PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Barbara Engelhardt

Also known as Barbara E. Engelhardt, Barbara Elizabeth Engelhardt

Barbara Engelhardt is a researcher who applies statistical and machine-learning models to genomic, clinical and imaging data. She grew up in New York City, earned degrees at Stanford and UC Berkeley, trained at the University of Chicago, and joined faculty at Duke and Princeton. Her work includes a 2017 reinforcement-learning study for ventilator care, a 2023 spatial-genomics model, and a 2026 study of AI tools for wearable health data. She received the ISCB Overton Prize in 2021 and became an ISCB Fellow in 2024. As of October 2026, she is a Professor of Biomedical Data Science at Stanford and a Senior Investigator at Gladstone Institutes.

Now at
Gladstone Institutes and Stanford University

Timeline

  1. By 2011

    Training and Duke appointment

    She grows up in New York City, earns a B.S. in Symbolic Systems and an M.S. in Computer Science at Stanford, then completes a PhD in EECS at UC Berkeley with Michael Jordan as her adviser. She trains as a postdoctoral fellow with Matthew Stephens at the University of Chicago. In 2011, she joins Duke as an assistant professor in biostatistics and bioinformatics.

  2. 2014–2022

    Princeton computer science faculty

    She joins Princeton's Computer Science Department in 2014 and serves as assistant, associate, and full professor through 2022. Her statistical models analyze high-dimensional biomedical data to understand complex phenotypes and disease mechanisms.

  3. 2017

    Reinforcement learning for ventilator care

    In 2017, she coauthors a decision-support study that applies off-policy reinforcement learning to historical ICU data and recommends personalized sedation and ventilator support.

  4. 2021

    Overton Prize and Gladstone lab

    In 2021, she receives the ISCB Overton Prize and opens her lab at Gladstone.

  5. February 2023

    Spatial factorization for genomics

    In the February 2023 issue of Nature Methods, she coauthors a paper that introduces nonnegative spatial factorization, a probabilistic dimension-reduction model built from transformed Gaussian processes for spatial transcriptomics.

  6. 2024

    An ISCB Fellowship

    In March 2024, she is elected a Fellow of the International Society for Computational Biology. Her statistical and machine-learning models analyze genomic, imaging, and electronic medical-record data to help predict treatment and address health inequities.

  7. January 2026

    The STIGMA study

    At Stanford's January 2026 Collaboration & Careers Forum, she presents STIGMA, a study that has collected wearable data for a year from 304 menstruating people and is developing AI tools to analyze the data.

  8. As of October 2026

    Stanford and Gladstone appointments

    As of October 2026, she is a Professor of Biomedical Data Science at Stanford and a Senior Investigator at Gladstone Institutes.

Career

  1. Since 2021Gladstone InstitutesSenior Investigator
  2. NowStanford UniversityProfessor of Biomedical Data Science
  3. 2014–2022Princeton UniversityAssistant, Associate, and Full Professor
  4. From 2011Duke UniversityAssistant Professor in Biostatistics and Bioinformatics

Education

  1. Stanford UniversityB.S. and M.S.
  2. University of California, BerkeleyPhD

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.

Colleagues

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

Sources and credits

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

  1. Barbara Elizabeth Engelhardt's Profile | Stanford Profiles profiles.stanford.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Machine Learning to Understand and Prevent Disease | Gladstone Institutes gladstone.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Barbara Engelhardt, PhD | Engelhardt Lab engelhardt.gladstone.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. A Reinforcement Learning Approach to Weaning of Mechanical Ventilation in Intensive Care Units proceedings.mlr.press. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Nonnegative spatial factorization applied to spatial genomics | Nature Methods nature.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. Barbara Engelhardt Elected Fellow of the International Society for Computational Biology | Gladstone Institutes gladstone.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. Reimagining Healthcare Through AI | Stanford Department of Biomedical Data Science dbds.stanford.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.