Klaus-Robert Müller (born 1964 in Karlsruhe, West Germany) is a German

computer scientist A computer scientist is a scientist who specializes in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation. Although computer scientists can also focus their work and research on ...

and

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

, most noted for his work in

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

brain–computer interface A brain–computer interface (BCI), sometimes called a brain–machine interface (BMI), is a direct communication link between the brain's electrical activity and an external device, most commonly a computer or robotic limb. BCIs are often dire ...

Career

Klaus-Robert Müller received his

Diplom A ''Diplom'' (, from ) is an academic degree in the German-speaking countries Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and a similarly named degree in some other European countries including Albania, Bulgaria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia ...

in mathematical physics and PhD in theoretical computer science from the

University of Karlsruhe The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; ) is both a German public university, public research university in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, and a research center of the Helmholtz Association. KIT was created in 2009 when the University of Ka ...

. Following his Ph.D. he went to

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

as a postdoctoral fellow at GMD (German National Research Center for Computer Science) Berlin (now part of

Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems The Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems, or FOKUS, is an organization of the Fraunhofer Society. Headquartered in Berlin (Charlottenburg), the institute is engaged in applied research and development in the field of Information an ...

), where he started building up the Intelligent Data Analysis (IDA) group. From 1994 to 1995 he was a research fellow at

Shun'ichi Amari , is a Japanese engineer and neuroscientist born in 1936 in Tokyo, Japan. Overviews He majored in Mathematical Engineering in 1958 from the University of Tokyo then graduated in 1963 from the Graduate School of the University of Tokyo. His Ma ...

's lab at the

University of Tokyo The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several pre-westernisation era ins ...

. 1999 Müller became an associate professor for

neuroinformatics Neuroinformatics is the emergent field that combines informatics and neuroscience. Neuroinformatics is related with neuroscience data and information processing by artificial neural networks. There are three main directions where neuroinformatics ...

at the

University of Potsdam The University of Potsdam is a public university in Potsdam, capital of the state of Brandenburg, northeastern Germany. The university is mainly situated across three campuses in the city. Some faculty buildings are part of the New Palace o ...

, transitioning to the full professorship for Neural Networks and Time Series Analysis in 2003. Since 2006 he holds the chair for

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 ( ...

Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin; also known as Berlin Institute of Technology and Technical University of Berlin, although officially the name should not be translated) is a public university, public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was the first ...

. Since 2012 he holds a distinguished professorship at

Korea University Korea University (KU, ) is a Private university, private research university in Seoul, South Korea. Established in 1905 by Yi Yong-ik, Lee Yong-Ik, a prominent official of the Korean Empire, Korea University is among South Korea's oldest List of ...

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

. He co-founded and is co-director of the Berlin Big Data Center (BBDC) of TU Berlin. As of 2017, 29 former doctoral or postdoctoral researchers of Klaus-Robert Müller have become full professors themselves.

Bernhard Schölkopf Bernhard Schölkopf (born 20 February 1968) is a German computer scientist known for his work in machine learning, especially on kernel methods and causality. He is a director at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen, ...

and Alexander J. Smola were supervised by him as members of his research group. Since 2020 he is director of the Berlin Institute for the Foundations of Learning and Data (BIFOLD), a German National AI Competence Center, and director of the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS) unit Berlin. In 2020/2021 he spent his

sabbatical A sabbatical (from the Hebrew: (i.e., Sabbath); in Latin ; Greek: ) is a rest or break from work; "an extended period of time intentionally spent on something that’s not your routine job." The concept of the sabbatical is based on the Bi ...

Google Brain Google Brain was a deep learning artificial intelligence research team that served as the sole AI branch of Google before being incorporated under the newer umbrella of Google AI, a research division at Google dedicated to artificial intelligence ...

as a principal scientist.

Research

Müller has contributed extensively to several major interests of

, including

support vector machine In machine learning, support vector machines (SVMs, also support vector networks) are supervised max-margin models with associated learning algorithms that analyze data for classification and regression analysis. Developed at AT&T Bell Laborato ...

s (SVMs) and

kernel method In machine learning, kernel machines are a class of algorithms for pattern analysis, whose best known member is the support-vector machine (SVM). These methods involve using linear classifiers to solve nonlinear problems. The general task of patt ...

s, and

artificial neural network In machine learning, a neural network (also artificial neural network or neural net, abbreviated ANN or NN) is a computational model inspired by the structure and functions of biological neural networks. A neural network consists of connected ...

s. He pioneered applying new methods of pattern recognition in domains like

s, using them for patients with

Locked-in syndrome Locked-in syndrome (LIS), also known as pseudocoma, is a condition in which a patient is aware but cannot move or communicate verbally due to complete paralysis of nearly all voluntary muscles in their body except for vertical eye movements and ...

