdocs Boyu Wang and numerous alumni now in faculty positions or leading industry research teams. Labs & Teams He leads the Autonomous Service Robot Fleet within GRASP, creating low-cost robots that learn lifelong skills in university and office settings. His group also collaborates with clinicians for AI-driven precision medicine, and partners with defense and sustainability initiatives.
Robin Jia is an Assistant Professor in the Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science at the University of Southern California (USC) , where he leads the AI, Language, Learning, Generalization, and Robustness (Allegro) Lab . His research focuses on enhancing the reliability and robustness of large language models (LLMs) through mechanistic understanding, benchmarking under distribution shifts, and neurosymbolic integration. Key affiliations include collaborations with the USC Keck School of Medicine and contributions to legal frameworks like the EU's Digital Services Act. Robin's research spans multiple domains, including: Scientific analysis of LLM capabilities in in-context learning , data memorization , and numerical reasoning Advancements in robust NLP systems , emphasizing uncertainty estimation and calibration Development of methods combining LLMs with symbolic solvers for complex reasoning tasks Interdisciplinary applications in medicine and law , such as privacy-preserving synthetic data generation and medical misconception evaluation . His recent publications (2024-2025) address Fourier-based numerical embeddings (NeurIPS), neurosymbolic planning (NAACL), and multimodal benchmarking (COLM), with a strong emphasis on privacy , fairness , and transparency . Scientific awards include the Google Research Scholar Award (2023) , SoCalNLP Symposium Best Paper Awards , and ACL/EMNLP outstanding papers . He advises PhD students like Johnny Wei and Ameya Godbole, and has secured grants from the NSF , USC-Capital One , and USC-Amazon .
Hanjie Chen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Rice University, affiliated with the Ken Kennedy Institute. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia and a Master's from the University of Science and Technology of China. Her research focuses on Natural Language Processing, Interpretable Machine Learning, and Trustworthy AI, emphasizing model explainability, alignment with human needs, and applications in healthcare, sports, and medicine. She has advised numerous students and led initiatives in AI ethics and education. Education: Ph.D. (Computer Science, UVA 2023), M.Sc. (USTC 2018), B.Sc. (Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics 2015). Awards include the Outstanding Doctoral Student Award (UVA 2023) and John A. Stankovic Research Award (UVA 2023). She has organized workshops like BlackboxNLP and served on program committees for ACL, NAACL, and EMNLP. Her recent work includes developing benchmarks like SPORTU for multimodal LLMs, evaluating medical question-answering systems, and advancing methods for robust rationale evaluation (RORA). She teaches courses on Natural Language Processing and Trustworthy NLP, emphasizing pedagogical innovation recognized by teaching awards at UVA. Research collaborations include internships at Microsoft Research, IBM, and the Allen Institute for AI. She mentors students in SURF programs and advocates for diversity in tech, serving as a mentor in UVA's CSGSG Council.
Ole Winther is Professor in High dimensional biological data analysis/Machine learning at the Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen and Professor in Data science and complexity at DTU Compute, Technical University of Denmark. He serves as CRO and co-founder of raffle.ai, CTO and co-founder of FindZebra, Head of ELLIS Unit Copenhagen, and co-PI of the Machine Learning for Life Science Center. His research spans Bioinformatics , Machine Learning , and AI for Science , focusing on applying deep learning to biological sequence analysis, latent variable models, and medical NLP. Winther's work develops predictive and generative models for bioinformatics, with significant contributions to protein localization tools (SignalP, DeepLoc, DeepTMHMM), single-cell genomics, and novel deep learning architectures like variational autoencoders and diffusion models. Analysis of Winther's recent publications (2023-2025) reveals a strong trend toward integrating protein language models with traditional bioinformatics approaches and applying diffusion models to scientific problems. His work bridges theoretical machine learning advancements with practical applications in biology and medicine, particularly in protein sequence analysis, medical search engines, and scientific simulation acceleration. Winther currently supervises a diverse research group including Panagiotis Antoniadis, Rachael M. DeVries, Jun Wang, Beatrix M. G. Nielsen, Felix G. Teufel, Irene R. Rodriguez, Anders Christensen, and Christopher Heje Grønbech. His former students have established successful careers at institutions including Google, Apple, and various startups, with notable alumni like Casper Sønderby (Google Brain) and Søren Sønderby (Apple). He leads significant research initiatives including the ELLIS Unit Copenhagen and the Machine Learning for Life Science Center, while maintaining active industry partnerships through his co-founded companies raffle.ai (enterprise search using NLP) and FindZebra (search engine for rare diseases). His teaching includes Deep Learning courses at both DTU (02456) and University of Copenhagen (NDAK24002U).
