PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Arthur Zimek

Arthur Zimek is a computer scientist whose work on clustering and outlier detection addresses high-dimensional data. He studied theology and philosophy, then earned degrees in bioinformatics and computer science at LMU Munich and built a research career at LMU, Alberta and TU Wien. His 2008 dissertation on correlation clustering placed runner-up for the 2009 SIGKDD Doctoral Dissertation Award; he later co-authored a 2012 outlier-detection survey and a 2019 paper documenting the ELKI data-mining library. He shared the 2024 SIAM SDM Best Research Paper Award with six coauthors. As of October 2026, he is a professor of computer science and head of Data Science and Statistics at the University of Southern Denmark.

Now at
University of Southern Denmark
Works
210
Citations
12,393
h-index
44

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 18 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1992–2000

    Theology and philosophy studies

    He studies theology at Johannes Gutenberg University from 1992 to 1997 and earns a philosophy degree at Hochschule für Philosophie München in 2000.

  2. 2000–2008

    Bioinformatics and computer science

    At LMU, he earns a bioinformatics diploma in 2005 and a computer science doctorate in 2008.

  3. 2005–2016

    Research in Munich and Alberta

    He begins as a research and teaching assistant at LMU in 2005, then works as a research associate there from 2008 to 2016. He serves as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alberta in 2012–2013 and a guest professor at TU Wien in 2014 and 2016.

  4. 2008–2009

    Correlation Clustering

    His 2008 LMU dissertation, Correlation Clustering, develops a global method for finding correlation clusters. In 2009, SIGKDD names the work runner-up for its Doctoral Dissertation Award.

  5. 2012

    A survey of high-dimensional outliers

    In 2012, he and Erich Schubert and Hans Peter Kriegel publish a survey of unsupervised outlier detection for high-dimensional numerical data.

  6. 2019

    The ELKI data mining library

    In 2019, he and Erich Schubert document ELKI 0.7.5, an open-source data-mining library focused on unsupervised cluster analysis and outlier detection.

  7. 2024

    A shared SIAM SDM award

    He shares the SIAM SDM 2024 Best Research Paper Award with six coauthors.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor at Southern Denmark

    As of October 2026, he is Professor for Computer Science at IMADA, University of Southern Denmark, and Head of the Section Data Science and Statistics. His research interests include ensemble techniques, clustering, outlier detection, high-dimensional data and evaluation methodology.

Career

  1. Since 2016University of Southern DenmarkProfessor for Computer Science; Head of the Section Data Science and Statistics
  2. 2014–2016TU WienGuest professor
  3. 2012–2013University of AlbertaPostdoctoral fellow
  4. 2005–2016LMU MunichResearch and teaching assistant, Research associate

Education

  1. 2008LMU MunichComputer science doctorate
  2. 2005LMU MunichBioinformatics diploma
  3. 2000Munich School of PhilosophyPhilosophy degree
  4. 1997Johannes Gutenberg University MainzTheology student

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

Most-cited works

  1. Clustering high-dimensional data2009 · ACM Transactions on Knowledge Discovery from Data · 1,092 citationsWith Hans-Peter Kriegel
  2. Hierarchical Density Estimates for Data Clustering, Visualization, and Outlier Detection2015 · ACM Transactions on Knowledge Discovery from Data · 910 citations
  3. Density‐based clustering2011 · Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery · 898 citationsWith Hans-Peter Kriegel
  4. Angle-based outlier detection in high-dimensional data2008 · ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD) · 865 citationsWith Hans-Peter Kriegel
  5. A survey on unsupervised outlier detection in high‐dimensional numerical data2012 · Statistical Analysis and Data Mining The ASA Data Science Journal · 855 citationsWith Hans-Peter Kriegel

From OpenAlex, as of 18 October 2026.

  1. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes LMU Munich. Our estimates of where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led, from education records in cited biographies.
  2. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers rose from 3% to 32%Includes LMU Munich. We estimate where leading AI researchers worked when their most-cited papers appeared. The company share rose from 3% in 1975–1979 to 32% in 2020–2024.
  3. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes LMU Munich. Our estimates of combined and median h-index at AI organizations, using current affiliations and OpenAlex records.
  4. Stanford University trained or employed 27 of the 111 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes University of Alberta. Stanford University trained or employed 27 of the 111 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and employment links for major-prize and best-paper winners.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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  1. Arthur Zimek - University of Southern Denmark portal.findresearcher.sdu.dk. Checked 18 October 2026.
  2. Correlation Clustering edoc.ub.uni-muenchen.de. Checked 18 October 2026.
  3. On the Evaluation of Unsupervised Outlier Detection — TU Wien Informatics informatics.tuwien.ac.at. Checked 18 October 2026.
  4. A survey on unsupervised outlier detection in high-dimensional numerical data - University of Southern Denmark portal.findresearcher.sdu.dk. Checked 18 October 2026.
  5. ELKI: A large open-source library for data analysis - ELKI Release 0.7.5 "Heidelberg" arxiv.org. Checked 18 October 2026.
  6. Arthur Zimek - SDU sdu.dk. Checked 18 October 2026.