PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Adam Zsolt Wagner

Adam Zsolt Wagner is a mathematician who uses machine learning to search for mathematical constructions and counterexamples. He studied at Cambridge and was a PhD student in mathematics at Illinois through June 2018, then pursued postdoctoral research at ETH Zurich and Tel Aviv University. At WPI in 2024, he presented transformer-guided search for grid constructions. He contributed to AlphaEvolve and later coauthored work on AI-driven mathematical discovery and formal proof search. As of October 2026, he is a research scientist at Google DeepMind, after serving as an assistant professor of mathematics at WPI.

Works
49
Citations
261
h-index
9
Badges

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 18 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. June 2018

    Cambridge and Illinois studies

    He studies for bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Cambridge before becoming a PhD student in mathematics at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign through June 2018.

  2. November 2021

    Reinforcement learning for conjectures

    By November 2021, he is a postdoctoral researcher at Tel Aviv University after a postdoc at ETH Zurich. His talk presents a neural-network and reinforcement-learning method for finding counterexamples to conjectures in graph theory and combinatorics.

  3. January 2024

    Transformers for grid constructions

    At WPI in January 2024, he presents work on training transformers to find improved constructions for an isosceles triangle-free subset of the grid.

  4. May 2025

    Developing AlphaEvolve

    In May 2025, he contributes to AlphaEvolve, an evolutionary coding agent that combines large language models with automated evaluators to discover and optimize algorithms for mathematics and computing.

  5. November 2025

    AI explores open problems

    In November 2025, he and coauthors apply AlphaEvolve to 67 problems across mathematical analysis, combinatorics, geometry and number theory; the system discovers improved solutions to several.

  6. May 2026

    Formal proof search

    In May 2026, he coauthors a study of AI-driven formal proof search that reports 9 solutions among 353 open Erdős problems and proofs for 44 of 492 OEIS conjectures.

  7. As of October 2026

    A research scientist at DeepMind

    As of October 2026, he is a research scientist at Google DeepMind, where he works on AI for mathematical reasoning. Before joining Google DeepMind, he serves as an assistant professor of mathematics at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

A language model matched the links in this timeline to people, organizations and papers (provisional, model-judged).

Career

  1. Since 2026Google DeepMindResearch scientist
  2. 2023–2026Worcester Polytechnic InstituteAssistant professor of mathematics
  3. 2021Tel Aviv UniversityPostdoctoral researcher
  4. 2019–2021ETH ZurichPostdoctoral researcher

Education

  1. 2018University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignPhD
  2. University of CambridgeBachelor’s and master’s degrees

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

Most-cited works

  1. Tilings in randomly perturbed dense graphs2019 · 48 citations
  2. Turán numbers for Berge-hypergraphs and related extremal problems2019 · Discrete Mathematics · 23 citations
  3. Nearly-linear monotone paths in edge-ordered graphs2020 · Israel Journal of Mathematics · 18 citations
  4. Constructions in combinatorics via neural networks2021 · 16 citations
  5. Tur\'an numbers for Berge-hypergraphs and related extremal problems2017 · 16 citations

From OpenAlex, as of 18 October 2026.

  1. The median h-index is 55 at universities and 20 at frontier AI labsIncludes Adam Zsolt Wagner. The median h-index is 55 at universities and 20 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, citations and moves to estimate how universities and frontier labs contribute to AI research.
  2. 13% of AI career moves in the 2020s went from a university to a companyIncludes Adam Zsolt Wagner. Our estimates of how university-to-company career transitions changed by decade, including roles added alongside an earlier job.
  3. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes Google. Our estimates of combined and median h-index at AI organizations, using current affiliations and OpenAlex records.
  4. Google alumni founded or led 77 other organizations, the most among the labs we compareIncludes Google. We trace 177 organizations founded or led by AI lab alumni, and 186 career moves between the labs.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Adam Zsolt Wagner yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Upcoming Talks | Online SAT Seminar satisfiabilityseminar.github.io. Checked 18 October 2026.
  2. Constructions in combinatorics via neural networks | School of Mathematics | Georgia Institute of Technology | Atlanta, GA math.gatech.edu. Checked 18 October 2026.
  3. Constructions in combinatorics via neural networks arxiv.org. Checked 18 October 2026.
  4. Mathematical Sciences Department Discrete Mathematics Seminar - Adam Wagner, WPI (FL320) | Worcester Polytechnic Institute wpi.edu. Checked 18 October 2026.
  5. AlphaEvolve: A Gemini-powered coding agent for designing advanced algorithms — Google DeepMind deepmind.google. Checked 18 October 2026.
  6. [2511.02864] Mathematical exploration and discovery at scale arxiv.org. Checked 18 October 2026.
  7. [2605.22763] Advancing Mathematics Research with AI-Driven Formal Proof Search arxiv.org. Checked 18 October 2026.
  8. Adam Zsolt Wagner zawagner22.github.io. Checked 18 October 2026.
  9. CMU Mathematicians Showcase Their Impact on the Global Stage - Mathematical Sciences - Mellon College of Science - Carnegie Mellon University cmu.edu. Checked 18 October 2026.