Professor Bernd Möbius is a leading academic in Phonetics and Phonology at the Department of Language Science and Technology, Saarland University. His research bridges phonetic theory with speech technology applications, focusing on text-to-speech systems, prosody modeling, and computational simulations of speech processes. Current research projects: DFG SFB 1102, C1: Information density and phonetic structure predictability DFG SFB 1102, C4: Slavic intercomprehension and surprisal theory (INCOMSLAV) Research Themes: Key areas include text-to-speech synthesis, speech prosody analysis, experimental methods in speech production/perception, information density in phonetics, and cross-linguistic studies of Slavic-Germanic languages. Scientific Contributions: Recent work explores Parkinson-induced dysarthria detection, breath noise acoustics, surprisal-driven speech behaviors, multilingual BERT models for idiomaticity, and perceptual consequences of acoustic adjustments.
Prof. Matthias Nießner is a Professor at the Technical University of Munich, leading the Visual Computing Lab. His research intersects computer graphics, vision, and AI, focusing on 3D reconstruction, semantic understanding, and AI-driven video synthesis. He holds a PhD from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (2013) and was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Stanford University (2013–2017). Notable awards include the ERC Starting Grant (2018), Nvidia Professorship Award, and Eurographics Young Researcher Award (2019). His work has been featured in mainstream media and led to startups like Synthesia Inc. Research spans Gaussian splatting, neural radiance fields, and generative AI for 3D avatars. Over 150 publications include SIGGRAPH, CVPR, and ECCV, with best paper awards. Projects like Face2Face and ScanNet have driven innovation in facial reenactment and 3D scene datasets. Education: PhD in Computer Science, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (2013) Diploma in Computer Science, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (2010) Research Interests: 3D digitization, neural rendering, generative AI, non-rigid reconstruction, and applications in AR/VR. Awards: ERC Starting Grant (2018) Nvidia Professorship Award (2018) Google Faculty Award (2018) SIGGRAPH Best Emerging Tech Award (2016) Grants: Over €1.5M from ERC and industry partnerships. Labs/Teams: Visual Computing Lab at TUM and Synthesia Inc. (co-founder). Key projects include ScanNet (large 3D indoor dataset), Face2Face (real-time facial reenactment), and Gaussian-based 3D avatars. Current work focuses on diffusion models, neural radiance fields, and AI-generated media detection.
Prof. Matthias Nießner is a Professor at the Technical University of Munich , where he leads the Visual Computing Lab . Prior to this, he held a Visiting Assistant Professor position at Stanford University . His work bridges computer vision , graphics , and machine learning , focusing on 3D reconstruction , semantic scene understanding , and AI-driven video synthesis . Prof. Nießner has published over 150 works in top venues like SIGGRAPH , CVPR , and ECCV , with several receiving best paper awards (SIGCHI’14, HPG’15, SPG’18, SIGGRAPH’16 Emerging Tech). His research has garnered international media attention, including features in the New York Times , Wall Street Journal , and MIT Technological Review , as well as TV demonstrations (e.g., Jimmy Kimmel Live for Face2Face technology). Awards : TUM-IAS Rudolph Moessbauer Fellowship (2017–ongoing) Google Faculty Award (2017) Nvidia Professor Partnership Award (2018) ERC Starting Grant (2018, €1.5M) Eurographics Young Researcher Award (2019) Research Trends : 3D Gaussian Splatting for real-time rendering Neural Radiance Fields (NeRF) with mesh supervision Audio-driven facial animation via diffusion models Latent space diffusion for 3D scenes Self-supervised and zero-shot methods for 3D and image analysis As a co-founder and director of Synthesia Inc. , he drives democratization of synthetic media. His YouTube channel has over 5 million views, reflecting his impact beyond academia.
Ekaterina Shutova is an Associate Professor at the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC) within the Faculty of Science at the University of Amsterdam. She concurrently holds a Visiting Associate Professor position in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University. She leads the Amsterdam Natural Language Understanding Lab and heads the NLP & Digital Humanities research unit at ILLC. An ELLIS Scholar, she earned her PhD from the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory and Pembroke College. Her research has been funded by ERC, Innovate UK, British Academy, Leverhulme Trust, Google, Meta, and Deloitte. Her research spans natural language processing and machine learning, with core interests in: Few-shot learning for NLP Multilingual and cross-lingual systems Joint modeling of language and vision Cognitive processing and semantic representation Figurative language interpretation Computational social science applications Her recent publications (2024-2025) predominantly focus on multimodal learning, cultural alignment in AI, metaphor processing, and evaluation methodologies for language models. These works reflect a trend toward integrating cognitive science with multilingual systems and ethical considerations. Awards & Fellowships: ERC Consolidator Grant (2025) ELLIS Scholar Outstanding Paper Award at ACL 2023 Finalist for Outstanding Certification by TMLR Runner-up Best Paper Award at NAACL-HLT 2016 Research Leadership: She directs the Amsterdam Natural Language Understanding Lab, supervising 8 PhD students, 1 MSc student, and 34 alumni. Her projects include an ERC-funded initiative on globally accessible language technology and an AI Democratization grant for hate speech detection.
