"I look forward to my regained academic freedom"

What do you find most fascinating about your research field?
We live in a world where more and more data is produced and then used to extract valuable information. Machine learning is concerned with deriving explanatory or predictive models from data. Research in this area presents incredible intellectual challenges that require broad knowledge in computer science, mathematics, and statistics. At the same time, these are questions of great social relevance. It was always important to me to work in an area of research that shapes the future of our world and raises fundamental questions.

With whom would you like to switch places for a week and why?
I am very interested in photography and would like to accompany one of my favourite photographers at work: Thomas Struth or Andreas Gursky, or maybe Thomas Demand, who builds models and then photographs them.

What could ETH learn from your former employer Google?
Google is exceptionally good at promoting talent and motivating employees. I think that many organisations can learn from Google in this regard.

What are you looking forward to at ETH?
To my regained academic freedom and the opportunity to work in a stimulating environment where I can pursue my research topics with passion. During my time at Google, I developed and improved many successful products. It’s very satisfying to work on something that many people use. However, commercially motivated research and development has to focus on research that can be implemented in the short or medium term. This necessarily comes at the expense of deeper understanding and prevents researchers from investigating essential principles and methods. I would like to catch up on that in the coming years at ETH.