PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Geoffrey Holmes

Also known as Geoff Holmes

Geoffrey Holmes is a University of Waikato machine-learning researcher whose work includes WEKA and data-stream frameworks such as MOA and CD-MOA. He earned BSc and PhD degrees in mathematics at Southampton, worked as a Cambridge research assistant, and joined Waikato in 1987. As part of the Weka team, he shared the 2005 SIGKDD Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery Service Award and became a Waikato professor in 2008; he coauthored MOA in 2010 and CD-MOA in 2013. In November 2025, he served as Waikato's Pro Vice-Chancellor of STEM and directed the Outdoor AI proposal with Canterbury in March 2026. As of October 2026, he is a professor in Waikato's Machine Learning Group.

Born
1960
Works
221
Citations
35,143
h-index
53
Badges

Years link to their sources. Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1986–1987

    Southampton to Waikato

    He earns BSc and PhD degrees in Mathematics from Southampton University in 1986. After a research assistant position at Cambridge, he joins Waikato in 1987.

  2. 1996

    WEKA goes public

    In 1996, Waikato first publicly releases the Waikato Environment for Knowledge Analysis (WEKA) workbench, originally developed for problems in agriculture and horticulture.

  3. 2005

    A SIGKDD service award

    In 2005, he is part of the Weka team that wins the SIGKDD Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery Service Award.

  4. 2008

    Professor at Waikato

    After moving up Waikato's academic ranks, he is promoted to Professor in 2008.

  5. 2010

    MOA for data streams

    With Albert Bifet and colleagues, he coauthors MOA: Massive Online Analysis in 2010, a framework for stream classification and clustering.

  6. 2013

    CD-MOA and change detection

    In 2013, he coauthors CD-MOA: Change Detection Framework for Massive Online Analysis with Albert Bifet, Jesse Read, Bernhard Pfahringer and Indre Zliobaite.

  7. November 2025

    Pro Vice-Chancellor of STEM

    In November 2025, he visits CUHK-Shenzhen as Waikato's Pro Vice-Chancellor of STEM.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor and Outdoor AI director

    In March 2026, he is Proposal Director for Waikato and Canterbury's Outdoor AI proposal for a national platform that develops physical and digital AI systems for complex real-world environments. As of October 2026, he is a professor in Waikato's Machine Learning Group.

Career

  1. Since 1987University of WaikatoPro Vice-Chancellor of STEM, Professor
  2. 1986–1987University of CambridgeResearch Assistant

Education

  1. 1986University of SouthamptonBSc and PhD in Mathematics

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

  1. The United States employs an estimated 48% of people shaping AIIncludes University of Waikato. We estimate where the people shaping AI work today, how universities, companies and research institutes split across countries, and how country shares have changed since the 1960s.
  2. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes University of Waikato. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.
  3. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes University of Waikato. We estimate that Google holds the highest combined h-index at 8,016, while universities account for 73% of the deduplicated total across AI organizations.
  4. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes University of Cambridge. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.

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 Geoffrey Holmes yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Geoffrey Holmes videolectures.net. Checked 22 October 2026.
  2. Machine Learning Group | University of Waikato waikato.ac.nz. Checked 22 October 2026.
  3. Publications – MOA moa.cms.waikato.ac.nz. Checked 22 October 2026.
  4. MOA: Massive Online Analysis jmlr.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  5. University of Waikato Visits CUHK-Shenzhen oal.cuhk.edu.cn. Checked 22 October 2026.
  6. Waikato-Canterbury team pitches to transform New Zealand's primary industries with AI waikato.ac.nz. Checked 22 October 2026.