Harris H. Wang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Systems Biology and Department of Pathology and Cell Biology at Columbia University's Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he also serves as Interim Chair of Systems Biology. He is affiliated with the Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (C2B2) and the Integrated Program in Cellular, Molecular and Biomedical Studies (CMBS). B.S., Physics and Mathematics, MIT Ph.D., Biophysics, Harvard University Dr. Wang's research lies at the intersection of systems and synthetic biology, focusing on developing foundational technologies for genome engineering, microbiome manipulation, and synthetic genomics. His lab pioneers methods such as MAGE, MAGIC, CAST, and CAMII to enable high-throughput genetic manipulation, in situ microbiome engineering, and AI-driven microbial culturomics. Key research themes include understanding microbial community dynamics, engineering cellular memory systems, designing biocontained genetic circuits, and applying synthetic biology to human health challenges in personalized medicine and infectious disease. His recent publications reveal a strong trend in spatial and functional metagenomics, CRISPR-based microbiome editing, and synthetic biology tools for data storage and genetic stability. The articles span high-impact journals like Nature , Science , and Nature Biotechnology , reflecting his leadership in developing scalable, programmable biological systems. Scientific Awards: NIH Director’s Early Independence Award Forbes 30 Under 30 in Science Sloan Research Fellowship NSF CAREER Award ONR Young Investigator Award Burroughs Wellcome Fund PATH Award Schaefer Scholar Blavatnik National Award Vilcek Prize PECASE Dr. Wang has advised numerous PhD and postdoctoral researchers, many of whom have gone on to independent scientific careers. His lab is supported by major grants from NIH, NSF, DARPA, DOE, and foundations including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and CZ Biohub NY. He is actively involved in educational initiatives, including organizing Columbia’s iGEM team and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Synthetic Biology course. The Wang Lab is based at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center and is part of national consortia such as the Engineering Biology Research Consortium (EBRC) and the Genome Project-Write (GP-Write) initiative. The lab develops and applies cutting-edge technologies in automation, machine learning, and synthetic biology to engineer microbiomes for applications in medicine, global health, and climate change.
Bobak Mortazavi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering at Texas A&M University. His research focuses on medical analytics, machine learning, wearable sensors, and cyber-physical systems. He leads interdisciplinary projects in healthcare technology, including AI-driven diagnostics and predictive modeling for cardiovascular diseases. He has received notable awards such as the Best Demonstration Award at IEEE EMBS 2012 and the Best Paper Award at the Fourth International Conference on Data Analytics 2015. His work bridges machine learning with clinical applications, emphasizing practical solutions for healthcare challenges. Recent research includes developing AI tools for aortic stenosis detection, electrolyte estimation via ECG, and real-time patient monitoring systems. He collaborates with industry and academic partners to advance telemedicine and wearable health technologies. Key contributions include the SMART-LV project for smartphone-based cardiac diagnostics and the ArterialNet framework for blood pressure reconstruction using wearable sensors. His work is published in top journals like IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics and Elsevier's Pervasive and Mobile Computing.
Romain Lopez is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Biology at New York University, with a joint appointment in the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and the Department of Biology. He will be joining NYU in September 2025, bringing expertise at the intersection of machine learning and computational biology. Prior to joining NYU, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Genentech and Stanford Medicine from 2021 to 2025, working with Jonathan Pritchard and Aviv Regev. Dr. Lopez received his educational training at prestigious institutions: PhD in Computer Science (2021) from the University of California, Berkeley, advised by Mike Jordan and Nir Yosef M.S. in Applied Mathematics (2016) from École polytechnique, Palaiseau, France Dr. Lopez's research focuses on developing machine learning methods to understand biological systems at the cellular level. His work bridges computational techniques with biological applications, particularly in single-cell and spatial omics analysis. He pioneered probabilistic approaches for single-cell analysis with scVI and co-developed scvi-tools, now widely adopted tools in the field. His research spans deep generative models, causal inference, perturbation modeling, and representation learning for biological data. His publication record demonstrates a consistent trajectory of innovation in computational biology, with recent work focusing on spatial biology, disentangled representations of cellular perturbations, and causal modeling of cellular responses. He has made significant contributions to the field of single-cell analysis, developing methods that help scientists interpret complex cellular data and predict how cells respond to various perturbations. Dr. Lopez has received numerous honors and awards for his research: Best Paper Award from the ICML Workshop on AI for Science (2024) Best Paper Award Honorable Mention from the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (2021) Best Student Poster Award from the ICML Workshop on Computational Biology (2019) UC Berkeley EECS Departmental Graduate Fellowship (2016) Carnot Foundation Fellowship (2016) Monahan Foundation Fellowship (2016) French National Defence Medal, Bronze Echelon (2014) At NYU, Dr. Lopez will lead the Biological Machine Learning group, which develops probabilistic machine learning methods to uncover biological mechanisms governing cellular behavior and disease. His lab focuses on creating tools that transform complex cellular data into biological insights, with applications in understanding cancer, immune responses, and fundamental cellular processes. His work has significant implications for precision medicine and drug discovery.
