Grace Y. Yi is a Professor and Tier I Canada Research Chair in Data Science at the University of Western Ontario, holding a joint appointment in the Departments of Statistical & Actuarial Sciences and Computer Science. She previously served at the University of Waterloo (2000-2019) and earned degrees from Sichuan University (B.Sc., M.Sc. in Mathematics), York University (M.Sc. in Statistics), and the University of Toronto (Ph.D. in Statistics). Her research focuses on statistical methodology for missing/mismeasured data, biostatistics, causal inference, and machine learning. She has authored influential monographs and co-edited major handbooks in her field. Recognized for leadership, she served as SSC President (2021-2022) and holds editorial roles at top journals. Awards include the SSC Gold Medal (2025), CRM-SSC Prize (2010), and Fellowships from the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and American Statistical Association. Her doctoral thesis (2000) under Don Fraser explored asymptotic distributions. She has supervised 23 Ph.D. students, three of whom won the Pierre Robillard Award. She mentors actively and advocates for statistical education globally, including founding the ICSA Canada Chapter. Her work bridges statistical theory and modern machine learning challenges like label noise and domain adaptation.
Kartik Hosanagar is the John C. Hower Professor of Technology and Digital Business and a Professor of Marketing at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He is also the Co-Director of the Wharton Human-AI Initiative. His work spans the Department of Operations, Information and Decisions, focusing on the intersection of technology, business, and society. Education: PhD in Management Science and Information Systems, Carnegie Mellon University MPhil in Management Science, Carnegie Mellon University Masters in Information Systems, Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences (BITS, Pilani), India Bachelors in Electronics Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences (BITS, Pilani), India Research Interests: Kartik’s research focuses on the digital economy, particularly the impact of AI, algorithms, and analytics on consumers, businesses, and society. His work explores internet marketing, e-commerce, digital media, information diffusion, platform economics, and the ethical implications of AI. He investigates how technology transforms business models and consumer behavior in online environments. Publication Trends: His recent research combines machine learning, causal inference, and behavioral modeling to study digital platforms, user behavior, and AI applications in marketing and operations. The articles reflect a strong focus on empirical analysis of social media, search engines, and platform design, with applications in advertising, content sharing, and product adoption. Scientific Awards: Best Information Systems paper published in Management Science, 2013-2016 Finalist for Best Information Systems paper in Management Science (2012-2015) Recognized as one of the world’s top 40 business professors under 40 Eleven-time recipient of teaching excellence awards at Wharton MBA Excellence in Teaching Award, 2007 “Goes above and beyond the call of duty” award (multiple years) Advising and Grants: While no formal PhD students are listed, Kartik has supervised independent studies and mentored numerous students through research projects. His entrepreneurial ventures, such as Yodle and Jumpcut Media, reflect real-world applications of his research. He has also secured significant industry engagement through consulting and executive education with major firms like Google, American Express, and Citi. His work is supported by academic recognition, editorial roles, and media outreach. Labs and Teams: Kartik co-directs the Wharton Human-AI Initiative, a research hub exploring the integration of human and artificial intelligence in business. He also leads research groups focused on digital platforms and AI ethics, collaborating with scholars across disciplines to advance understanding of algorithmic decision-making and its societal impact.
Il Memming Park is a Professor and Group Leader at the Centre for Restorative Neurotechnology within the Champalimaud Research division of the Champalimaud Foundation in Lisbon, Portugal. His work bridges computational neuroscience, machine learning, and statistical modeling to understand neural dynamics and computation. Dr. Park's research focuses on developing statistical and machine learning methods for analyzing neural time series data. His lab investigates the appropriate language for neural dynamics that can explain and generate specific predictions on neural data and behavior. He builds on foundations of dynamical systems and stochastic processes to create models of neural computation tightly tied to biology. His publications reveal a strong emphasis on developing methods like variational latent Gaussian processes and exponential family dynamical systems to extract meaningful patterns from complex neural recordings. His work spans both theoretical developments in computational methods and their application to real neural data from areas like visual cortex, parietal cortex, and other brain regions involved in perception and decision making. Dr. Park has previously held positions at Stony Brook University and the University of Texas at Austin, where he was affiliated with departments of Neurobiology and Behavior, Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Psychology, and Neuroscience. His lab at Champalimaud includes multiple PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, and research staff working collaboratively on various aspects of neural data analysis and modeling. The team employs an interdisciplinary approach combining neuroscience, statistics, machine learning, and dynamical systems theory.