Susanne Weis is a Research Professor and Group Leader of the 'Variability of the Brain' group at the Department of Brain and Behavior (INM-7), part of the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM) at Research Center Jülich GmbH. Her work focuses on understanding brain variability through advanced neuroimaging techniques and machine learning, with particular emphasis on sex differences, hormonal influences, and clinical applications in mental health. Her research interests include neuroimaging methodologies, machine learning applications in cognitive neuroscience, and the structural-functional relationships underlying brain variability. She investigates how factors like sex hormones and naturalistic stimuli (e.g., movies) affect brain connectivity and cognitive performance, aiming to improve diagnostic and predictive tools for disorders such as schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease. Publications highlight her contributions to developing datasets (e.g., SpEx), analyzing confound leakage in ML models, and exploring meta-analytic networks during naturalistic viewing. Her work bridges basic science and clinical impact, addressing challenges in interpreting neuroimaging data and advancing personalized medicine approaches. In her role as a group leader, Weis oversees research projects and collaborates with interdisciplinary teams. She is affiliated with the Helmholtz Association and contributes to the broader scientific community through her research in neuroimaging and computational neuroscience.
Max Planck Institute for Intelligent SystemsGermany
Michael J. Black is a Professor and Director at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen, Germany, where he leads the Perceiving Systems department and serves as Managing Director . He is also an Honorarprofessor at the University of Tübingen 's Faculty of Science . His career spans roles at Brown University (2000-2010), Xerox PARC, and academic-industry collaborations with Amazon and Meshcapade.
Bistra Andreeva is a full Professor of Phonetics and Phonology at Saarland University, Department of Language Science and Technology. She is also a principal investigator of the DFG-funded project “Judeo-Spanish in Bulgaria: a contact language between archaism and innovation” (2022-2025) and leads or co-leads several other externally funded projects on prosody, information structure, and language contact. She teaches and has taught at Saarland University, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, and other European universities. Education & Academic Background Habilitation (kumulative Habilitationsschrift): “Contrastive Prosody: Bulgarian vs. German”, Saarland University, 2016. PhD (Dr. phil.): “Zur Phonetik und Phonologie der Intonation der Sofioter-Varietät des Bulgarischen”, Saarland University, 2007. Research Interests Andreeva’s research focuses on the phonetics and phonology of intonation and rhythm, cross-language and individual differences in the production and perception of syllabic prominence, the relation between intonation and information structure, minority languages (especially Judeo-Spanish in Bulgaria), and the interaction between information density and prosodic structure. Her methodological expertise includes experimental phonetics, corpus-based studies, and acoustic analysis. Major Projects SFB 1102 C1: “Information Density and the Predictability of Phonetic Structure” (DFG, 2014-2026) JuSpa: “Judeo-Spanish in Bulgaria: a contact language between archaism and innovation” (DFG, 2022-2025) Prosodic aspects of Bulgarian compared to other languages with lexical stress (Bulgarian National Science Fund, 2019-2024) Prosodic manifestations of focus in French and English from a Bulgarian point of view (DAAD & Sofia University, 2021-2023) Scientific Awards & Recognition While no major named prizes are listed, Andreeva’s work has been continuously supported by competitive grants from the German Research Foundation (DFG), DAAD, and Bulgarian National Science Fund. Her publications appear in top-tier journals and conference proceedings (Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Interspeech, Speech Prosody, International Congress of Phonetic Sciences). Teaching & Supervision She offers a broad spectrum of courses including Experimental Phonetics, Prosody, Phonetics & Phonology of Slavic Languages, Introduction to Instrumental Phonetics, and seminars on language contact. She has supervised numerous BA, MA, and PhD theses and regularly teaches at the PhD School of Sofia University. Labs & Teams She is affiliated with the Phonetics Laboratory at Saarland University and collaborates closely with the Institute for Bulgarian Language (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences), working in interdisciplinary teams involving phoneticians, computational linguists, and field linguists.
