Kristian Kersting (born November 28, 1973, in

Cuxhaven Cuxhaven (; ) is a town and seat of the Cuxhaven district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town includes the northernmost point of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the shore of the North Sea at the mouth of the Elbe River. Cuxhaven has a footprint o ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

)Curriculum vitae of Kristian Kersting from his time at MIT
/ref> is a German computer scientist. He is Professor of

Artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

and

Machine Learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of study in artificial intelligence concerned with the development and study of Computational statistics, statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalise to unseen data, and thus perform Task ( ...

at the

Department of Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to applied disciplines (including the design and ...

at the

Technische Universität Darmstadt The Technische Universität Darmstadt (official English name Technical University of Darmstadt, sometimes also referred to as Darmstadt University of Technology), commonly known as TU Darmstadt, is a research university in the city of Darmsta ...

, Head of the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Lab (AIML) and Co-Director of hessian.AI, the . He is known for his research on statistical relational artificial intelligence,

probabilistic programming Probabilistic programming (PP) is a programming paradigm based on the declarative specification of probabilistic models, for which inference is performed automatically. Probabilistic programming attempts to unify probabilistic modeling and trad ...

, and deep probabilistic learning.

Life

Kersting studied

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

at the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially ), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The university was founded in 1 ...

, where he received his Ph.D. in 2006. At the university he attended a course on artificial intelligence given by Bernhard Nebel and became interested in the topic. He was a visiting

postdoctoral researcher A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary acade ...

at the

KU Leuven KU Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. Founded in 1425, it is the oldest university in Belgium and the oldest university in the Low Countries. In addition to its mai ...

and a postdoctoral associate at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

(MIT). His advisor at MIT was Leslie Pack Kaelbling. From 2008 to 2012, he led a research group at the Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems IAIS. He then became a Juniorprofessor at the

University of Bonn The University of Bonn, officially the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (), is a public research university in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the () on 18 October 1818 by Frederick Willi ...

and

associate Professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a position ...

at the computer science department of the

Technical University of Dortmund TU Dortmund University () is a technical university in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany with over 35,000 students, and over 6,000 staff including 300 professors, offering around 80 Bachelor's and master's degree programs. It is situate ...

. From 2017 to 2019, he was

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

machine Learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of study in artificial intelligence concerned with the development and study of Computational statistics, statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalise to unseen data, and thus perform Task ( ...

and since 2019 professor of

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

and

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of study in artificial intelligence concerned with the development and study of Computational statistics, statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalise to unseen data, and thus perform Task ( ...

at the

department of computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to applied disciplines (including the design and ...

of the

. He is also a researcher at

ATHENE Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress o ...

, the largest research institute for

IT security Computer security (also cybersecurity, digital security, or information technology (IT) security) is a subdiscipline within the field of information security. It consists of the protection of computer software, systems and networks from thr ...

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and leads a research department at the

German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, DFKI (German: ''Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz'') was founded in 1988 as a non-profit public-private partnership. It has research facilities in Kaiserslautern, Saarbr ...

(DFKI). Kristian Kersting is the co-spokesperson of Cluster of Excellence "Reasonable Artificial Intelligence", RAI (2026-32).

Awards

In 2006, he received the AI Dissertation Award of the

European Association for Artificial Intelligence The European Association for Artificial Intelligence (EurAI), formerly European Co-ordinating Committee for Artificial Intelligence (ECCAI), is the representative body for the European artificial intelligence community. Overview EurAI was establis ...

. In 2008, he received the Fraunhofer Attract research grant with a budget of 2.5 million euros over five years. He was appointed Fellow of the

(EurAI) and Fellow of the

European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems ELLIS (European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems) is a pan-European artificial intelligence (AI) network of excellence which focuses on fundamental science, technical innovation and societal impact. Founded in 2018, ELLIS builds ...

(ELLIS) in 2019. In 2019 he received the "Deutscher KI-Preis" ("German AI Award"), endowed with 100,000 euros, for his outstanding scientific achievements in the field of artificial intelligence. He was elected an

AAAI Fellow Fellowship of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (abbreviated as AAAI Fellow or FAAAI) is an award granted to individuals that the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), judged to have made ...

in 2024.

Publications

* De Raedt L., Kersting K. (2008) Probabilistic Inductive Logic Programming. In: De Raedt L., Frasconi P., Kersting K., Muggleton S. (eds) Probabilistic Inductive Logic Programming. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 4911. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. * Luc De Raedt, Kristian Kersting, Sriraam Natarajan and David Poole, "Statistical Relational Artificial Intelligence: Logic, Probability, and Computation", Synthesis Lectures on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning" Morgan & Claypool, March 2016 .

References

External links

His website at the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Lab
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kersting, Kristian 1973 births Living people Academic staff of Technische Universität Darmstadt German artificial intelligence researchers University of Freiburg alumni German computer scientists Fellows of the European Association for Artificial Intelligence Fellows of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence Machine learning researchers People from Cuxhaven