Steven N. Evans is a Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Berkeley , affiliated with the Department of Statistics and the Center for Computational Biology . With over three decades of service since 1987, his work bridges probability theory , stochastic processes , and their applications in mathematical biology , computational genetics , and phylogenetics . His research spans: Probability on Algebraic Structures , including random matrices and local fields. Measure-Valued Processes and coalescent models in population genetics. Phylogenetic Inference in historical linguistics and ecology. Stochastic Models for gene expression, fitness landscapes, and mutation-selection balance. Markov Processes and their applications in phylodynamics. Recent publications highlight his contributions to phylogenetic networks , Frechet mean sets , and Levy process analysis , with keywords spanning Probability , Computational Biology , and Population Genetics . He has mentored 10 PhD students, including Boyan Xu (2024) and Nicholas Bhattacharya (2022). His email is evans@stat.berkeley.edu .
Jonas Bergström is a Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Stockholm University specializing in Algebra, Geometry, Topology, and Combinatorics. His research focuses on arithmetic geometry, moduli spaces, Siegel modular forms, and number theory, with extensive collaborations across international institutions including KTH Royal Institute of Technology. His research interests span algebraic geometry, topology, combinatorics, and number theory, with particular emphasis on moduli spaces of curves, abelian varieties, Siegel modular forms, and arithmetic geometry. Bergström's work bridges theoretical mathematics with computational approaches, often developing algorithms for complex mathematical structures. His research group actively explores commutative and homological algebra, complex and real algebraic geometry, arithmetic geometry, homotopy theory, and Ramsey theory. The most recent publications reveal a strong focus on cohomology of moduli spaces, Siegel modular forms, abelian varieties over finite fields, and L-functions. His work demonstrates a consistent pattern of combining algebraic geometry with number theory, particularly investigating arithmetic properties of algebraic varieties and developing computational methods for modular forms. The research shows increasing emphasis on algorithmic approaches and connections to theoretical physics through moduli space cohomology. Bergström has supervised several PhD students including Sjoerd de Vries (current), Stefano Marseglia, and Olof Bergvall (with Prof. Carel Faber). He currently mentors postdoctoral researchers Séverin Philip and Thomas Wennink, while former postdocs include Angelina Zheng, Valentijn Karemaker, Oliver Leigh, and Alex Samuel Bamunoba. His research is supported through collaborations with major mathematical networks including the Nordic number theory network and joint seminars with KTH. He is affiliated with the Algebra and Geometry Seminar (KTH and SU) and maintains active research connections through multiple collaborative projects, including joint work with Gerard van der Geer and Carel Faber on Hecke operators and Siegel modular forms. Bergström also contributes to open mathematical research through GitHub repositories containing computational results on cohomology of moduli spaces.
Pengtao Xie is an Associate Professor (tenured) in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UC San Diego, with cross-appointments in the Division of Biomedical Informatics and affiliations across multiple schools and institutes including the Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute, School of Biological Sciences, and Skaggs School of Pharmacy. His research bridges human-inspired machine learning and healthcare applications. Education: PhD in Machine Learning, Carnegie Mellon University (2018) MS from Tsinghua University BS from Sichuan University Research Interests: His work focuses on machine learning inspired by human learning strategies , including learning by testing, interleaving, self-explanation, and teaching. These techniques are applied to large language models , foundation models , healthcare , and biomedicine . Recent efforts emphasize generative AI for medical image segmentation and protein function prediction. Scientific Awards: NIH MIRA Award (2025) NSF Career Award (2024) Best Graduate Teacher Award, ECE UCSD (2023) ICLR Notable-Top-5% Paper (2023) Global Top-100 Chinese Young Scholars in AI (2022) Tencent Faculty Award (2021) AMIA Doctoral Dissertation Award Finalist (2020) Siebel Scholarship (2014) Teaching & Mentorship: He has developed and taught courses such as Deep Generative Models , Probabilistic Graphical Models , and Linear Algebra and Applications . He actively mentors PhD, master's, and undergraduate students, with alumni now at CMU, Stanford, Mila, and industry roles. Labs & Teams: He leads a research group within the Center for Machine-Intelligence, Computing and Security and collaborates with the Institute for Genomic Medicine and Institute of Engineering in Medicine at UC San Diego.
