PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Charles Gretton

Charles Gretton is an AI researcher whose work spans automated planning, reasoning, machine learning and SAT solving. He earned an AI PhD at ANU in 2006, worked at NICTA, the University of Birmingham and Data61, and co-founded HIVERY in 2015, where he developed AI for continent-scale retail optimization. His 2008 paper describes gNovelty+, a solver that won a gold medal in the random category of the 2007 SAT competition; he also coauthored Dagster for AAAI-23 in 2023, and the AAAI proceedings published it in 2024. In 2025, he coauthored a neural-network method to estimate the Fried parameter from one wavefront-sensor image; as of October 2026, he is an ANU associate professor and Director of Attention and Innovation in the Integrated AI Network.

Now at
Integrated AI Network
Badges

Timeline

  1. 2003–2006

    An ANU doctorate in AI

    He completes a PhD in artificial intelligence at the Australian National University in 2006, with a thesis on non-Markovian phenomena in decision-theoretic planning.

  2. 2006–2008

    AI search at NICTA

    He researches AI search and city-wide evacuation planning at NICTA's Brisbane lab from 2006 to 2008.

  3. 2007

    A gold medal SAT solver

    He coauthors a 2008 paper that describes gNovelty+, a stochastic local-search procedure. The solver wins a gold medal in the random category of the 2007 SAT competition.

  4. 2008–2011

    Research at Birmingham

    From 2008 to 2011, he is a research fellow at the University of Birmingham's Intelligent Robotics Lab, where he studies cognitive robots that can self-understand and self-extend.

  5. August 2011

    Senior researcher at Data61

    He becomes a senior researcher at Data61's NICTA lab in Canberra in August 2011, working on artificial intelligence and operations research.

  6. 2015

    Co-founding HIVERY

    In 2015, he co-founds Red Analytics (HIVERY), a Data61 spinout, and develops AI for continent-scale retail optimization.

  7. 2023–2025

    Dagster and Fried estimation

    He coauthors Dagster for the AAAI-23 special-programs event in 2023. The AAAI proceedings publish the paper in 2024; Dagster solves distributed SAT and model-counting problems in high-performance computing. In 2025, he coauthors a neural-network method to estimate the Fried parameter from a single wavefront-sensor image.

  8. As of October 2026

    Associate professor at ANU

    As of October 2026, he is an associate professor in ANU's School of Computing and Director of Attention and Innovation in the Integrated AI Network.

Career

  1. NowAustralian National UniversityAssociate professor
  2. NowIntegrated AI NetworkDirector of Attention and Innovation
  3. From 2015Red Analytics (HIVERY)Co-founder
  4. From 2011CSIROSenior researcher
  5. 2008–2011University of BirminghamResearch fellow
  6. 2006–2008National ICT Australia

Education

  1. 2006Australian National UniversityPhD

From the biography.

  1. 11% of AI doctorate holders from 2010 to 2016 founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduationIncludes Charles Gretton. We estimate how often AI doctorate holders founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduation, how waiting times compare between founders and top jobs, and which universities trained the most.
  2. The United States employs an estimated 48% of people shaping AIIncludes Australian National University. We estimate where the people shaping AI work today, how universities, companies and research institutes split across countries, and how country shares have changed since the 1960s.
  3. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes Australian National University. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.
  4. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Australian National 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.

Colleagues

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

Sources and credits

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  1. Charles Gretton - The Australian National University researchportalplus.anu.edu.au. Checked 20 October 2026.
  2. Sylvie Thiebaux: Home Page users.cecs.anu.edu.au. Checked 20 October 2026.
  3. Combining Adaptive and Dynamic Local Search for Satisfiability - The Australian National University researchportalplus.anu.edu.au. Checked 20 October 2026.
  4. Charles Gretton | ANU School of Computing comp.anu.edu.au. Checked 20 October 2026.
  5. Fried Parameter Estimation from Single Wavefront Sensor Image with Artificial Neural Networks arxiv.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  6. Dagster: Parallel Structured Search ojs.aaai.org. Checked 20 October 2026.