First speakers announced for conference
Some exceptional speakers for the Mathematical Foundations of AI Conference 2026 have been announced. These voices bring together world-leading expertise at the intersection of mathematics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, geometry and topology. From pioneers of geometric deep learning and graph neural networks to leading researchers in topology, optimisation, formal proof verification, and relational AI, the conference will showcase cutting-edge ideas shaping the future of intelligent systems.
By the very nature of their wide-ranging contributions the following biographies have been edited for brevity.
Erik Bekkers
Erik Bekkers is an associate professor in Geometric Deep Learning in the Machine Learning Lab of the University of Amsterdam. His work emanates from the belief that as nearly all data is rooted in our physical world it is thus inherently grounded in geometry and physics and representation learning should preserve this grounding. His current research focuses on developing generalizations and efficient implementations of group equivariant architectures.
Michael Bronstein
The Erlangen AI Hub founder and co-director is a pioneer of geometric deep learning and graph neural networks. In addition, Michael Bronstein is DeepMind Professor of AI at the University of Oxford, Erlangen AI Hub Director and Founding Scientific Director of AI at AITHYRA. His work bridges academia and industry, shaping the future of non-Euclidean machine learning and AI innovation.
Kathryn Hess
Kathryn Hess is a leading mathematician known for her work in homotopy theory, category theory, and algebraic topology, as well as for applying topology to neuroscience, cancer biology, and materials science. Professor at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, she is also a member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences, a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society and the Association for Women in Mathematics.
Kevin Buzzard
Professor of Pure Mathematics at Imperial, Kevin Buzzard’s Strachey Lecture in 2025: Will Computers prove theorems? explored how mathematicians and computer scientists can collaborate to take AIs contribution to the field further, exploring the conservative nature of mathematics, slow to change and adapt, can adopt tools like language models and theorem provers to accelerate the field.
Stefanie Jegelka
Professor at MIT and TU Munich, Stefanie Jagielka’s research investigates the combinatorial, geometric, and algebraic foundations of machine learning. This includes learning with discrete objects, such as graphs or sets; learning with symmetries; discrete probability; learning with limited supervision, and the interplay of discrete and continuous optimization. She has collaborated with researchers in biology, materials science, ocean engineering and power grids.
Suvrit Sra
Suvrit Sra is Career Development Associate Professor of EECS MIT and Professor for Resource Aware Machine Learning at TU Munich. He specializes in robust, reliable, and resource-efficient machine learning methods. His research focuses, in particular, on solving optimisation problems for machine learning with multiple parameters. For example, those that are used in autonomous driving so that a car can reliably distinguish a sign from a person.
Dr. Rebekka Burkholz
A faculty member at the CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security, Rebekka Burkholz researches relational machine learning. Her main goal is to gain a theoretical understanding of deep learning from a complex network perspective and improve contemporary algorithms based on these insights. Her current applications focus on molecular biology.
Roland Kwitt
Professor of Machine Learning within the Department of Artificial Intelligence and Human Interfaces (AIHI) at the University of Salzburg (PLUS), Roland Kwitt studies learning methods that exploit the structural characteristics of complex data. With experience in medical imaging and computer vision, his work connects theoretical machine learning with impactful real-world applications.
Register now to reserve your place at the conference and follow us for further speaker announcements over the coming weeks.