Rahul Mangal serves as an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT Kanpur). His academic profile demonstrates expertise in polymer physics, colloids, complex fluids, nanocomposites, active matter, and liquid crystals. Dr. Mangal completed his PhD at Cornell University in 2016, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Wisconsin Madison (2016-2017). He earned his B Tech-M Tech dual degree from IIT Kanpur in 2010. Prior to his academic career, he gained industry experience as a Manager at Reliance Industries Limited in Jamnagar, Gujarat from July 2010 to July 2012. His research program focuses on the experimental investigation of colloid-polymer interactions in nanocomposite systems. Specifically, his group studies how colloids (1-1000 nm) interact with polymeric hosts to influence fundamental properties including phase behavior, rheology, and colloidal diffusion. His work explores the novel properties that emerge when colloids are added to polymer melts, block copolymers, and liquid crystals, with applications in energy devices, photonics, and bio-medicines. Dr. Mangal's research has produced significant publications in high-impact journals including Nature Communications, Langmuir, and Macromolecules, demonstrating his contributions to understanding polymer-nanoparticle systems and their applications in energy storage technologies. Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant, Robert Frederick Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Cornell University (2016) McMullen Fellowship, Robert Frederick Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Cornell University (2012) His work bridges fundamental polymer physics with practical applications, particularly in developing advanced materials for energy storage solutions. Dr. Mangal maintains an active research program that continues to explore the complex behavior of polymer-nanoparticle systems to engineer materials with precisely controlled properties for targeted applications.
Luca Iocchi is a Full Professor at Sapienza University of Rome, where he teaches in the Master in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics program. He is affiliated with the Department of Computer, Control, and Management Engineering and the Faculty of Engineering of Information, Computer Science and Statistics. Iocchi serves as an Associate Editor for Artificial Intelligence Journal and has been the scientific coordinator of Spoke of PNRR project FAIR (Future AI Research). His educational background includes: Master in Engineering in Computer Science (Laurea in Ingegneria Informatica) cum Laude, Sapienza Università di Roma, 1995 PhD in Engineering in Computer Science (Dottorato in Ingegneria Informatica), Sapienza Università di Roma, 1999 Professor Iocchi's research focuses on cognitive robotics, task planning, multi-robot coordination, robot perception, robot learning, human-robot interaction, and social robotics. His work has significant applications in security, surveillance, and environmental monitoring. He has published over 200 referred papers with an h-index of 46 (Google Scholar). His research bridges theoretical AI with practical robotic systems operating in real-world environments, with a particular emphasis on developing intelligent systems that can interact effectively with humans. His recent publications show a strong trend toward multi-agent reinforcement learning, trust modeling in human-AI teams, UAV coordination, and planning systems. There's a clear focus on making robotic systems more reliable, efficient, and capable of operating in complex real-world scenarios like healthcare facilities and smart cities. His work increasingly integrates formal planning approaches with machine learning techniques. Professor Iocchi has received numerous scientific awards: 1999 Top Paper Award WebNet'99 2006 Best Paper Award RoboCup 2006 2008 Best Robotics Demo Award AAMAS 2008 2014 Best Paper Award For Engineering Contribution RoboCup 2014 2017 RoboCup@Home SSPL 2017 - 3rd place 2018 Canada-Italy Innovation Award 2019 Best Paper Award For Engineering Contribution RoboCup 2019 As an academic advisor, Iocchi has directed the PhD Program in Engineering in Computer Science from 2020 to 2023. He has been Principal Investigator for numerous research projects including SciRoc (European Robotics League), AI4EU (European AI project), BUBBLES, AIPlan4EU, ROSITA, Trust Your Agents, and FAIR. His research has been supported by EU H2020 programs, national grants, and industry collaborations, demonstrating strong connections between academia and practical applications. Professor Iocchi is actively involved with the Cognitive Cooperating Robots Lab (LabRoCoCo) and is a key member of the RoboCup Federation, having served as Vice-President from 2019 to 2024. He has played a significant role in benchmarking domestic service robots through RoboCup@Home and the European Robotics League Service Robots (ERL-SR), which he helped establish. His leadership in organizing international scientific robot competitions has been instrumental in advancing the field of service robotics.