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary AnthropologyGermany
Martin Haspelmath is a Senior Research Scientist at the Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA), Leipzig, and an honorary (adjunct) professor at Leipzig University. His research focuses on comparative linguistics, language universals, and typology, particularly in syntactic and morphological systems. He co-edited the World Atlas of Language Structures (2005/2013) and co-founded Language Science Press . Education: PhD in Linguistics, Freie Universität Berlin (1990–1993) MA in Linguistics, University of Cologne and University at Buffalo (1985–1989) Undergraduate studies in Linguistics, University of Vienna (1983–1985) Research Interests: Haspelmath investigates global grammatical diversity, form-function correspondences, and universals in syntax, morphology, and lexical systems. His work emphasizes comparative concepts for cross-linguistic analysis and critiques traditional grammatical categories. Grants & Projects: ERC project leader at Leipzig University (2015–2020) Co-creator of Grambank , an open-access database of grammatical structures Leading initiatives for open-access publication and linguistic data sharing Labs/Teams: Active in the MPI's Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, collaborating on projects like APICS (Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures) and ValPal (Valency Patterns Leipzig).
Max Planck Institute of Colloids and InterfacesGermany
Shrikanth (Shri) Narayanan is University Professor and Niki & C. L. Max Nikias Chair in Engineering at the University of Southern California (USC), with appointments spanning Electrical & Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Linguistics, Psychology, Neuroscience, Pediatrics, and Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery. He serves as Research Director of the Information Sciences Institute and Director of the Ming Hsieh Institute. PhD in Electrical Engineering (UCLA, 1995) Engineer and MS in Electrical Engineering (UCLA, 1992 and 1990) BE in Electrical Engineering (Anna University, India, 1988) His interdisciplinary research focuses on human-centered signal processing and machine intelligence , addressing societal challenges in health, education, defense, and media arts. Key areas include: Behavioral signal processing Affective computing Multimodal signal processing Computational speech science Biomedical applications Scientific Awards : IEEE James L. Flanagan Speech and Audio Processing Award (2025) Edward J. McCluskey Technical Achievement Award (2024) ISCA Medal for Scientific Achievement (2023) Claude Shannon-Harry Nyquist Technical Achievement Award (2023) ACM ICMI Sustained Accomplishment Award (2020) USC Distinguished Faculty Service Award With over 1,000 publications and 19 patents , his work has been commercialized through startups like Behavioral Signals Technologies and Lyssn . He leads transformative university initiatives and has served in editorial roles for top journals including Computer Speech and Language and IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing .
Gerd Bruder is an Associate Professor at the University of Central Florida , affiliated with the Department of Computer Science . He previously held positions as a Research Associate Professor at UCF's Institute for Simulation and Training (2016-2022), Post-Doc at University of Hamburg (2014-2016), and Post-Doc at University of Würzburg (2011-2014). Habilitation : Computer Science, University of Hamburg (2017) Ph.D. : Computer Science, University of Münster (2011) M.Sc. : Computer Science (minor in Mathematics), University of Münster (2009) Research Interests : Gerd Bruder's work focuses on Extended Reality (XR) systems, spanning Virtual Reality (VR) , Augmented Reality (AR) , and Mixed Reality (MR) . Key areas include human factors , digital twins , 3D user interfaces , and perceptual modeling , with applications in healthcare, military operations, architecture, and smart environments. Recent Publications highlight innovations in XR locomotion , trust calibration with autonomous agents, spatial cognition , and haptic-visual integration . His 2025 articles address task-switching efficiency in XR and collaborative mixed reality design. Scientific Awards : Best Paper at ACM VRST 2023 2021 TechConnect Innovation Award Best Demo at ACM SUI 2021 Multiple Best Paper Awards (2016-2023) Best Poster & Demo Awards (2015-2020) Patents include systems for medical simulation , smart environment interruption management , and adaptive AR interfaces . His work bridges academic research and practical applications across VR, AR, and MR domains.
Max Planck Institute for Innovation and CompetitionGermany
Prof. Dr. Dirk Heckmann is a prominent academic and legal expert currently serving as a member of the Bavarian Institute for Digital Transformation (bidt) Board of Directors and holding the Chair of Digital Law and Security at the Technical University of Munich . As a constitutional lawyer and judge at the Bavarian Constitutional Court, he bridges legal expertise with digital policy through advisory roles in the Federal Government's Data Ethics Commission and the Chancellor's National IT Summit. In 2020, he established the TUM Center for Digital Public Services to advance legally sound, common-good-oriented digitalization. His research focuses on digital education , digital administration , and healthcare digitalization , with particular emphasis on legal certainty for digital systems . Recent projects like ReDiKo (Regulating Digital Communication Platforms) and AFFAIRE (AI Regulation for Examinations) highlight his commitment to evidence-based digital governance. He has authored the juris Practical Commentary on Internet Law since 2021, shaping Germany's digital legal discourse. Professor Heckmann actively engages in public debates about digital sovereignty and platform regulation , most notably at the 2025 Nuremberg Digital Festival where he will discuss open-source foundations for digital sovereignty. His work spans constitutional law , data ethics , and AI policy , with recent publications analyzing social media harassment, AI's impact on education, and digital violence legislation.
