PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Frank Wolter

Frank Wolter is a professor of Logic and Computation whose AI research connects ontology-mediated queries, databases and knowledge representation. He earned a German Diploma in mathematics and philosophy and a PhD in mathematics at FU Berlin, worked as a research associate in Japan, and completed a computer science Habilitation in Leipzig. He has been a full professor at the University of Liverpool since 2003; his coauthored ontology-query papers received a PODS Best Paper Award in 2017 and the PODS Test-of-Time Award in 2023, and he became a EurAI Fellow in 2023. In 2026, he coauthored a paper on computing Craig interpolants in hybrid modal logics.

Links
Website and Google Scholar

Timeline

  1. 1991

    A mathematics and philosophy diploma

    He earns a German Diploma, equivalent to an MSc, in mathematics and philosophy at FU Berlin in 1991.

  2. 1993

    A PhD on modal logics

    At FU Berlin, he receives a PhD in mathematics in 1993 for work on lattices of modal logics.

  3. 1994–1997

    Research in Kanazawa

    From 1994 to 1997, he works as a research associate under Hiroakira Ono at the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Kanazawa, Japan.

  4. 2000

    A computer science Habilitation

    In Leipzig, he defends a Habilitation in computer science on combined modal logics in 2000.

  5. Since 2003

    Professor of Logic and Computation

    Since 2003, he is a full professor of Logic and Computation in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Liverpool.

  6. 2017

    Ontology query complexity

    In 2017, he coauthors “Dichotomies in Ontology-Mediated Querying with the Guarded Fragment” with André Hernich, Carsten Lutz and Fabio Papacchini; the paper receives the PODS Best Paper Award. Its 2018 preprint finds large guarded fragments with a polynomial-time/coNP dichotomy for query evaluation.

  7. 2023

    Ontology-based data access

    In 2013, he coauthors “Ontology-based Data Access: A Study through Disjunctive Datalog, CSP, and MMSNP” with Meghyn Bienvenu, Balder ten Cate and Carsten Lutz. The paper studies queries over incomplete data sources enriched with ontology knowledge and connects ontology-mediated queries with disjunctive Datalog, constraint satisfaction problems and MMSNP; it receives the ACM PODS Test-of-Time Award in 2023. He becomes a EurAI Fellow in 2023, and his research links databases with knowledge representation.

  8. 2026

    Interpolants in hybrid modal logics

    In 2026, he coauthors “Computation and Size of Interpolants for Hybrid Modal Logics,” which gives a method to compute Craig interpolants in many standard hybrid modal logics in fourfold exponential time when they exist. He is a full professor of Logic and Computation in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Liverpool.

  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.

Colleagues

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

Sources and credits

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  1. Professor Frank Wolter | Our people | University of Liverpool liverpool.ac.uk. Checked 19 October 2026.
  2. PODS Best Paper Awards sigmod.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  3. Dichotomies in Ontology-Mediated Querying with the Guarded Fragment arxiv.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  4. Ontology-based Data Access: A Study through Disjunctive Datalog, CSP, and MMSNP arxiv.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  5. ACM PODS Alberto O. Mendelzon Test-of-Time Award sigmod.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  6. EurAI Fellows 2023 eurai.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  7. Research outputs | Professor Frank Wolter | Our people | University of Liverpool liverpool.ac.uk. Checked 19 October 2026.
  8. Computation and Size of Interpolants for Hybrid Modal Logics arxiv.org. Checked 19 October 2026.