PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Christoph Kern

Christoph Kern is a social-science and machine-learning researcher whose work tests how prediction can support decisions in public programs. He studied sociology and earned a doctorate at the University of Duisburg-Essen in 2016, then worked in Mannheim and Maryland before joining LMU in 2020. His research includes Multi-CATE for treatment-effect prediction and a study of how prediction identifies people at risk of long-term unemployment; the study won an ICML Outstanding Paper Award in 2025. As of October 2026, he is a Junior Professor at LMU and a Project Director at MZES.

Born
1984
Works
117
Citations
787
h-index
14
Badges

Years link to their sources. Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2016

    Sociology and a doctorate

    He studies sociology as an undergraduate, then completes a social-science doctorate at the University of Duisburg-Essen in 2016 with a dissertation on regional job market mobility.

  2. 2017–2022

    Research roles in Mannheim and Maryland

    From 2017 to 2022, he works as a research associate in the University of Mannheim's Department of Sociology and, from 2020, as a project manager at MZES. Before joining LMU, he also serves as a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland's Joint Program in Survey Methodology.

  3. October 2020–September 2022

    Interim and junior professorships

    In October 2020, he joins LMU as an interim professor and becomes a junior professor in September 2022.

  4. 2024

    Multi-CATE under covariate shifts

    In 2024, he coauthors Multi-CATE, a method that post-processes CATE predictors to handle unknown covariate shifts at deployment. It combines large observational data with a smaller randomized trial.

  5. 2025

    ICML award for prediction

    In 2025, he coauthors The Value of Prediction in Identifying the Worst-Off with Unai Fischer Abaigar and Juan Perdomo. The paper compares the welfare effects of prediction with other policy choices and uses a German case study on long-term unemployment. It wins an ICML 2025 Outstanding Paper Award.

  6. 2025

    Causal reasoning for reliable AI

    In 2025, he and his coauthors argue that reliable decision algorithms need causal reasoning. Their paper calls for explicit assumptions about causal structure so methods align with real-world decision objectives.

  7. 2026

    A GOR Best Paper Award

    In 2026, he and his coauthors receive the GOR Best Paper Award for “Preventing Harmful Data Practices by using Participatory Input to Navigate the Machine Learning Multiverse,” which proposes public input in machine-learning design choices.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor and project director

    He is a Junior Professor of Social Data Science and Statistical Learning at LMU Munich and a Project Director at MZES. In August 2026, he serves as a Hosting Professor for DSSGx Munich's project on predicting the effects of tailored depression interventions. His research focuses on reliable machine learning in social science, survey research, and algorithmic fairness.

Career

  1. Since 2020LMU MunichInterim Professor
  2. Since 2017University of MannheimResearch Associate, Project Manager
  3. 2024–2026Google
  4. 2024–2026Munich Center for Machine Learning
  5. 2020University of MarylandResearch Assistant Professor

Education

  1. 2016University of Duisburg-EssenDoctorate

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

  1. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes Christoph Kern. 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.
  2. 16% of AI career moves in the 2020s went from a university to a companyIncludes Christoph Kern. We estimate that 16% of AI career moves in the 2020s went from a university to a company; 29% of moves starting at a university went to a company, and 76% ended the university role.
  3. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Includes Google. 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.
  4. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes Google. We estimate that Google holds the highest combined h-index at 8,016, while universities account for 73% of the deduplicated total across AI organizations.

Colleagues

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

Sources and credits

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

  1. In search of the unfairness gremlin lmu.de. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Contact page - Department of Statistics - LMU Munich stat.lmu.de. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Multi-CATE: Multi-Accurate Conditional Average Treatment Effect Estimation Robust to Unknown Covariate Shifts arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. ICML 2025 Awards icml.cc. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. The Value of Prediction in Identifying the Worst-Off mcml.ai. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. Algorithms for reliable decision-making need causal reasoning nature.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. MCML Members Receive Best Paper Award at GOR 2026 mcml.ai. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. DSSGx Munich 2026 Kick-Off Event stat.lmu.de. Checked 21 October 2026.