PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Alex Perelygin

Alex Perelygin coauthored Stanford deep-learning research on sentiment analysis. He graduated in math and computer science from Simon Fraser University and planned to enter Stanford’s computer-science master’s program in 2011. For EMNLP in 2013, he coauthored a recursive model that raised single-sentence sentiment classification accuracy from 80% to 85.4%; the paper won the ACL Test-of-Time Paper Award in 2023. As of October 2026, he is Head of Engineering, Payments at Plaid.

Now at
Plaid

Timeline

  1. 2011

    A Stanford master’s plan

    In 2011, he is a recent Simon Fraser University graduate in math and computer science and plans to enter Stanford’s master’s program in computer science.

  2. 2011

    Detecting audio video misalignment

    The Autumn 2011 CS229 final-project list pairs him with Michael Jones on “Detecting Audio Video Misalignment.”

  3. 2013

    NaSent at EMNLP

    In 2013, he is among Stanford’s current and former students scheduled to present NaSent at EMNLP in Seattle.

  4. 2013

    Recursive Deep Models

    At Stanford, he and six coauthors publish the EMNLP paper “Recursive Deep Models for Semantic Compositionality Over a Sentiment Treebank” in 2013. It introduces the Sentiment Treebank and a Recursive Neural Tensor Network for deep-learning sentiment analysis, raising single-sentence positive/negative classification accuracy from 80% to 85.4%.

  5. 2023

    An ACL Test-of-Time Award

    In 2023, the paper he coauthors for EMNLP wins the ACL Test-of-Time Paper Award.

  6. As of October 2026

    Head of Engineering, Payments

    As of October 2026, he is Head of Engineering, Payments at Plaid.

Career

  1. NowPlaidHead of Engineering, Payments

Education

  1. Simon Fraser UniversityDegree in mathematics and computer science
  2. Stanford UniversityComputer science master's student

From the biography.

  1. 20% of people at companies who shape AI also hold a university role, led by Google and Stanford UniversityIncludes Stanford University. We estimate that 539 of the 6,766 people with a known current organization (8%) hold both a university role and a company role, including 20% of people at companies and 13% of people at universities.
  2. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Includes Stanford University. Our estimates of which organizations employed the most people shaping AI each year from 1955 to 2025, tracing the shift from university labs to companies.
  3. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Stanford University. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  4. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes Stanford University. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Alex Perelygin yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Postsecondary education pays off financially | Georgia Straight Vancouver’s source for arts, culture, and events straight.com. Checked 20 October 2026.
  2. CS 229: Machine Learning Final Projects, Autumn 2011 cs229.stanford.edu. Checked 20 October 2026.
  3. Stanford algorithm analyzes sentence sentiment, advances machine learning | Stanford University School of Engineering engineering.stanford.edu. Checked 20 October 2026.
  4. Recursive Deep Models for Semantic Compositionality Over a Sentiment Treebank nlp.stanford.edu. Checked 20 October 2026.
  5. Recursive Deep Models for Semantic Compositionality Over a Sentiment Treebank - ACL Anthology aclanthology.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  6. Announcement of the 2023 ACL Test-of-Time Paper Award | ACL Member Portal aclweb.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  7. Alex Perelygin - Head of Engineering, Payments at Plaid | The Org theorg.com. Checked 20 October 2026.
  8. People - The Stanford Natural Language Processing Group www-nlp.stanford.edu. Checked 20 October 2026.