PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Frans A. Oliehoek

Frans Oliehoek researches interactive learning and decision making in artificial intelligence. He earned a master’s degree in artificial intelligence in 2005 and a doctorate in computer science in 2010 at the University of Amsterdam, held posts at MIT and Maastricht, returned to Amsterdam in 2014, taught at Liverpool, and joined TU Delft in 2018. He published A Concise Introduction to Decentralized POMDPs in 2016 and a NIPS workshop paper on deep reinforcement learning for traffic lights, and he coauthored a 2024 ECAI study of MuZero’s learned model. He and his collaborators won a best paper award at ALA’21, and he became an ELLIS Fellow in 2024. He is Full Professor of Interactive Learning and Decision Making at TU Delft, co-leads the Sequential Decision Making group, and co-directs ELLIS Unit Delft.

Timeline

  1. 2005–2010

    Degrees at Amsterdam

    He earns an M.Sc. in Artificial Intelligence in 2005 and completes a Ph.D. in Computer Science in 2010, both at the University of Amsterdam.

  2. 2010–2014

    Postdoctoral and faculty roles

    He completes postdoctoral appointments at MIT from 2010 to 2012 and Maastricht University from 2012 to 2013, then serves as a non-permanent Assistant Professor at Maastricht from 2013 to 2014.

  3. 2014–2017

    Amsterdam and Liverpool posts

    In 2014, he returns to the University of Amsterdam and takes a Lecturer post at the University of Liverpool. Liverpool promotes him to Senior Lecturer in 2017.

  4. 2016

    A Dec-POMDP book and paper

    He publishes A Concise Introduction to Decentralized POMDPs in 2016. With Elise Van der Pol, he publishes the NIPS’16 workshop paper “Coordinated Deep Reinforcement Learners for Traffic Light Control.”

  5. 2018

    Associate Professor at TU Delft

    He joins TU Delft as an Associate Professor in 2018.

  6. 2021

    An ALA’21 Best Paper Award

    He and his coauthors win the best paper award at the ALA’21 workshop for “Difference Rewards Policy Gradients.”

  7. 2024

    MuZero and an ELLIS Fellowship

    He coauthors the ECAI 2024 paper “What model does MuZero learn?” with Jinke He, Thomas M. Moerland and Joery A. De Vries. He becomes one of Delft’s new ELLIS Fellows in 2024.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor and ELLIS co-director

    In July 2025, TU Delft appoints him Full Professor of Interactive Learning and Decision Making in the Department of Intelligent Systems, Sequential Decision Making section. He is a Full Professor at TU Delft and co-leads the Sequential Decision Making group. He co-directs ELLIS Unit Delft; his research covers interactive learning, reinforcement learning, planning, causal models and multiagent learning.

  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. bio – Frans A. Oliehoek fransoliehoek.net. Checked 19 October 2026.
  2. A Concise Introduction to Decentralized POMDPs - Frans A. Oliehoek, Christopher Amato - Google Books books.google.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  3. Publications fransoliehoek.net. Checked 19 October 2026.
  4. Frans Oliehoek: Difference Rewards Policy Gradients fransoliehoek.net. Checked 19 October 2026.
  5. What model does MuZero learn? fransoliehoek.net. Checked 19 October 2026.
  6. 9 researchers from ELLIS Unit Delft honoured with Fellows or Scholars title tudelft.nl. Checked 19 October 2026.
  7. Prof. Frans Oliehoek nieuwe hoogleraar Interactief leren en beslissingen nemen tudelft.nl. Checked 19 October 2026.
  8. Staff tudelft.nl. Checked 19 October 2026.
  9. De leden van ELLIS Unit Delft tudelft.nl. Checked 19 October 2026.