Miguel Rodrigues is a Professor of Information Theory and Processing at University College London's Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering. He leads the Information, Inference and Machine Learning Lab at UCL and serves as the founder and director of the master programme in Integrated Machine Learning Systems. Rodrigues is also the UCL Turing University Lead and a Turing Fellow with the Alan Turing Institute, the UK National Institute of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. His academic background includes an undergraduate degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, Portugal, and a PhD in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from University College London. He has held appointments at prestigious institutions worldwide including Cambridge University, Princeton University, Duke University, and the University of Porto. Dr. Rodrigues's research spans information theory, information processing, and machine learning. His work has attracted over £5 million in funding from competitive national and international funding bodies and resulted in more than 250 publications with over 8000 citations in leading journals and conferences, including top AI venues like NeurIPS, ICML, and ICLR. His recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on multimodal learning, machine learning security, climate modeling with satellite data, and applications of AI in healthcare and precision medicine. His work shows increasing interdisciplinary collaboration across fields from climate science to pharmaceutical engineering. IEEE Communications and Information Theory Societies Joint Paper Award 2011 Fellow of the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) Prize for Merit from the University of Porto Prize Engenheiro Cristian Spratley Prize Engenheiro Antonio de Almeida Fellowships from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology Fellowships from the Foundation Calouste Gulbenkian Dr. Rodrigues has served as Editor for IEEE BITS – The Information Theory Magazine and IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, among other editorial roles. He consults widely in machine learning and AI with government institutions, funding agencies, industry, and startups, and sits on committees responsible for AI standardization such as the BSI Art/1 working group. His leadership extends to directing research labs and educational programs focused on advancing machine learning systems. He leads the Information, Inference and Machine Learning Lab at UCL, which focuses on fundamental aspects of information theory and their applications to machine learning and data processing. The lab works on both theoretical foundations and practical implementations of learning systems.
Prof. Ruth King is the Thomas Bayes’ Professor of Statistics at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Mathematics. Her research focuses on applying Bayesian statistical methods to ecological and public health challenges, including population estimation for hidden groups (e.g., injecting drug users, modern-day slaves) and wildlife conservation. She develops computationally efficient techniques for analyzing large datasets, such as spatial capture-recapture models for animal populations and spatio-temporal abundance models for hidden human populations. Key projects include estimating survival rates of guillemots (30,000 individuals) and improving capture-recapture models to account for animal movement dynamics. Her work bridges statistical methodology with real-world applications, emphasizing rigorous inference and scalable algorithms. King’s academic contributions span Bayesian modeling frameworks, parameter clustering in neuroscientific data, and hierarchical centering in random effects models. She collaborates with biologists and policymakers to address conservation and public health issues. Notable recent projects include incorporating memory effects into spatial capture-recapture models and developing semi-complete data augmentation for state-space models. Her interdisciplinary approach addresses challenges in ecology, epidemiology, and computational statistics, with a focus on methodological innovation for large-scale data. Her scientific contributions are highlighted through over 100 peer-reviewed articles, including work on integrated population models, animal movement dynamics, and hidden Markov models for seabird behavior. King emphasizes the importance of statistics in uncovering hidden information within datasets, advocating for robust methodologies that ‘stand up in court’ when applied to critical real-world problems.
James Zou is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Data Science at Stanford University, with courtesy appointments in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. His research focuses on advancing machine learning methodologies for healthcare applications, emphasizing reliability, fairness, and statistical rigor. He holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University and has held positions at Microsoft Research, Cambridge University (as a Gates Scholar), and UC Berkeley (Simons Fellow). Zou leads the Stanford Data4Health hub and is a Chan-Zuckerberg Investigator. His work spans AI-driven diagnostics, spatial transcriptomics, and ethical AI frameworks. Key achievements include the EchoNet AI system for echocardiography and foundational contributions to data valuation (e.g., Data Shapley). Awards include the Sloan Fellowship, NSF CAREER Award, and Google/Tencent AI awards. Education: Ph.D., Harvard University (2014); Postdoctoral roles at Microsoft Research, Cambridge, and Berkeley. Research Interests: Machine learning for healthcare, algorithmic fairness, interpretable AI, spatial omics, and translational bioinformatics. His lab develops tools like TextGrad (PyTorch for text agents) and frameworks for evaluating medical AI systems. Recent work addresses LLMs in peer review and clinical decision-making. Grants/Grants: Supported by NSF, Sloan Foundation, Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, and industry partnerships (Google, Amazon, Adobe). Advises on over 20 doctoral students, many contributing to high-impact papers in Nature , Science , and top conferences (NeurIPS, ICML). Leads collaborations in cardiology, oncology, and veterinary medicine. Labs/Teams: Stanford AI Lab, Stanford Data4Health, and interdisciplinary groups in precision medicine. Active in open-source projects like FrugalML and MetaViz.
