Ricardo Baeza-Yates
Ricardo A. Baeza-Yates | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 21, 1961 Chile |
| Occupation | Computer scientist |
| Known for | Algorithms, data structures, information retrieval, web search technologies, ethical AI |
Ricardo A. Baeza-Yates (born March 21, 1961) is a distinguished Chilean computer scientist whose expertise encompasses algorithms, data structures, information retrieval, web search technologies, and ethical AI practices. He holds the position of Director of Research at the Institute for Experiential AI located at Northeastern University's Silicon Valley campus. Additionally, he maintains part-time academic appointments at both Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona and Universidad de Chile in Santiago. His professional affiliations include being an expert member of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence, participation in the US Technology Policy Committee of the Association for Computing Machinery, and membership on the IEEE Ethics Committee.
Baeza-Yates has been recognized by multiple scientific bodies: he joined the Chilean Academy of Sciences in 2002, was a founding member of the Chilean Academy of Engineering in 2010, became a corresponding member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences in 2018, and was inducted into the Academia Europaea in 2023. His honors include being named an ACM Fellow in 2009 and an IEEE Fellow in 2011. Between 2019 and 2023, he contributed to Spain's Advisory Council on Artificial Intelligence.
From June 2016 through June 2020, he served as Chief Technology Officer at NTENT, a company focused on semantic search technologies. Prior to this role, until February 2016, he was Vice President of Research at Yahoo! Labs, managing research teams distributed across North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America.
Education
He completed his doctoral studies at the University of Waterloo in 1989 with a dissertation titled Efficient Text Searching, under the supervision of Gaston Gonnet.
Research contributions
- Algorithms and data structures: Pioneered influential algorithms for string searching such as the Shift Or Algorithm and fuzzy string matching techniques that contributed to the development of the Bitap algorithm. Co-authored the Handbook of Algorithms and Data Structures alongside Gaston Gonnet.
- Information retrieval: Co-authored Modern Information retrieval, published in two editions (1999 and 2011), with the latter edition receiving the 2012 book of the year award from the Association for Information Science and Technology.
- Web search and mining: Established and led the Center for Web Research at the University of Chile from 2002 to 2005. His recent investigations focus on addressing bias within web environments; he delivered the prestigious Gödel Lecture in Vienna in 2017 on this topic.
- Responsible AI: Contributed as co-author to the 2022 ACM Principles for Responsible Algorithmic Systems and authored an introductory work on responsible AI published in 2023.
Recognition
Dr. Baeza-Yates earned Spain’s national award for Computer Science in 2018 and received the J.W. Graham Medal in Computing and Innovation from his alma mater, University of Waterloo, in 2007. Since 2008 he has been nominated multiple times for Chile’s National Prize in Applied Sciences, ultimately receiving this honor in 2024.
See also
External links
- Publications indexed by DBLP
- Modern Information Retrieval, second edition, Addison Wesley, 2011
- Cómo funciona la web (2008) Complete text available through the Electronic Books Portal at University of Chile
- Chilean computer scientists
- Spanish computer scientists
- American computer scientists
- Yahoo! employees
- 2009 fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery
- Fellows of the IEEE
- Members of Academia Europaea
- 1961 births
- Living people
- J.W. Graham Medal awardees
- 20th-century American scientists
- 21st-century American scientists
- Northeastern University faculty
- University of Chile alumni
- University of Waterloo alumni