| Hector Geffner | |
| Fields: | Artificial IntelligenceComputer ScienceAutomated Planning |
| Workplaces: | RWTH Aachen University |
| Alma Mater: | University of California, Los Angeles |
| Thesis Title: | Default Reasoning: Casual and Conditional Theories |
| Thesis Year: | 1989 |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Judea Pearl |
| Awards: | Alexander von Humboldt Professorship (2023) EurAI Fellow ICAPS Influential Paper Award (2014, 2010, 2009) ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award (1990) |
Hector Geffner is an Argentinian computer scientist and a Alexander von Humboldt Professor of artificial intelligence at RWTH Aachen University[1] and Wallenberg Guest Professor in AI at Linköping University.[2] His research interests are focused on artificial intelligence, especially automated planning and the integration of model-based AI and data-based AI. He is best known for his work on domain-independent heuristic planning and received several International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS) influential paper awards.[3] Previously he held a research professorship at ICREA and the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Group at University Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona since 2001. He was a staff researcher at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center from 1990 to 1992 and a professor at Simón Bolívar University in Caracas, Venezuela from 1992 to 2001. Geffner was awarded an ERC Advanced Grant in 2020 to explore the connection between machine learning and model-based AI,[4] and is a former board member and current fellow of the European Association for Artificial Intelligence (EurAI).[5] . He was elected an AAAI Fellow in 2007.[6]
Geffner received his PhD in computer science at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1989 under the supervision of Judea Pearl on the topic Default Reasoning: Casual and Conditional Theories, for which he received an ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award.[7]