PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Charles Elkan

Also known as Charles Peter Elkan, Charles P. Elkan

Charles Elkan is a computer scientist whose AI work spans automated reasoning, machine learning, computational biology and finance. He earned a mathematics degree at Cambridge and a computer science PhD at Cornell, then joined UC San Diego in 1990 and co-founded its Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. His career included the 1996 ParaMEME motif-discovery interface, a 2001 paper on cost-sensitive classification, and machine-learning leadership at Amazon and Goldman Sachs. As of October 2026, he is chief scientist at Poesis, an affiliate professor at UC San Diego and an investing partner at Rohati Capital.

Now at
University of California, San Diego, Poesis and Rohati Capital
Works
154
Citations
24,562
h-index
49
Badges

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1990

    Cornell PhD and UCSD faculty

    He earns a mathematics degree at Cambridge and a computer science PhD at Cornell in 1990. While at Cornell, he studies as a visiting PhD student at Stanford advised by John McCarthy and works as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto before joining UC San Diego's computer science faculty in 1990. At UCSD, he co-founds the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and develops algorithms for reasoning about database queries and updates, as well as a web engine for comparing protein and DNA sequences.

  2. 1996–1999

    ParaMEME and a Harvard visit

    In 1996, he coauthors ParaMEME, a parallel implementation and web interface for DNA and protein motif discovery. In 1998–1999, he is a visiting associate professor of computer science at Harvard.

  3. 2000

    First place at CoIL Challenge

    In 2000, he takes first place in the CoIL Challenge data-mining competition.

  4. 2001

    Cost-sensitive classification

    In 2001, he publishes The Foundations of Cost-Sensitive Learning, which examines classification decisions when different misclassification errors carry different penalties.

  5. 2014–2018

    Amazon machine-learning team

    From 2014 to 2018, he is Amazon's first Fellow and builds and leads its central machine-learning team in Seattle, Palo Alto and New York.

  6. 2018–2020

    Machine learning at Goldman Sachs

    From 2018 to 2020, he serves as managing director and global head of machine learning at Goldman Sachs in New York.

  7. 2021–2024

    Co-founding ficc.ai

    By 2021, he is a co-founder of ficc.ai, which uses machine learning to price municipal bonds in real time. In 2024, he is the company's CEO.

  8. As of October 2026

    Chief scientist at Poesis

    As of October 2026, he is chief scientist at Poesis and an affiliate professor of computer science at UC San Diego. He is also an investing partner at Rohati Capital.

Career

  1. Since 1990University of California, San DiegoComputer science faculty, Co-founder
  2. NowPoesisChief scientist
  3. NowRohati CapitalInvesting partner
  4. From 2021ficc.aiCo-founder, CEO
  5. 2018–2020Goldman SachsManaging director and global head of machine learning
  6. 2014–2018AmazonFellow
  7. 1998–1999Harvard UniversityVisiting associate professor of computer science
  8. 1990University of TorontoPostdoctoral fellow
  9. Stanford UniversityVisiting Ph.D. student

Education

  1. 1990Cornell UniversityComputer science PhD
  2. University of CambridgeMathematics degree

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

  1. 11% of AI doctorate holders from 2010 to 2016 founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduationIncludes Charles Elkan. 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 Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes University of California, San Diego. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.
  3. Universities keep AI researchers for a median of 6 years, compared with 2 years at frontier labsIncludes University of California, San Diego. Across 15,811 dated work stays (6,529 people), median role tenure runs from 6 years at universities to 2 years at frontier labs. We compare all five organization types, starting decades from the 1970s to the 2020s, and the organizations that keep people longest.
  4. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes University of California, San Diego. 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.

Colleagues

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

Sources and credits

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

  1. Charles Elkan | Jacobs School of Engineering jacobsschool.ucsd.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  2. Charles Elkan cseweb.ucsd.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  3. Noble Research Lab: Publications and software noble.gs.washington.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  4. The Foundations of Cost-Sensitive Learning | ML Anthology mlanthology.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  5. The AI World Model for Finance poesis.ai. Checked 22 October 2026.
  6. Events Archive - NYU Stern stern.nyu.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  7. Ficc.ai - IVC Data & Insights ivc-online.com. Checked 22 October 2026.
  8. Gen AI Summit 2024 hubspot.com. Checked 22 October 2026.
  9. Rohati Capital Closes $50M Inaugural Fund vcwire.tech. Checked 22 October 2026.
  10. Council of Advisors | Jacobs School of Engineering jacobsschool.ucsd.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.