PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Fernando Diaz

Fernando Diaz is a computer scientist whose work covers information retrieval, recommender systems, and AI evaluation. He earned a computer science PhD at UMass Amherst in 2008; his career includes research at Yahoo Research and Microsoft Research, directing Spotify Research, and leading FATE in Montreal. His 2022 paper set out a retrieval-enhanced machine learning framework; he entered the SIGIR Academy in 2024 and proposed a method to evaluate agent trajectories in 2026. As of October 2026, he is an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon's Language Technologies Institute and a member of Google's Responsible AI team.

Badges

Timeline

  1. 2008

    A PhD at UMass Amherst

    He earns a PhD in computer science from UMass Amherst in 2008.

  2. 2012

    Microsoft Research in New York City

    In 2012, he joins Microsoft Research New York City as one of the lab's founding researchers in information retrieval.

  3. 2017

    A Karen Spärck Jones Award

    At Spotify Research, he directs research in 2017 and is named recipient of the Karen Spärck Jones Award.

  4. 2018

    Leading FATE in Montreal

    In June 2018, he joins Microsoft Research Montreal as a Principal Researcher and leads its FATE group. His earlier roles include research at Yahoo Research and Spotify, and he co-founds Microsoft's original FATE group with Kate Crawford and Hanna Wallach at Microsoft Research New York City.

  5. 2022

    Retrieval for machine learning

    In 2022, he coauthors Retrieval Enhanced Machine Learning, which proposes retrieval as a core method for extending machine learning systems.

  6. 2024

    Election to SIGIR Academy

    SIGIR elects him to its Academy in 2024, an ACM award that recognizes cumulative contributions to information retrieval.

  7. 2026

    Evaluating agent trajectories

    In 2026, he proposes preference-based trajectory evaluation for agentic systems, comparing trajectories through temporal preferences over progress and time-to-return profiles.

  8. As of October 2026

    CMU professor and Google researcher

    He is an Associate Professor in Carnegie Mellon's Language Technologies Institute and a member of Google's Responsible AI team. His work focuses on information retrieval, recommender systems, evaluation, fairness in ranking, and AI's cultural impact.

Career

  1. NowCarnegie Mellon UniversityAssociate Professor
  2. NowGoogleMember
  3. From 2018Microsoft ResearchPrincipal Researcher
  4. 2017SpotifyDirector of Research
  5. From 2012MicrosoftFounding Researcher

Education

  1. 2008University of Massachusetts AmherstPhD

From the biography.

  1. Google alumni have founded or led 133 other organizations, more than any other AI labIncludes Fernando Diaz. We estimate that alumni of 17 major AI labs went on to found or lead 350 other organizations, including 226 they founded, and we trace 472 career moves directly between 23 labs since 2010.
  2. 23% of people shaping AI who left a university for a company later returned to a universityIncludes Fernando Diaz. We estimate that 468 of the 2,011 people shaping AI who left a university for a company (23%) later returned to a university after a median of 5 years, and 163 of 829 (20%) made the reverse round trip.
  3. 11% of AI doctorate holders from 2010 to 2016 founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduationIncludes Fernando Diaz. We estimate how often AI doctorate holders founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduation, how waiting times compare between founders and top jobs, and which universities trained the most.
  4. 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.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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

  1. CIIR alum Fernando Diaz a recipient of the 2017 Karen Spärck Jones Award | Center for Intelligent Information Retrieval ciir.cs.umass.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Microsoft Research New York City: 2012 in Review - Microsoft Research microsoft.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Keynote｜NTCIR-17｜NTCIR research.nii.ac.jp. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. Microsoft Research Montreal welcomes Fernando Diaz, Principal Researcher and lead of the new Montreal FATE Research Group - Microsoft Research microsoft.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Retrieval Enhanced Machine Learning research.google. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. SIGIR Academy | SIGIR sigir.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. [2606.17541] Offline Preference-Based Trajectory Evaluation arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. Responsible AI research.google. Checked 21 October 2026.
  9. Fernando Diaz 841.io. Checked 21 October 2026.