PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Fabian Theis

Fabian Theis is a computational biologist whose machine-learning research develops methods for single-cell and biomedical data. He studied mathematics and physics at Regensburg, earned doctorates in physics and computer science in 2002 and 2003, and led research groups in Göttingen and Munich before directing computational biology at Helmholtz Munich. In 2018, he coauthored Scanpy, a Python toolkit for single-cell gene-expression analysis. He received the Leibniz Prize in 2023 and the ISCB Innovator Award in 2025, then won two research awards in 2026. As of October 2026, he directs Helmholtz Munich's Institute of Computational Biology and Computational Health Center, holds TUM's chair in mathematical models of biological systems, serves as an ELLIS Unit Director and Fellow, and chairs the Bavarian AI Council.

Born
1976
Links
Google Scholar and LinkedIn

Years link to their sources.

Timeline

  1. 2000–2003

    Mathematics, physics and doctorates

    He earns degrees in mathematics and physics at the University of Regensburg in 2000, a doctorate in physics at Regensburg in 2002, and a doctorate in computer science at the University of Granada in 2003.

  2. 2006–2009

    Bernstein and Helmholtz groups

    In 2006, he leads a junior group at Göttingen's Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, based at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization. In 2007, he becomes working-group head at Helmholtz Munich's Institute of Bioinformatics; in 2009, he becomes an associate professor of Mathematics in Systems Biology at TUM.

  3. 2013

    Director of Computational Biology

    In 2013, he becomes director of the Institute of Computational Biology at Helmholtz Munich. His research develops scalable statistical-learning frameworks and biomedical foundation models for integrative analysis of single-cell, spatial, imaging and clinical data.

  4. 2018

    Co-authoring Scanpy

    In 2018, he coauthors Scanpy, a Python toolkit for single-cell gene-expression analysis. The paper includes methods for preprocessing, visualization, clustering and trajectory inference.

  5. 2023

    The Leibniz Prize

    He receives the 2023 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize for methods that analyze, model and interpret genomic data, including AI-based software for single-cell genomics.

  6. 2025

    ISCB Innovator Award

    He receives the International Society for Computational Biology's 2025 Innovator Award.

  7. 2026

    Two research awards

    He receives the 2026 Academy Prize of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. In September 2026, he and protein biochemist John D. Lambris receive the Award for Biochemical Analytics.

  8. As of October 2026

    Leadership at Helmholtz and ELLIS

    As of October 2026, he heads the Computational Health Center and directs the Institute of Computational Biology at Helmholtz Munich; he also holds TUM's Chair for Mathematical Models of Biological Systems. He is an ELLIS Unit Director and Fellow in ELLIS Unit Munich and chairs the Bavarian AI Council.

  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

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  1. Prof. Fabian Theis - Department of Mathematics - TUM math.cit.tum.de. Checked 19 October 2026.
  2. Prof. Dr. Dr. Fabian Theis | Helmholtz AI helmholtz-munich.de. Checked 19 October 2026.
  3. Prof. Dr. Fabian Theis - Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz-Preisträger 2023 | DFG dfg.de. Checked 19 October 2026.
  4. SCANPY: large-scale single-cell gene expression data analysis pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Checked 19 October 2026.
  5. Past Award Winners - About ISCB iscb.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  6. Preisträger – Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften bbaw.de. Checked 19 October 2026.
  7. Fabian Theis | European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems ellis.eu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  8. Fabian Theis receives Award for Biochemical Analytics 2026 baiosphere.org. Checked 19 October 2026.