Aaron Hertzmann is a leading researcher at the intersection of artificial intelligence, computer graphics, and the visual arts. A scientist at Adobe Research, his work explores how machine learning can enable new forms of artistic creation and human–AI collaboration, with influential contributions to non-photorealistic rendering, generative models, and AI-assisted creative tools.
Ahmed E. Hassan is a Mustafa Prize Laureate (a Nobel-level recognition) and a Fellow of ACM and IEEE. For over 25 years, he has been a driving force behind the integration of AI into Software Engineering research and practice worldwide. His open-access book, Agentic Software Engineering, defined this emerging era and continues to shape it.
Amanda Randles is a winner of the ACM Prize in Computing and a leading researcher in AI-enabled biomedical modeling and computational science. Her work integrates large-scale simulation, data-driven methods, and high-performance computing to advance precision medicine and scientific discovery.
Amandeep Singh Gill is the United Nations Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology and a leading global voice on AI governance and digital cooperation. He plays a central role in shaping international frameworks for responsible AI bringing together governments, industry, and civil society.
Andrew Barto is an ACM Turing Award Laureate and one of the founders of reinforcement learning. His foundational work on learning from interaction, reward-driven adaptation, and agent-based intelligence underpins much of today's AI research across robotics, control, and decision-making systems.
Ellen Zegura is Regents and Fleming Chair Professor in the School of Computer Science at Georgia Tech. Since August 2023, she has been on loan from Georgia Tech to the U.S. National Science Foundation. She is Senior Science and Engineering Advisor in the Office of the Director with responsibility for the AI portfolio, which spans research, education/workforce, infrastructure, and translation. She is a Fellow of the IEEE and of the ACM.
Gabriela Ramos is a leader in AI governance and global policy. Formerly Assistant Director-General of UNESCO, she led the adoption of the Recommendation on the Ethics of AI by 194 countries and advanced AI readiness initiatives worldwide. As OECD Chief of Staff and G20/G7, she shaped international agreements on economic recovery, climate policy, and tax transparency. She currently co-chairs the Task Force on Inequalities and Social Financial Disclosure.
Jaime Teevan is Chief Scientist and Technical Fellow at Microsoft, where she leads research-driven innovation across the company’s products. Jaime is an advocate for finding smarter ways for people to make the most of their time and heads Microsoft’s future of work initiative. She is member of the ACM SIGIR and SIGCHI Academies, and a recipient of the TR35.
Dr. Kristen Yeon-Ji Yun is a musician and researcher working at the intersection of AI and music. She leads the AI for Music research team at Purdue University, which has developed tools like Robot Cello, Automatic Music Transcription, and Evaluator, a mobile application that has been tested by dozens of musicians to improve posture and practice. As an active cellist of global renown, Dr. Yun bridges artistic expression and technological innovation.
Maria Giulia Dondero is a leading scholar in visual semiotics and the theory of images, whose recent research examines AI-generated imagery, focusing on stylistic stereotypes, visual composition, and the cultural implications of generative visual systems. She is Research Director at the F.R.S.-FNRS, Professor of Semiotics at the University of Liège, and President of the International Association for Visual Semiotics (IAVS/AISV).
Markus Gross is a leading figure in computer graphics and visual computing, known for pioneering work that bridges academic research and large-scale industry innovation. Professor of Computer Science at ETH Zurich and Chief Scientist at The Walt Disney Studios, he has shaped the development of advanced visual effects, simulation, and AI-driven content creation technologies used in film and media.
Rodney Brooks is a pioneering roboticist and AI researcher whose work on embodied intelligence and behavior-based robotics has shaped modern AI and robotics for over five decades. He bridged research and real-world deployment leading the development of globally deployed robot families including Roomba, PackBot, Baxter, Sawyer, and Carter.
Virginia Dignum is Professor of Artificial Intelligence at Umeå University, where she researches safeguards for autonomous AI systems. She has led responsible AI efforts through the European Commission, UNICEF, the World Economic Forum, and IEEE. She is the author of The AI Paradox: How to Make Sense of a Complex Future, published by Princeton University Press in 2026.
Yann LeCun is an ACM Turing Award Laureate and a pioneer of modern deep learning. His work has shaped convolutional networks and, more recently, predictive world-model architectures such as JEPA, offering a compelling vision for self-supervised learning and autonomous intelligence.
Yi Zeng is a Professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is the founding Director of the Research Center for AI Ethics and Sustainable Development at the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence. Yi Zeng has contributed extensively to international AI governance efforts, serving as an expert for UNESCO and helping draft major frameworks including the Beijing AI Principles and China’s National Governance Principles for the New Generation Artificial Intelligence.