News & Event Type: News

ELIZA Academic Fellow Joins UN’s New AI Scientific Panel

We’re proud to share some exciting news from the global AI research community: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Schölkopf, ELIZA Academic Fellow and ELLIS member, has been selected as one of 40 experts worldwide to join the United Nations’ Independent International Scientific Panel on AI.

Selected from a pool of more than 2,600 applicants, the panel members represent the brightest minds in AI research and will play a pivotal role in shaping UN AI governance frameworks and innovation initiatives. The appointment is a testament to Prof. Schölkopf’s exceptional contributions to the field and his standing as one of the world’s foremost AI researchers.

We also extend our congratulations to Piotr Sankowski (University of Warsaw) and other ELLIS network members who were selected — a proud moment for the entire European AI research community.

This recognition highlights the growing influence of the ELLIS and ELIZA networks on the global AI policy stage. We look forward to the impactful work this panel will produce.

🔗 Learn more about the UN AI Panel

At ELIZA, we recognize that artificial intelligence research remains significantly gender-imbalanced, and we are at the forefront of leveraging the gap through targeted support for underrepresented groups. Our Master’s program actively recruits and supports women and other underrepresented groups in AI and machine learning research. We believe that diverse perspectives are essential for responsible AI development, and we actively encourage our community to pursue every available opportunity for advancement.​

About the For Women in Science Award

The “For Women in Science” program represents a successful global partnership between UNESCO and L’Oréal that has been promoting women in science since 1998. In Germany, this initiative is supported by the German Commission for UNESCO, L’Oréal Deutschland, and the German Humboldt Network, offering four awards of €25,000 each to exceptional female researchers.

Eligibility for ELIZA Community Members

ELIZA doctoral students and alumni may be eligible if they are:

  • Doctoral students in their final year

  • Postdocs, postdoctoral researchers, or junior professors within four to six years following their doctorate

  • Holding a valid employment contract or scholarship at a German university or public research institution (minimum 50% full-time position) with at least twelve months remaining​

The award welcomes researchers in natural sciences, engineering, geosciences, agricultural sciences, and medicine, with interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research profiles strongly encouraged —making it particularly relevant for AI and machine learning researchers working at interdisciplinary boundaries.​

How to Use the €25,000 Award

Winners have flexibility in using the prize money according to a pre-submitted concept. Funding can support:​

  • Research projects and equipment purchases

  • International research stays and collaborations

  • Childcare and domestic help​

Female scientists with children are expressly encouraged to apply, and among equally excellent applicants, preference is given to those with children.​

Why This Matters for ELIZA

This award aligns perfectly with ELIZA’s mission to support women in advancing their research careers in technical fields. By encouraging our community members to apply, we continue our commitment to not just opening doors, but ensuring our scholars have the resources to walk through them and lead the next generation of AI research.

Application Deadline

Applications must be submitted by February 21, 2026.​

For complete information and to apply, visit the For Women in Science Germany website.

Prof. Dr. Daniel Cremers—ELIZA Academic Fellow and Chair of Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence at the Technical University of Munich—has built a career at the intersection of rigorous mathematics, computer vision, and real‑world impact. From early work on shape analysis and optical flow to award‑winning contributions in medical imaging and robotics, his research consistently asks how geometry can deepen what machines can perceive and infer.

In his recent appearance in the AI for Good From Molecules to Models series, Cremers brings this perspective to the webinar “Convolutional networks beyond the Euclidean space.” Rather than treating convolutional networks as a solved chapter of deep learning, he invites the audience to consider what happens when data lives on graphs, manifolds, or other non‑Euclidean structures—and why this matters for applications like medical diagnosis and molecular science.​​​

ELIZA Fellow Klaus-Robert Müller Awarded Leibniz Prize

BERLIN – ELIZA is honored to announce that our Fellow, Prof. Dr. Klaus-Robert Müller of the Technische Universität Berlin, has been awarded the prestigious Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize.

The prize, considered Germany’s most important research award, recognizes Prof. Müller for his work in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Specifically, the German Research Foundation (DFG) highlighted his focus on the interdisciplinary application of AI in the natural sciences, particularly in physics and chemistry.

Prof. Müller, who currently leads the Berlin Institute for the Foundations of Learning and Data (BIFOLD), is one of ten recipients. The award includes up to 2.5 million euros in research funding over seven years.

The official award ceremony will be held in Berlin on March 18, 2026. We extend our warmest congratulations to Prof. Müller on this significant achievement.

