PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Christian Bessiere

Christian Bessiere is a CNRS research director who leads LIRMM's COCONUT team in AI research on constraint programming and constraint learning. He completed a computer science PhD in 1992. He helped found the Association for Constraint Programming and became a EurAI Fellow in 2006. His papers explored interactive constraint acquisition and using data to revise constraint models. He served as IJCAI program chair in 2020 and president of its Board of Trustees from 2021 to 2023; IJCAI named him to receive its 2026 Walker Distinguished Service Award.

Now at
CNRS and Université de Montpellier
Works
306
Citations
5,644
h-index
42

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 14 October 2026.

Photo of Christian Bessiere

Timeline

  1. 1992

    Completing a computer science PhD

    He completed a PhD in computer science.

  2. 2005–2009

    Building a constraint community

    He was a founding member of the Association for Constraint Programming in 2005, served on its executive committee until 2009, and served as treasurer until 2007.

  3. 2006

    Joining the EurAI fellows

    EurAI elected him a Fellow in 2006.

  4. 2007

    Choosing useful examples

    He chaired the CP conference program in 2007. His IJCAI-07 paper, “Query-Driven Constraint Acquisition,” describes an interactive system that chose examples and reduced the number needed to acquire a constraint network.

  5. 2015

    Connecting data and constraints

    With collaborators, he proposed the Inductive Constraint Programming loop, which uses accumulated data to revise constraints and optimization criteria.

  6. 2020–2025

    Guiding IJCAI

    He served as IJCAI program chair in 2020, president of its Board of Trustees from 2021 to 2023, past president from 2023 to 2025, and trustee through 2025.

  7. 2026

    A service award

    He was named to receive the Donald E. Walker Distinguished Service Award at IJCAI-26 for his contributions and service to AI.

  8. As of October 2026

    Leading the COCONUT team

    He is a CNRS research director and leads LIRMM's COCONUT team. The group works on constraint programming, propagation, and constraint learning.

Sources and credits

Photo: lirmm.fr; Équipe COCONUT: Agents, Apprentissage, Contraintes – LIRMM; creator not stated. License: Not stated by source. Source: lirmm.fr. Cropped to a square and resized. Ask us to remove or replace this photo.

  1. Christian Bessiere en.wikipedia.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  2. Awards | European Association for Artificial Intelligence eurai.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  3. Proceedings of the Twentieth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence | IJCAI ijcai.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  4. Abstract | IJCAI ijcai.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  5. The Inductive Constraint Programming Loop arxiv.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  6. Former Trustees serving on the Executive Committee | IJCAI ijcai.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  7. IJCAI Awards | IJCAI ijcai.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  8. Équipe COCONUT: Agents, Apprentissage, Contraintes – LIRMM lirmm.fr. Checked 14 October 2026.