Peter Bühlmann is a Professor at ETH Zürich within the Seminar für Statistik , focusing on high-dimensional statistics, causal inference, and machine learning. His work bridges theoretical advancements with practical software implementations in R packages like pcalg , mboost , and glmmlasso , impacting fields such as genomics, proteomics, and intensive care analytics. Key Contributions : Causal structure learning, stability selection, anchor regression, and deconfounding. Software : Developed widely used R packages for statistical modeling and causal inference. Teaching : Courses on high-dimensional statistics at ETH Zürich and international institutions. Research Trends : Recent articles emphasize causal robustness, domain adaptation, and applications in medicine. His work addresses challenges in heterogeneous data, missing values, and covariate shifts using methods like spectral deconfounding and residual prediction tests. Scientific Recognition : Co-author of a paper designated as a New Hot Paper (Meinshausen and Bühlmann, 2006) by Essential Science Indicators, indicating significant impact in high-dimensional multiple testing.
Anamaria Crisan is an Assistant Professor at the University of Waterloo, affiliated with the Insight Lab. Her research focuses on interdisciplinary work at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Data Visualization, and Applied AI/ML. She explores human-centered approaches to AI/ML systems, visualization design for decision-making, and healthcare data science applications. Dr. Crisan holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of British Columbia (2019), an MSc in Bioinformatics (2010), and a BComp in Biomedical Computing from Queen’s University (2008). Her educational background bridges computer science, biology, and healthcare informatics. Her research interests include responsible AI/ML systems, interactive visualization for data-driven decisions, and leveraging visualization in healthcare to improve outcomes. She emphasizes transparency, trustworthiness, and human alignment in AI technologies. Her work spans diverse applications such as genomic epidemiology, dashboard design, and ethical AI evaluation. Notable contributions include studies on human-AI collaboration, visualization linters, and scalable dashboard census methodologies. She has published widely in top-tier venues like IEEE VIS and ACM CHI. Dr. Crisan’s lab (UW Insight Lab) focuses on human-centered approaches to automating data science and improving visualization practices in critical domains like healthcare and public health.
Jonas Fischer is the head of the Explainable Machine Learning group at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics, Department of Computer Vision and Machine Learning. His research focuses on interpreting complex machine learning models, particularly in genomics and healthcare, aiming to enhance robustness and alignment with human decision-making. Prior to his role at MPI, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University's Department of Biostatistics, where he worked on interpretable models for gene regulatory systems in cancer. Education: PhD in Computer Science from Saarland University (2022), with a thesis titled More than the sum of its parts , exploring the intersection of pattern mining and deep learning. He has contributed to advancing methods in neural network pruning, federated learning, and low-dimensional embeddings (e.g., dtSNE, Mercat). His work bridges computational biology, data mining, and machine learning, with applications in DNA methylation analysis, graph-based differential networks, and biomedical informatics. Key research areas include: (1) Explainable AI and neural network interpretability, (2) Biomedical applications of machine learning (e.g., gene regulatory networks, cancer genomics), (3) Low-dimensional embeddings and visualization techniques, (4) Federated learning for privacy-preserving collaborative models, and (5) Pattern mining for error analysis in NLP and classification tasks. Publications span top venues like NeurIPS, ICLR, Bioinformatics, and Genome Biology. His group develops tools such as BONOBO for omics data integration and node2vec2rank for scalable graph analysis. He actively collaborates with biomedical researchers to address challenges in data-driven healthcare and precision medicine.
