On January 14, Professor Oluwasanmi Koyejo was selected as one of 400 recipients of the United States’ Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.
The coveted award, founded by former President Bill Clinton in 1996, is the highest distinction conferred by the United States government on outstanding scientists and engineers in their early phases of development.
President Joe Biden introduced this year’s recipients, who are employed or financed by 14 participating US government entities. The list includes Koyejo and five other Diaspora Nigerians: Azeez Butali, Ijeoma Opara, Oluwatomi Akindele, Eno Ebong, and Abidemi Ajiboye. Recipients will receive a plaque, a citation, and up to five years of research support.
Here are six things you should know about Koyejo:
1. He is an assistant professor of computer science at Stanford University.
2. Koyejo is also an Adjunct Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
3. His interests include advancing the ideas and practices of trustworthy machine learning. Koyejo also works on applications in neuroscience and healthcare.
4. He received his PhD in Electrical Engineering (2013) from the University of Texas at Austin.
5. Koyejo has received various accolades, including the Best Paper Award from the Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI), the Skip Ellis Early Career Award, and the Sloan Fellowship.
6. His research, funded by the US National Science Foundation (NSF), focusses on justice and robustness in artificial intelligence.
