TU professors appointed as ELLIS Scholars and Fellow

Recognition for four AI researchers of the Department of Computer Science

2024/12/06 by

The ELLIS Unit Darmstadt, part of the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS) and TU Darmstadt’s Research Field Information and Intelligence (I+I), is pleased to announce that four of its members are being recognized as distinguished researchers of the ELLIS network.

Three members have been appointed as ELLIS Scholars—Computer Science Professors Georgia Chalvatzaki, Anna Rohrbach, and Justus Thies—and Professor Marcus Rohrbach has been appointed as an ELLIS Fellow. The four had only joined the network as members in Spring 2024.

Professor Georgia Chalvatzaki is a leading scientist in the field of autonomous robotics. She was awarded an ERC Starting Grant in 2024 for her SIREN project to research novel AI robot software architectures that enable human-like robots to perform challenging tasks in unstructured and dynamic environments. Since 2020, Georgia Chalvatzaki has also been funded by the Emmy Noether Programme of the German Research Foundation (DFG) for outstandingly qualified researchers in the early stages of their careers.

Professor Anna Rohrbach conducts research at the intersection of vision and language. She is a leader in the critical areas of grounding and learning from language, which are attracting a great deal of attention in current AI research. In 2023, Anna Rohrbach was awarded a LOEWE Start Professorship by the State of Hesse. In the same year, she was honoured with the German Pattern Recognition Award from the German Association for Pattern Recognition (DAGM) for her outstanding, internationally visible research in the fields of pattern recognition, computer vision, and machine learning.

Professor Justus Thies is a recognised researcher in 3D graphics and computer vision. He received an ERC Starting Grant in 2024 for his project ‘Learning Digital Humans in Motion’ (LeMo) and was honoured with the Eurographics Young Researcher Award 2024. Recently, Justus Thies received the German Pattern Recognition Award 2024 from the German Association for Pattern Recognition (DAGM) for his outstanding contributions in the field of real-time face tracking, facial reenactment, AI-driven rendering and digital multimedia forensics.

As a new ELLIS Fellow, Professor Marcus Rohrbach brings extensive expertise in the field of multimodal machine learning at the interface of image understanding and language. His focus is on creating more reliable and trustworthy AI systems. Marcus Rohrbach’s work has already earned him great recognition, most notably, a prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Professorship for Artificial Intelligence (2023) and a LOEWE top professorship from the state of Hesse (2023).

The European AI excellency network ELLIS appoints ELLIS Fellows and Scholars through a highly competitive peer-review process, where an international selection committee assesses candidates based on their scientific excellence. ELLIS Fellows are high-caliber scientists advancing the field of learning and intelligent systems, creating a community and giving a voice to machine learning and AI. They provide strategic advice and leadership not just scientifically, but also in terms of how to build and grow ELLIS. ELLIS Scholars are outstanding junior scientists, often assistant professors, who do not yet have the seniority of a fellow but are on a clear trajectory to reach this level.

The recognition of four further members as ELLIS Scholar or Fellow underlines the Unit's standing and commitment. At TU Darmstadt, Computer Science Professors Iryna Gurevych, Jan Peters, Kristian Kersting, and unit director Stefan Roth have already been appointed ELLIS Fellows. In September 2024, two new members joined the unit: Professor Carsten Binnig strengthens the team as an expert in artificial intelligence and data management. He was awarded a LOEWE top professorship by the State of Hesse in July 2024. Dr Simone Schaub-Meyer complements the Unit's expertise in the field of computer vision and heads an independent junior research group focusing on image and video analysis. She is funded by the DFG’s renowned Emmy Noether Programme.

About ELLIS and the ELLIS Unit Darmstadt

ELLIS—the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems—is a pan-European AI network of excellence, which focuses on fundamental science, technical innovation, and societal impact. Founded in 2018, ELLIS builds upon machine learning as the driver for modern AI and aims to secure Europe’s sovereignty in this competitive field by creating a multi-centric AI research laboratory.

The mission of the ELLIS Unit Darmstadt is to create intelligent systems that understand context and meaning, enabling them to learn and adapt as quickly and effectively as humans. The Unit’s research focuses on key areas such as machine learning, computer vision, natural language processing, robotics, and computational cognitive science. The goal is a human-centred AI, with a strong emphasis on making AI more explainable and reliable. Unit members work with academic and industry leaders across Europe to drive innovation and foster the next generation of AI researchers through programs like the Zuse School ELIZA and the ELLIS PhD Program.