PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Danilo Bzdok

Danilo Bzdok is a computer scientist and medical doctor who uses machine learning to study the brain and human thought. He earned doctorates in brain-imaging neuroscience at Research Center Jülich in 2012 and machine-learning statistics at INRIA Saclay and NeuroSpin in 2016. His work spans statistical inference and prediction, population brain networks, NLP for psychedelic research, language models for autism diagnosis and transformer hallucinations, and AI analysis of psychedelic brain scans. He became a Canada CIFAR AI Chair at Mila in 2019 and IVADO scientific co-director in 2023. As of October 2026, he is an associate professor at McGill’s Faculty of Medicine, a Canada CIFAR AI Chair at Mila, and a researcher in IVADO’s AI and neuroscience group.

Timeline

  1. 2012–2016

    Two doctoral degrees

    Danilo Bzdok is a computer scientist and medical doctor whose work studies how human-defining types of thought emerge from the brain. He completes one Ph.D. in brain-imaging neuroscience at Research Center Juelich in 2012 and a second Ph.D. in computer science and machine-learning statistics at INRIA Saclay and Neurospin in 2016.

  2. 2018

    Statistics and brain networks

    In April 2018, he coauthors “Statistics versus machine learning” in Nature Methods while affiliated with RWTH Aachen and INRIA/Neurospin Saclay; the paper distinguishes population inference from generalizable prediction. In November 2018, he coauthors a PNAS study that applies pattern-learning algorithms to data from 10,000 UK Biobank participants to map coupling states in the default-mode network.

  3. December 2019

    A Canada CIFAR AI Chair

    In December 2019, McGill names him among nine researchers selected as Canada CIFAR AI Chairs to join Mila.

  4. June 2022

    NLP for psychedelic research

    In June 2022, he describes how his lab uses natural language processing and machine learning to extract components of psychedelic experiences and connect them to the brain regions affected by drugs.

  5. October 2023

    IVADO scientific co-director

    In October 2023, he becomes IVADO’s co-director for research programs and academic relations.

  6. 2025

    LLMs for diagnosis and hallucinations

    In March 2025, he and Jack Stanley describe using large language models to analyze medical reports and understand how autism diagnosis is performed. In October 2025, he and colleagues describe their paper “From Noise to Narrative: Tracing the Origins of Hallucinations in Transformers,” accepted at NeurIPS 2025.

  7. April 2026

    AI maps psychedelic brain effects

    In April 2026, he describes his team’s AI analysis of more than 500 psychedelic brain scans, ten times more than previous efforts, in the world’s largest study of psychedelics’ effects on human brain function.

  8. As of October 2026

    McGill, Mila and IVADO roles

    In August 2026, he is a professor at McGill and a researcher in IVADO’s AI and neuroscience group. As of October 2026, he is an associate professor at McGill’s Faculty of Medicine and a Canada CIFAR AI Chair at Mila.

Career

  1. Since 2023Institute for Data ValorizationCo-director for research programs and academic relations
  2. Since 2019MilaCanada CIFAR AI Chair
  3. NowMcGill UniversityAssociate Professor

Education

  1. 2016InriaPhD
  2. 2016Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies AlternativesPhD
  3. 2012Forschungszentrum JülichPhD

From the biography.

  1. 20% of people at companies who shape AI also hold a university role, led by Google and Stanford UniversityIncludes McGill 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. Universities (31%) and startups and other companies (25%) employ the largest shares of 2020–2026 entrantsIncludes Mila. Among 819 people whose first recorded role started in 2020–2026 and who have a known current organization, 60% work in commercial sectors (25% at startups and other companies, 23% at frontier labs and 13% at big tech, with 9 in two), and 31% work at universities, compared with 66% for earlier entrants.
  3. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes McGill 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. Companies supply the most prior-work hires at 7 of the 9 frontier AI labsIncludes Mila. Our estimates of the organizations where 550 people worked directly before joining 9 frontier AI labs across 620 career transitions, comparing the main feeder organizations per lab.

Colleagues

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

Sources and credits

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

  1. Danilo Bzdok | Mila mila.quebec. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Bzdok Lab bzdok.lab.mcgill.ca. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Statistics versus machine learning | Nature Methods nature.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. Subspecialization within default mode nodes characterized in 10,000 UK Biobank participants biobank.ctsu.ox.ac.uk. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Nine McGill researchers selected in newest round of Canada CIFAR AI Chairs reporter.mcgill.ca. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. What Big Data Says About Psychedelics psychologytoday.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. IVADO annonce une nouvelle direction scientifique élargie ivado.ca. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. Using LLMs to better understand autism diagnosis mila.quebec. Checked 21 October 2026.
  9. Why AI Models Hallucinate and How to Fix Them mila.quebec. Checked 21 October 2026.
  10. Mila’s AI drives world’s largest study on psychedelics mila.quebec. Checked 21 October 2026.
  11. Autisme : capturer la certitude clinique avec l’IA ivado.ca. Checked 21 October 2026.