Thomas Hofmann
Email: thomas.hofmann@inf.ethz.ch
Title: Full Professor of Computer Science (Data Analytics / Machine Learning)
Affiliation: Department of Computer Science (D-INFK), ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Academic Summary:
Prof. Dr. Thomas Hofmann is a distinguished German computer scientist and full professor at ETH Zurich, where he focuses on machine learning, data analytics, natural language understanding, and related areas of artificial intelligence. He has been a full professor at ETH Zurich since April 2014 and serves as co-director of the Max Planck-ETH Center for Learning Systems. His research work spans foundational aspects of statistical learning theory, probabilistic models, optimization, and applications in text and image understanding, and he is widely recognized for his contributions to probabilistic latent semantic analysis and other core methods in machine learning. [oai_citation:3‡维基百科](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hofmann_%28Informatiker%29?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
Education & Background:
• Ph.D. in Computer Science — University of Bonn, Germany (1997). [oai_citation:4‡维基百科](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hofmann_%28Informatiker%29?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
• Postdoctoral Researcher — MIT AI Lab (CBCL) and UC Berkeley (EECS / ICSI). [oai_citation:5‡维基百科](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hofmann_%28Informatiker%29?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
Professional Experience:
• Full Professor of Computer Science, Department of Computer Science (D-INFK), ETH Zurich (since 2014). [oai_citation:6‡维基百科](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hofmann_%28Informatiker%29?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
• Co-Director, Max Planck-ETH Center for Learning Systems. [oai_citation:7‡Department of Computer Science](https://inf.ethz.ch/news-and-events/spotlights/2020/06/thomas-hofmann-cls.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
• Former Research Scientist and Director of Engineering at Google Zurich R&D. [oai_citation:8‡维基百科](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hofmann_%28Informatiker%29?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
• Past faculty member at Brown University and professor at TU Darmstadt. [oai_citation:9‡维基百科](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hofmann_%28Informatiker%29?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
Research Interests:
Machine Learning, Statistical Learning Theory, Probabilistic Models, Natural Language Understanding, Optimization, Generative Models, Data Analytics. [oai_citation:10‡Institute for Machine Learning](https://ml.inf.ethz.ch/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
Key Contributions & Recognition:
• Pioneering work on **Probabilistic Latent Semantic Analysis (PLSA)** and statistical topic models. [oai_citation:11‡维基百科](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hofmann_%28Informatiker%29?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
• Leadership in AI research and education at ETH Zurich and beyond. [oai_citation:12‡维基百科](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hofmann_%28Informatiker%29?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
• Co-founder of the AI Center at ETH and entrepreneur with startup 1plusX (co-founder and Chief Scientist). [oai_citation:13‡维基百科](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hofmann_%28Informatiker%29?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
Contact & Profiles:
• **ETH Zurich Profile Page:** https://inf.ethz.ch/people/faculty/faculty.html (search Thomas Hofmann) [oai_citation:14‡Department of Computer Science](https://inf.ethz.ch/people/faculty/faculty.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
• **Google Scholar:** Search “Thomas Hofmann ETH Zurich” for publications and citation profile. [oai_citation:15‡Google Scholar](https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=T3hAyLkAAAAJ&utm_source=chatgpt.com)