PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Eli Shechtman

Also known as E. Shechtman

Eli Shechtman is a computer vision researcher whose work spans image editing, face animation, and AI video generation. He earned degrees at Tel-Aviv University and the Weizmann Institute, then joined Adobe and completed a joint postdoctoral appointment with the University of Washington. He coauthored PatchMatch and Moving Portraits, and his later research appears in Photoshop's Generative Fill and Expand. As of October 2026, he is a Senior Principal Scientist in Adobe Research's Imaging Lab and contributes to MotionStream, an experimental system for AI video.

Timeline

  1. 1996–2007

    Engineering and applied math degrees

    He earns a BSc in electrical engineering, cum laude, at Tel-Aviv University in 1996, then an MSc in 2003 and a PhD in applied mathematics and computer science in 2007 from the Weizmann Institute of Science.

  2. 2007–2010

    A joint Seattle postdoc

    In September 2007, he moves to Seattle for a joint postdoc at Adobe Advanced Technology Labs and the University of Washington, a role he holds through 2010.

  3. 2009

    PatchMatch for image editing

    In 2009, he coauthors PatchMatch, an algorithm that finds approximate nearest-neighbor matches between image patches for interactive editing tools.

  4. 2014

    Moving Portraits from photos

    In 2014, he and three collaborators coauthor Moving Portraits, a method for generating face animations from large image collections of the same person.

  5. 2017

    The Helmholtz Prize

    In 2017, the Helmholtz Prize at ICCV recognizes his coauthored paper Actions as Space-Time Shapes.

  6. 2023

    Generative Fill in Photoshop

    His Adobe work includes Generative Fill and Expand in Photoshop, which enters beta in March 2023 and general availability in September 2023.

  7. As of October 2026

    Senior Principal Scientist at Adobe

    As of October 2026, he is a Senior Principal Scientist in Adobe Research's Imaging Lab and leads a team of researchers and research engineers. In April 2026, he helps develop MotionStream, an experimental system for real-time control of AI-generated video.

  1. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Our estimates of which organizations employed the most people shaping AI from 1961 to 2025, with a year-by-year chart.
  2. The United States employs an estimated 53% of people in our data with a known employment countryOur estimates of where AI careers are concentrated now and how countries’ shares of dated positions changed over time.
  3. 46% of living people in our data with known birth and employment countries work outside their birth countryOur estimate of cross-border careers in AI, from country of birth and the country of each current organization.
  4. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionOur estimates of where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led, from education records in cited biographies.

Sources and credits

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

  1. Adobe Research » Eli Shechtman research.adobe.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  2. Eli Shechtman's home page wisdom.weizmann.ac.il. Checked 19 October 2026.
  3. PatchMatch: A Randomized Correspondence Algorithm for Structural Image Editing pixl.cs.princeton.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  4. Allen School News Archive news.cs.washington.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  5. MotionStream demonstrates real-time control in AI video creation research.adobe.com. Checked 19 October 2026.