Hanna Wallach

Hanna Wallach is a computational social scientist and a leading researcher in the field of responsible AI. She currently serves as Vice President and Distinguished Scientist at Microsoft Research New York, where she leads the Fairness, Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics (FATE) research group and the interdisciplinary Sociotechnical Alignment Center (STAC). Her research focuses on the evaluation and measurement of responsible AI, encompassing machine learning, fairness, transparency, and the analysis of social dynamics. Hanna received a bachelor's degree in Computer Science and a Ph.D. in Machine Learning from the University of Cambridge, as well as a master’s degree in Cognitive Science and Machine Learning from the University of Edinburgh. She has played key roles in top-tier academic conferences such as NeurIPS and CHI and has received numerous accolades for her contributions to technology fairness. Additionally, she is a co-founder of several initiatives aimed at increasing women's participation in technology, including Women in Machine Learning (WiML) and Outreachy.

• 2020–Present·Microsoft Research·Vice President and Distinguished Scientist
  • Leads the FATE team, focusing on research in AI fairness, transparency, and ethics.
  • Oversees the development of tools and frameworks for evaluating generative AI systems and their application in real-world scenarios.
• 2007–2016·University of Massachusetts Amherst·Assistant Professor
  • Conducted research in natural language processing and machine learning, analyzing the structure, content, and dynamics of social processes.

• 2005–2008·University of Cambridge·Ph.D.
  • Specialization: Machine Learning; dissertation on "Structured Topic Models for Language."
• 2001–2002·University of Edinburgh·Master's Degree
  • Specialization: Cognitive Science and Machine Learning.
• 1998–2001·University of Cambridge·Bachelor’s Degree
  • Specialization: Computer Science.