Nando de Freitas

Nando de Freitas is a researcher in the field of machine learning, and in particular in the subfields of neural networks, Bayesian inference and Bayesian optimization, and deep learning.^[1]

Nando de Freitas
Born	Zimbabwe
Alma mater	University of the Witwatersrand, Trinity College, Cambridge
Known for	Machine learning LipNet
Scientific career
Fields	Computer science
Institutions	University of British Columbia, Oxford University
Thesis	Bayesian Methods for Neural Networks (2000)
Doctoral advisor	Andrew Howard Gee Mahesan Niranjan Christophe Andrieu Arnaud Doucet

Biography

De Freitas was born in Zimbabwe. He did his undergraduate studies (1991–94) and MSc (1994–96) at the University of the Witwatersrand, and his PhD at Trinity College, Cambridge (1996-2000).^[2] From 2001, he was a professor at the University of British Columbia, before joining the Department of Computer Science at the University of Oxford from 2013 to 2017. He now works for Google's DeepMind.^[3]

Awards and recognition

De Freitas has been recognised for his contributions to machine learning through the following awards:

• Best Paper Award at the International Conference on Machine Learning (2016)
• Best Paper Award at the International Conference on Learning Representations (2016)
• Google Faculty Research Award (2014)^[4]
• Distinguished Paper Award at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (2013)^[5]
• Charles A. McDowell Award for Excellence in Research (2012)^[6][7]
• Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems Young Researcher Award (2010)^[8][9]