Max Welling

{{Short description|Dutch computer scientist (born 1968)}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Max Welling

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| caption = Max Welling

| birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1968|11|01}}

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| nationality = Dutch

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| field = Machine learning, Quantum mechanics

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| work_institution = University of Amsterdam

| alma_mater = Utrecht University

| doctoral_advisor = Gerard 't Hooft

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| known_for = Bayesian Inference, Generative modeling, Deep Learning, Variational autoencoders, Graph Convolutional Networks, Group-Equivariant Convolutional Networks

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| prizes = NSF Career Award (2005), Dean’s Mid-Career Award for Research (2008), ECCV Koenderink Prize (2010), ICML Best Paper Award (2012), ICLR Best Paper Award (2017)

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| website = [https://staff.fnwi.uva.nl/m.welling/ Website of Max Welling]

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Max Welling (born 1968) is a Dutch computer scientist in machine learning at the University of Amsterdam.{{Cite web|url=http://www.uva.nl/en/profile/w/e/m.welling/m.welling.html|title=prof. dr. M. (Max) Welling - University of Amsterdam|last=Amsterdam|first=Universiteit van|website=www.uva.nl|access-date=2018-10-20|date=2018-06-19}} In August 2017, the university spin-off Scyfer BV, co-founded by Welling, was acquired by Qualcomm.{{Cite web|url=http://www.uva.nl/en/content/news/news/2017/08/uva-spin-off-company-scyfer-acquired-by-qualcomm.html|title=UvA spin-off company Scyfer acquired by Qualcomm - University of Amsterdam|last=Amsterdam|first=Universiteit van|website=www.uva.nl|access-date=2018-10-20|date=2017-08-16}} He has since then served as a Vice President of Technology at Qualcomm Netherlands.{{Cite news|url=https://www.electronicdesign.com/embedded-revolution/qualcomm-forms-artificial-intelligence-research-unit|title=Qualcomm Forms Artificial Intelligence Research Unit|date=2018-05-24|work=Electronic Design|access-date=2018-10-21}} He is also a Distinguished Scientist at Microsoft Research AI4Science, based in Amsterdam.{{Cite web |title=Max Welling |url=https://www.turing.ac.uk/people/guest-speakers/max-welling |access-date=2024-11-30 |website=The Alan Turing Institute |language=en}}

Welling received his PhD in physics with a thesis on quantum gravity under the supervision of Nobel laureate Gerard 't Hooft (1998){{Cite web|url=http://www.staff.science.uu.nl/~hooft101/gth_phd_stud.html|title=Gerard 't Hooft - PhD students|website=www.staff.science.uu.nl|access-date=2018-10-20}} at the Utrecht University. He has published over 250 peer-reviewed articles in machine learning, computer vision, statistics and physics,{{Cite web|url=https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=8200InoAAAAJ&hl=en|title=Max Welling - Google Scholar Citations|website=scholar.google.com|access-date=2018-10-20}} and has most notably invented variational autoencoders (VAEs), together with Diederik P Kingma.