. He is one of the leading computer scientists affiliated with Germany. His current research interests include: *

Statistical learning theory Statistical learning theory is a framework for machine learning drawing from the fields of statistics and functional analysis. Statistical learning theory deals with the statistical inference problem of finding a predictive function based on da ...

(Support Vector Machines,

Deep Neural Networks Deep learning is a subset of machine learning that focuses on utilizing multilayered neural networks to perform tasks such as classification, regression, and representation learning. The field takes inspiration from biological neuroscience a ...

, Boosting) * Learning of non-stationarity data * Fusion of structured heterogeneous multi-modal data, co-adaptation * Applications: MEG,

EEG Electroencephalography (EEG) is a method to record an electrogram of the spontaneous electrical activity of the brain. The bio signals detected by EEG have been shown to represent the postsynaptic potentials of pyramidal neurons in the neoc ...

, NIRS,

ECoG The Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) began in 1955 as one of the first publicly funded cooperative groups to perform multi-center clinical trials for cancer research. A cooperative group in oncology constitutes a large network of pri ...

, EMG, Brain Computer Interfaces,

computational neuroscience Computational neuroscience (also known as theoretical neuroscience or mathematical neuroscience) is a branch of neuroscience which employs mathematics, computer science, theoretical analysis and abstractions of the brain to understand th ...

computer vision Computer vision tasks include methods for image sensor, acquiring, Image processing, processing, Image analysis, analyzing, and understanding digital images, and extraction of high-dimensional data from the real world in order to produce numerical ...

, genomic data analysis,

computational chemistry Computational chemistry is a branch of chemistry that uses computer simulations to assist in solving chemical problems. It uses methods of theoretical chemistry incorporated into computer programs to calculate the structures and properties of mol ...

and atomistic simulations,

digital pathology Digital pathology is a sub-field of pathology that focuses on managing and analyzing information generated from Digitization, digitized specimen slides. It utilizes computer-based technology and virtual microscopy to view, manage, share, and analyz ...

Honours and awards

Klaus-Robert Müller was elected a fellow of the

German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (), in short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founded on 1 January 1652, based on academic models in Italy, it was originally named the ''Academi ...

in 2012. In 2017 he was elected member of the

Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities The Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (), abbreviated BBAW, is the official academic society for the natural sciences and humanities for the German states of Berlin and Brandenburg. Housed in three locations in and around Ber ...

and also external scientific member of the

Max Planck Society The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (; abbreviated MPG) is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes. Founded in 1911 as the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, it was renamed to the M ...

. In 2021 he was elected member of the

German Academy of Science and Engineering Acatech (styled ''acatech),'' founded in 2002 and established as the German Academy of Science and Engineering () on 1 January 2008, represents the interests of German technical sciences independently, in self-determination and guided by the commo ...

. His work was honoured with several awards, including: * 2024

Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology The Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology is an award given by the Foresight Institute for significant advances in nanotechnology. Two prizes are awarded annually, in the categories of experimental and theoretical work. There is also a separate challe ...

* 2023 Hector Fellow * 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, and 2019 Clarivate

Highly Cited Researcher Highly Cited Researchers is a list published annually by Clarivate of academic authors whose publications have received particularly high numbers of citations in academic journals indexed by ''Web of Science The Web of Science (WoS; previou ...

* 2017 Vodafone Innovations Award 2017 * 2014 Science Prize of Berlin 2014 by the Governing Mayor of Berlin * 2014

European Research Council The European Research Council (ERC) is a public body for funding of scientific and technological research conducted within the European Union (EU). Established by the European Commission in 2007, the ERC is composed of an independent Scientific ...

Panel Consolidator Grants * 2009 Best Paper award by

IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE has a corporate office i ...

EMBS * 2006 SEL-ALCATEL Research Prize for Technical Communication * 1999 Olympus Award for Pattern Recognition

Books

* with * with * with * with

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Müller, Klaus-Robert German artificial intelligence researchers Machine learning researchers Academic staff of Technische Universität Berlin Academic staff of Korea University German computer scientists 21st-century German physicists Karlsruhe Institute of Technology alumni Living people 1964 births Members of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina