PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Emma Frejinger

Emma Frejinger is a professor at Université de Montréal and an associate academic member of Mila; her research combines machine learning and operations research to support transport and supply-chain decisions. She earned a PhD at EPFL in 2008, received two dissertation prizes, and joined Université de Montréal as an assistant professor in 2013 after serving on KTH’s faculty. Her work includes a reinforcement-learning study of freight booking and a 2025 contextual-optimization survey; since 2018, she has advised IVADO Labs on AI solutions for supply chains. At UdeM, she is special advisor on AI and digital technology in the Office of the Vice-Rector, Research and Innovation, a role she began in September 2026.

Now at
Université de Montréal, Mila and IVADO Labs
Badges

Timeline

  1. 2008

    A doctorate at EPFL

    She completes her PhD at EPFL in 2008 under Michel Bierlaire in the Transport and Mobility Laboratory.

  2. 2008

    Two dissertation prizes

    Her route-choice thesis wins the 2008 Eric Pas Dissertation Prize and the 2008 Dissertation Prize of the Transportation Science & Logistics Society, INFORMS.

  3. 2011

    Assistant professor at KTH

    In 2011, she is appointed assistant professor in the Division of Transport and Location Analysis at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

  4. January 2013

    A chair at Université de Montréal

    In January 2013, she starts as assistant professor at Université de Montréal and becomes holder of the CN Intermodal Transportation Research Chair.

  5. Since 2018

    AI work at IVADO Labs

    Since 2018, she serves as scientific advisor at IVADO Labs and contributes to AI solutions for the supply chain industry.

  6. 2021–2024

    Freight booking with reinforcement learning

    In 2021, she coauthors a reinforcement-learning study on freight booking control. It trains a supervised model to predict the operational problem’s objective and deploys that model in reinforcement-learning policies; the journal version appears in 2024.

  7. 2025

    A contextual optimization survey

    In 2025, she coauthors a survey of contextual optimization in the European Journal of Operational Research. It identifies three frameworks for learning decision policies from data and reviews methods that combine prediction with optimization under uncertainty.

  8. September 2026

    AI and digital advisor at UdeM

    On September 14, 2026, she joins the Office of the Vice-Rector, Research and Innovation at Université de Montréal as special advisor on artificial intelligence and digital technology. She is a full professor in the Department of Computer Science and Operations Research and an associate academic member of Mila.

Career

  1. Since 2018IVADO LabsScientific Advisor
  2. Since 2013Université de MontréalAssistant Professor, Special Advisor on Artificial Intelligence and Digital Technology
  3. NowMilaAssociate Academic Member
  4. From 2011KTH Royal Institute of TechnologyAssistant Professor

Education

  1. 2008EPFLPhD

From the biography.

  1. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes Université de Montréal. 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.
  2. 20% of people at companies who shape AI also hold a university role, led by Google and Stanford UniversityIncludes Université de Montréal. 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.
  3. 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.
  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 Emma Frejinger yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Emma Frejinger appointed Assistant Professor at KTH - EPFL actu.epfl.ch. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Emma Frejinger appointed Assistant Professor in Montréal - EPFL actu.epfl.ch. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Emma Frejinger | Mila mila.quebec. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. [2102.00092] Reinforcement Learning for Freight Booking Control Problems arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Research | Emma Frejinger emmafrejinger.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. [2306.10374] A Survey of Contextual Optimization Methods for Decision Making under Uncertainty arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. Emma Frejinger appointed special advisor on AI and digital technology - UdeMnouvelles nouvelles.umontreal.ca. Checked 21 October 2026.