PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

George Kiraz

George Kiraz is a computational linguist and Syriac scholar whose research applies finite-state methods to Semitic morphology. As a teenager in Jerusalem, he asked a Syriac monk at the Monastery of St Mark for advice on books to copy, took newly developed Syriac DOS fonts to a monastery press in August 1988, and made SEDRA available online as open source in 1994. After degrees at Oxford and Cambridge, he worked in natural-language processing and speech technology at Bell Labs and Nuance, published a multitape finite-automata study of Syriac and Arabic, and co-founded Gorgias Press. He is Director of Beth Mardutho, Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Advanced Study, and Editor-in-Chief of Gorgias Press. In June 2025, he led an Oxford Interfaith Forum session on the Antioch Bible.

Timeline

  1. 1988–1994

    Syriac fonts and SEDRA

    As a teenager in Jerusalem, he asks a Syriac monk at the Monastery of St. Mark for advice on books to copy. In August 1988, he brings newly developed Syriac DOS fonts to the St. Ephrem monastery press in the Netherlands to print Syriac books. Kiraz conceives SEDRA as a linguistic and literary tool in 1988, uses it for concordances, and makes it available online as open source in 1994.

  2. 1991–1996

    Degrees at Oxford and Cambridge

    He earns an M.St. in Syriac Studies at Oxford in 1991, an M.Phil. at Cambridge in 1992, and a Ph.D. in computational linguistics at Cambridge in 1996.

  3. 1996–2001

    Bell Labs and Nuance

    From 1996 to 2000, he works in natural language processing and speech technology at Bell Labs; he works in the same fields at Nuance from 2000 to 2001.

  4. 2000

    Multitape finite automata

    In 2000, he publishes the Computational Linguistics paper “Multitiered nonlinear morphology using multitape finite automata: a case study on Syriac and Arabic.”

  5. 2001

    Co-founding Gorgias Press

    In 2001, he co-founds Gorgias Press with Christine Kiraz.

  6. June 2025

    The Antioch Bible at Oxford

    In June 2025, he leads an Oxford Interfaith Forum reading-group session on The Peshitta and the Making of the Antioch Bible. He is a Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Advanced Study and director of Beth Mardutho.

  7. As of October 2026

    Senior research associate and director

    He is Director of Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute and Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Advanced Study, and he serves as Editor-in-Chief of Gorgias Press.

  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. The Syriac Digital Humanities: An Interview with George A. Kiraz, Part 1 digitalorientalist.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  2. Sedra contributors sedra.bethmardutho.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  3. George Anton Kiraz | Gorgias Press gorgiaspress.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  4. Multitiered nonlinear morphology using multitape finite automata: a case study on Syriac and Arabic - ACL Anthology aclanthology.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  5. Gorgias Press 25th Anniversary gorgiaspress.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  6. The Peshitta and the Making of the Antioch Bible - Oxford Interfaith Forum | Interfaith Academia oxfordinterfaithforum.org. Checked 19 October 2026.