In the world of artificial intelligence, few achievements carry as much weight as presenting research at the IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR). For 2025, a select group of ELIZA-affiliated researchers joined this elite circle, showcasing innovation that pushes the boundaries of machine perception. Their journey reflects the power of mentorship, interdisciplinary collaboration, and the relentless pursuit of scientific excellence.

CVPR stands as the flagship conference in computer vision and pattern recognition—fields at the heart of modern AI. Each year, thousands of researchers from around the globe submit their most promising work, but only a fraction are selected for presentation. In 2024, the acceptance rate hovered around 23%, with less than 5% of submissions earning spotlight or oral presentation status. This rigorous selection process ensures that only the most impactful and innovative research is showcased.

Being accepted to present at CVPR is more than a professional achievement; it is a career-defining milestone. The conference is renowned for setting research agendas, fostering collaborations, and attracting attention from both academia and industry. For early-career researchers and established leaders alike, CVPR offers a platform to influence the global direction of AI.

The presented paper, “Scene-Centric Unsupervised Panoptic Segmentation,” addresses a central challenge in computer vision: how to simultaneously identify distinct objects (“things”) and amorphous regions (“stuff”) in images without relying on expensive, manually annotated datasets.

By leveraging scene-level consistency signals, the team’s approach enables unsupervised panoptic segmentation—opening new possibilities for scalable perception in robotics, autonomous vehicles, and beyond. This breakthrough reduces the need for labor-intensive data labeling, making advanced AI systems more accessible and adaptable to real-world environments.

At the core of this achievement are ELIZA fellows Daniel Cremers (Technical University of Munich) and Stefan Roth (TU Darmstadt), both internationally recognized for their pioneering contributions to computer vision and machine learning. Their leadership, mentorship, and commitment to advancing the field have been instrumental in shaping the next generation of AI researchers.

The collaborative environment at ELIZA and MCML brings together diverse talents and perspectives, fostering innovation that transcends institutional boundaries. By supporting interdisciplinary projects and providing access to world-class resources, these institutions empower researchers to tackle some of the most pressing challenges in AI.

For doctoral researchers like Christoph Reich, presenting at CVPR is not just a personal milestone—it is a gateway to new opportunities. Participation in such a prestigious venue connects young scientists with leading experts, potential collaborators, and industry partners, accelerating their professional growth.

Moreover, the success of the ELIZA team at CVPR sends a powerful message to current and prospective students: with the right mentorship and support, European researchers can compete—and lead—on the world stage. This achievement also strengthens ELIZA’s reputation as a hub for trustworthy, cutting-edge AI research.

Computer scientist Georgia Chalvatzaki receives the Alfried Krupp Prize 2025, endowed with 1.1 million euros.© Prof. Georgia Chalvatzaki / Katrin Binner

Picture: Katrin Binner Computer scientist Georgia Chalvatzaki receives the Alfried Krupp Prize 2025, endowed with 1.1 million euros.

ELIZA fellow Prof. Dr. Georgia Chalvatzaki (TU Darmstadt) has been awarded the prestigious Alfried Krupp Prize 2025, endowed with €1.1 million. One of Germany’s most significant scientific distinctions, the prize honors outstanding early-career researchers in their first professorship and underscores the societal relevance of their work.

Since 2023, Chalvatzaki has held the Professorship for Interactive Robot Perception and Learning at TU Darmstadt, where she leads the PEARL Lab. Her research advances robots that learn in real time through interaction—with environments and, crucially, with humans. This human-centered robotics approach reframes autonomy as collaboration: machines that adapt to us, rather than asking people to adapt to machines. The implications are wide-ranging, from more attentive healthcare support and responsive logistics to robust, sustainable agriculture.

Her trajectory reflects both scientific rigor and community impact. In 2024, Chalvatzaki received an ERC Starting Grant and was named an ELLIS Scholar in the European Lab for Learning and Intelligent Systems, aligning her work with Europe’s leading efforts in machine learning. As an ELIZA fellow, her research resonates deeply with our commitment to interdisciplinary, responsible AI that is not only performant but socially attuned.

At its core, Chalvatzaki’s work is a meditation on learning as shared practice: perception as dialogue, adaptation as care, and intelligence as something distributed across humans and machines. The Alfried Krupp Prize recognizes this vision and the promise it holds for safer, more responsive, and genuinely helpful robotic systems.

Artificial intelligence, and particularly large language models, has transitioned from an academic frontier into a force reshaping society. In a candid interview with DAAD, Professor Gurevych—renowned ELIZA fellow and head of TU Darmstadt’s Ubiquitous Knowledge Processing (UKP) Lab—shares her insights on how LLMs are becoming ubiquitous companions in our lives. This feature highlights the significance of such interviews for the research community, the importance of the ELIZA network, and the far-reaching impact of their work.