Simon Mak is an Assistant Professor of Statistical Science at Duke University and a Faculty Network Member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences. His educational background includes: Ph.D. in Statistics, Georgia Institute of Technology (2018) M.S. in Statistics, Georgia Institute of Technology (2018) B.S. in Statistics, Simon Fraser University (2013) Dr. Mak's research focuses on advanced statistical methodologies for complex scientific problems. His expertise spans statistical modeling , Bayesian inference , Gaussian process emulation , and uncertainty quantification . He applies these methods to nuclear physics (heavy-ion collisions), engineering (engine control systems), and music information retrieval, emphasizing scalability and interpretability in scientific computing. Analysis of his 2023-2025 publications reveals dominant trends in scalable Gaussian process methods for massive datasets and multi-fidelity simulations, particularly applied to high-energy physics and engineering systems. He has pioneered innovations in Bayesian optimization for expensive simulators and developed novel frameworks for online change-point detection in streaming data, demonstrating exceptional cross-disciplinary impact. Dr. Mak leads multiple significant research initiatives: Collaborative Research: Cost-Efficient and Confident Sampling for Modern Scientific Discovery (2023-2026) Science-Integrated Predictive modeLing (SCINPL) for scalable scientific computing (2022-2025) The X-SCAPE collaboration for statistically advanced nuclear collision modeling (2020-2025) These projects fund his development of statistical frameworks for scientific discovery in complex systems. He actively contributes to the JETSCAPE collaboration, developing multi-stage frameworks for studying jet quenching in heavy-ion collisions, and applies statistical methods through the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences to advance neuroscience research.
Andrew Li is an Associate Professor of Operations Research at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business since 2024, previously serving as Assistant Professor since 2018. His research bridges statistics, optimization, and machine learning with applications to healthcare operations and retail management. Current teaching: Optimization, Business Analytics Capstone, and Topics in Optimization and Statistics PhD from MIT's Operations Research Center (2018), BS in Operations Research/Applied Mathematics from Columbia University (2012) Research Focus: Dr. Li develops data-driven decision frameworks for complex systems. Key areas include: Experience-based learning models with fairness constraints (organ allocation) Anomaly detection in low-rank matrices (retail inventory accuracy) Nanoparticle-based diagnostic systems for CAD and Alzheimer's Nonstationary demand forecasting in supply chains Publication Trends: Recent work combines bandit algorithms with healthcare applications (split liver transplants, CAD detection) and retail operations (inventory accuracy). Theoretical contributions include regret-optimal policies and entrywise anomaly detection guarantees. Scientific Honors: INFORMS Nicholson Award (2018) INFORMS Pierskalla Award (2021) NSF CAREER Award (2023) Professional Leadership: Active in INFORMS and CMU committees including MBA Analytics Curriculum, Thompson Award, and ENAiBLE AI-driven retail collaborative co-founder since 2021.
Mo Jiang is a Researcher in the Department of Chemical & Life Science Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University's College of Engineering. His research focuses on advanced crystallization processes for energy storage materials and pharmaceutical manufacturing. He specializes in continuous manufacturing techniques such as slug-flow reactors, aiming to improve material uniformity, scalability, and process efficiency. His work bridges chemical engineering principles with practical applications in battery technology and drug substance development. Research Interests: Continuous crystallization and manufacturing systems Slug-flow synthesis of battery cathode materials Process optimization for pharmaceuticals and energy storage Scalable synthesis of uniform microcrystals His recent articles highlight advancements in low-cobalt/cobalt-free lithium-ion battery cathodes, pharmaceutical crystallization methods, and the application of computational fluid dynamics to enhance manufacturing processes. These studies emphasize improving material performance, reducing costs, and achieving sustainable production methods. While no formal academic awards are listed, his prolific publication record demonstrates expertise in interdisciplinary engineering solutions. He collaborates on projects involving process design, real-time monitoring, and the integration of advanced manufacturing technologies.
Simon Dobson is a Professor of Computer Science and Deputy Head of the School of Computer Science at the University of St Andrews. His research focuses on complex systems, sensor analytics, computational tools for simulation, and data analytics. He leads grants exceeding EUR30M, including a £5M EPSRC-funded programme in Sensor Systems Software. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2020) and advises the Scottish government. Education: BSc (University of Newcastle), DPhil (University of York), both in Computer Science. Professional: Chartered Engineer, Fellow of the British Computer Society. Research Interests: Complex systems, network science, higher-order networks, epidemiological modeling, and sensor data integration. Teaching: CS4203 (Computer Security), CS5728 (Complex Systems Modelling). Supervises PhD/MSc projects. Awards: Includes RSE Fellowship, BCS Fellowship, and multiple leadership roles in conferences and committees.
