Carl Friedrich von Siemens Research Award winner joins Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry for an extended research visit
AI researcher Jenna Wiens from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, USA, receives Carl Friedrich von Siemens Research Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and spends a research semester in Martinsried.
Professor Jenna Wiens is a pioneer in the field of machine learning. The Canadian uses machine learning for predicting adverse outcomes in clinical care, such as infections. As a Carl Friedrich von Siemens Research Award winner, she receives a prize of 65,000 Euros and is invited to conduct a research stay in Germany, which she spends at Karsten Borgwardt’s department at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) of Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany.
February 13, Martinsried. Through the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Research Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, renowned scientists from abroad are invited to visit a scientific institution in Germany. Currently, the outstanding Award winner Jenna Wiens is a guest of Karsten Borgwardt, Head of the Department of Machine Learning and Systems Biology and Director at the MPI of Biochemistry. Jenna Wiens said: "I am honored to be selected for this award and join the select ranks of extraordinary Humboldt Research Award recipients. I look forward to building productive collaborations with colleagues in Germany, with the goal of advancing machine learning and artificial intelligence for healthcare."
Jenna Wiens received her doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, USA, in 2014. 2017 she was included in the MIT Tech Review's list of Innovators under 35. An award and listing from MIT Technology Review magazine that recognizes exceptionally talented young innovators who have the greatest potential to change the world. Today, Jenna Wiens serves at the Associate Director of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory within the Division of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan in the United States. There she leads the research group Machine Learning for Data-Driven Decisions. The overarching aim of the group is to develop artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) techniques to organize, process and transform health data into actionable knowledge. Along these lines, her group focuses on time-series analysis, reinforcement learning, and causal inference within AI/ML. Often inspired by problems in healthcare, she collaborates with dozens of clinicians and several hospital systems, with an emphasis on clinican-in-the-loop AI and careful integration with existing workflows. Her Work has resulted in publications in top tier ML venues and clinical journals, in addition to real-world impact through AI systems deployed at the bedside.
“I am delighted that Jenna Wiens, world-leading expert in machine learning in medicine, is visiting my department as a guest scientist. I am looking forward to working with her on novel approaches in machine learning and graph learning in particular and exploring new problems inspired by healthcare and medicine”, concludes Kartsen Borgwardt.
About the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Research Award
Since 2015, Humboldt Foundation research award winners who cooperate with host institutes in Munich and the surrounding area have been honored with the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Research Awards and prize money of 65,000 euros. The award winners are selected from among the applicants for a regular Humboldt Research Award on the basis of quality criteria.