Professor Maria Löblich holds a position in the Department of Communication History and Media Cultures at the Institute of Journalism and Communication Studies, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences at Freie Universität Berlin. She specializes in historical and comparative approaches to communication studies with particular expertise in German division and reunification contexts, media policy history, and qualitative research methodologies. Her research focuses on communication history, media biographies, and the relationship between East and West German media landscapes. She has developed innovative approaches to studying media use across life courses and historical periods, with particular attention to how media shapes and reflects collective identities during periods of political transformation. Her methodological expertise lies in qualitative approaches including biographical interviews, discourse analysis, and historical media research. Her recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on historical media analysis, particularly examining the Berliner Zeitung as an anchor of East German identity, media usage patterns in divided Berlin, and the development of journalism studies after the student movement. She has also contributed significantly to theoretical discussions on mediatization and media policy frameworks. Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University (2012/13) Speaker of the Communication History Group of the German Society for Publizistik- and Communication Science (2012-2016) Professor Löblich has supervised numerous research projects examining media history in divided Germany and currently leads investigations into the media legacy of the GDR. Her methodological contributions to qualitative communication research have been widely recognized, including her co-authored book 'Qualitative Forschung in der Kommunikationswissenschaft.'
Dr. Hilde Kuehne is a Professor at the University of Tuebingen and a key researcher at the Tuebingen AI Center. She holds affiliations with MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab and Goethe University Frankfurt, with a focus on computer vision, multimodal learning, and explainable AI. Her work bridges vision-language models, audio-visual alignment, and self-supervised methods. Co-organizer of the New Frontiers in Associative Memories workshop @ ICLR 2025 Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Carl-Zeiss-Foundation Contributor to CVPR 2025's UTD dataset for unbiased video benchmarks Her research addresses critical challenges in: Explainability for Vision Transformers (LeGrad) Fine-grained audio-visual alignment (CAV-MAE Sync) Zero-shot visual recognition automation (Meta-Prompting) Spatio-temporal grounding without annotations Recent collaborative work spans 15+ publications across CVPR, NeurIPS, ICCV, and ICLR, with emphasis on multimodal foundation models, dataset bias mitigation, and differentiable logic networks. She actively contributes to workshop organization and peer review as evidenced by her involvement in CVPR 2025 and ICLR 2025 program committees.
Sebastian Möller is a Professor at the Faculty for Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Technical University of Berlin and leads the Speech and Language Technology research department at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) since 2017. His work bridges speech technology, natural language processing, and quality engineering, with a focus on usable security, virtual reality applications, and ethical AI. Born in 1968, studied electrical engineering at Ruhr University Bochum, Université d'Orléans, and University of Bologna Doctorate in 1999 from Ruhr University Bochum on speech quality prediction Adjunct Professor at University of Technology Sydney since 2018 His research spans speech signal processing, quality assessment of AI systems, and ethical challenges in medical AI applications. Recent work includes fairness in clinical AI decision-making, audio deepfake detection using self-supervised learning, and collaborative approaches to natural language explanation generation. All three 2025 publications reflect his focus on AI quality assessment and ethical implementation across domains: medical AI fairness, audio deepfake detection, and collaborative explanation frameworks. These works demonstrate expertise in natural language processing, speech technology, and model interpretability. Johann-Philipp-Reis-Prize (2009) Heisenberg Scholarship (2005) Lothar Cremer Prize (2003) VDE ITG Prize (2001) Geers Foundation award (1998) Möller has held leadership roles at TU Berlin including Vice Dean for Research (2015-2017) and Dean (2017-2019). He contributes to international standardization through ITU-T (since 1997) and has served in key positions at DEGA, VDE, and ISCA, including ISCA presidency (2021-2023).
Prof. Dr. Andreas Zick is a leading scholar at Bielefeld University, serving as Scientific Director of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Conflict and Violence Research (IKG) and Professor for Socialization and Conflict Research at the Faculty of Education. He also co-leads the ConflictA initiative since 2023 and contributes to migration education through the Faculty of Education. 2008: Professor for Socialization and Conflict Research, Bielefeld University 2013: Director of IKG 2023: Scientific Head of ConflictA His research focuses on intergroup conflicts , group-based antipathy , right-wing extremism , radicalization , and socialization processes . He investigates spatial dimensions of radicalization, societal integration challenges, and prejudice dynamics through comparative studies. Recent publications analyze radicalization spaces (2024-2025) using spatial sociology, democratic conflict perceptions (2025), and cross-cultural prosocial behavior during pandemics. Key methods include ethnography, longitudinal surveys, and multi-perspective comparative analysis. Scientific contributions recognized by: Communicator Award (2016) Nevitt Sanford Lifetime Award (2022) Active in public policy as member of the Federal Agency for Civic Education's advisory board and Federal Commissioner's Antiracism Expert Council. Leads major projects on radicalization prevention and spatial conflict dynamics with national/international partners.