In the DAAD feature, Professor Gurevych articulates the journey from early ambitions of programming linguistic rules to today’s data-driven, highly capable models that power applications as diverse as automated tutoring and semantic search engines. She explains that what makes LLMs particularly powerful is modeling semantic similarities: the ability for machines to understand and relate different expressions of the same meaning, thereby improving everything from automated question answering to contextual text summarization.

Beyond technical explanations, Gurevych addresses the unfinished challenges—such as ensuring AI’s alignment with societal values and responsible deployment. She emphasizes the importance of transparency, robustness, and ethical considerations in the future evolution of LLMs. For students and non-specialists, the interview demystifies how LLMs support daily activities, illustrating why their responsible design is crucial as they become deeply woven into social fabric.

Professor Gurevych exemplifies the caliber of ELIZA fellows: internationally known leaders who blend research excellence with deep commitment to training the next generation of AI experts. Her work on semantic understanding and the social dimensions of AI mirrors ELIZA’s philosophy—where innovation is fused with responsibility and global collaboration.

The interview draws attention to ELIZA’s interconnected, interdisciplinary nature. As Professor Gurevych notes, “To be successful, you need alliances that make it possible to tackle major research challenges in larger and more diverse teams.” Through ELIZA, German ELLIS units work together with partners in business, medicine, psychology, and beyond, orchestrating research and education at the highest international level. DAAD’s endorsement and coverage amplify this collaborative message, modeling for the world how well-structured networks can break silos and promote scientific progress.

Professor Gurevych discusses how ELIZA creates a unique training ground for future AI leaders: from cross-institutional mentoring and joint research projects, to international exchanges and industry-academia partnerships. These elements not only support academic productivity—reflected in top-tier publications—but foster a sustainable research culture in Germany and Europe.

For early-career researchers and students, DAAD interviews like this serve as an accessible entry point to learning about high-impact pathways and the value of working within integrated, interdisciplinary teams. The social, ethical, and scientific challenges highlighted set an example of the holistic mindset that ELIZA expects and cultivates.

DAAD’s support of ELIZA, as evident in both coverage and funding, strengthens long-term research collaboration. Notably, bibliometric studies confirm that DAAD funding leads to sustainable international partnerships, increases the global mobility of scientists, and enhances the visibility of research produced within Germany. Features like Professor Gurevych’s interview are key touchpoints that highlight these dynamics in action.

As LLMs increasingly influence everyday life, it is such expert dialogue—centered around both discovery and responsibility—that will determine technology’s trajectory. For current and prospective members of the ELIZA community, and for all those invested in the future of AI, this interview provides inspiration, insight, and a call to collaboration.

Among the institutions jointly presenting the award are the Collaborative Research Centre CROSSING, the LOEWE Centre emergenCITY, the cluster project 3AI, the Hessian Centre for Artificial Intelligence (hessian.AI), and the Zuse School ELIZA.

Each recipient receives travel support to attend a leading conference focused on connecting and empowering women in tech. The winners may choose from events such as the Ada Lovelace Festival in Germany or the Grace Hopper Celebration in the US, selecting the format that best aligns with their academic and professional interests.

The 2025 awardees, all from TU Darmstadt, are:

  • Isabelle Clev, M.Sc. Cognitive Science (award presented by ELIZA)

  • Ruth Hartmann, M.Sc. Cognitive Science (ELIZA)

  • Linyin Huang, M.A. Data and Discourse Studies (hessian.AI)

  • Noreen Mehler, M.Sc. IT Security / M.Sc. Computer Science (emergenCITY)

  • Anna Oeckl, M.Sc. IT Security (CROSSING)

  • Helena Sax, M.Sc. Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik / M.Sc. Energy Science and Engineering (emergenCITY)

  • Samea Yusofi, M.Sc. Computer Science (3AI)

‘We want to encourage young women to pursue careers in research and to build strong international networks early on,’ said Professor Thomas Schneider, who led the initiative in 2025. ‘All seven awardees impressed us with their academic achievements and their clear connection to the research topics of our projects, such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and resilient infrastructures.’

The awards were presented following the Ruzena Bajcsy Lecture on Communications and Resilience, held by Professor Katja Mombauer (KIT) and organised by emergenCITY. A networking lunch prior to the ceremony gave the winners the opportunity to connect with researchers, peers, and representatives of the participating institutions. The Female Student Travel Award aims to encourage careers in academia and to strengthen the visibility and networks of women in technology-related disciplines. It forms part of the gender equality initiatives of the participating research projects.