Professor Max Welling is a distinguished computer scientist and leading authority in machine learning whose work bridges theoretical foundations with practical applications across multiple domains. He currently serves as a Research Chair in Machine Learning at the University of Amsterdam while also holding the position of Distinguished Scientist at Microsoft Research AI4Science in Amsterdam. Following his PhD in theoretical high energy physics supervised by Nobel laureate Gerard 't Hooft at Utrecht University in 1998, he established himself through influential postdoctoral work at Caltech under Pietro Perona and with Geoffrey Hinton at the University of Toronto and held a postdoctoral position at University College London from 2000 to 2001. His distinguished career includes notable appointments as Professor at UC Irvine, co-founding the Amsterdam-based spin-off Scyfer BV which was acquired by Qualcomm in 2017, and subsequently serving as Vice President of Technology at Qualcomm Netherlands before returning to strengthen his academic leadership position.
Professor Welling's groundbreaking research has profoundly shaped modern machine learning through his co-invention of variational autoencoders (VAEs) with Diederik P Kingma, which has become one of the most influential generative modeling frameworks with widespread adoption across academia and industry. His pioneering contributions extend to the development of graph neural networks and equivariant neural networks, each representing paradigm shifts in how machine learning systems process structured and geometric data. With over 250 peer-reviewed publications spanning machine learning, computer vision, statistics, and physics, his work has demonstrated exceptional interdisciplinary impact while maintaining rigorous theoretical foundations. The profound influence of his research is evidenced by his receipt of the ICML Test of Time award in 2021, recognizing work published a decade earlier that has demonstrated lasting significance and impact on the field.
Beyond his technical contributions, Professor Welling has played a pivotal role in shaping the machine learning community through significant leadership positions including serving as Program Chair and General Chair of the prestigious NeurIPS conference in 2013 and 2014 respectively, and continuing service on the NeurIPS Foundation advisory board since 2015. He directs the Amsterdam Machine Learning Lab (AMLAB) and co-directs collaborative research initiatives including the QUVA Lab with Qualcomm and the DELTA Lab with Bosch, fostering strong industry-academia partnerships that translate theoretical advances into practical applications. His recognition with the ECCV Koenderink Prize in 2010 and election as a fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) and European Lab for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS) further underscore his standing as a thought leader in the field. Currently at Microsoft Research, Professor Welling continues to advance the frontiers of machine learning integration with natural sciences, pushing the boundaries of what AI systems can achieve while training the next generation of researchers who will shape the future of artificial intelligence.
