PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Glen Berseth

Glen Berseth is a robotics researcher whose work uses machine learning for real-world sequential decisions. At York, he earned computer science degrees in 2012 and 2014, helped design a Mars rover that won international competitions, and completed a computer science PhD at UBC in 2019. He coauthored PLAID in 2018 and a 2023 reinforcement-learning paper whose jumping policy transferred to a real Cassie robot. After postdoctoral work at Berkeley, he joined Université de Montréal and Mila in 2021, and his Canada CIFAR AI Chair was renewed for five years in May 2026. He is an associate professor at Université de Montréal and co-directs the Robotics and Embodied AI Lab (REAL).

Timeline

  1. 2012–2014

    York degrees and a Mars rover

    He earns a BSc in computer science at York University in 2012 and an MSc there under Petros Faloutsos in 2014. While an undergraduate and master's student, he helps design a prototype Mars rover that enters and wins several international competitions.

  2. 2018

    PLAID for bipedal locomotion

    In 2018, he coauthors PLAID, a method that incrementally adds skills through policy distillation and is evaluated on simulated bipedal locomotion across different terrain classes.

  3. 2019

    A UBC computer science PhD

    At the University of British Columbia, he completes a computer science PhD in 2019, where he works with Michiel van de Panne.

  4. By 2021

    Postdoctoral research at BAIR

    Before joining Université de Montréal in summer 2021, he completes postdoctoral research at Berkeley's BAIR in the Robotic AI & Learning (RAIL) lab with Sergey Levine.

  5. 2021

    Joining UdeM and Mila

    In summer 2021, he joins Université de Montréal and Mila, the Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute.

  6. 2023

    Learning to control bipedal jumps

    In 2023, he coauthors Robust and Versatile Bipedal Jumping Control through Reinforcement Learning; its trained policy transfers to a real Cassie robot after multi-stage training.

  7. May 2026

    A Canada CIFAR Chair renewal

    In May 2026, Université de Montréal announces that his Canada CIFAR AI Chair is renewed for five years.

  8. September 2026

    Associate professor at UdeM

    In September 2026, he is promoted to associate professor at Université de Montréal. He co-directs the Robotics and Embodied AI Lab (REAL) and works on machine learning for real-world sequential decision-making.

Career

  1. From 2021Université de MontréalAssociate professor
  2. From 2021Mila
  3. Until 2021University of California, BerkeleyPostdoctoral Researcher
  4. Montréal Robotics and Embodied AI LabCo-director

Education

  1. 2019University of British ColumbiaPhD
  2. 2014York UniversityMSc
  3. 2012York UniversityBSc

From the biography.

  1. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes Université de Montréal. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.
  2. 20% of people at companies who shape AI also hold a university role, led by Google and Stanford UniversityIncludes Université de Montréal. We estimate that 539 of the 6,766 people with a known current organization (8%) hold both a university role and a company role, including 20% of people at companies and 13% of people at universities.
  3. Universities (31%) and startups and other companies (25%) employ the largest shares of 2020–2026 entrantsIncludes Mila. Among 819 people whose first recorded role started in 2020–2026 and who have a known current organization, 60% work in commercial sectors (25% at startups and other companies, 23% at frontier labs and 13% at big tech, with 9 in two), and 31% work at universities, compared with 66% for earlier entrants.
  4. Companies supply the most prior-work hires at 7 of the 9 frontier AI labsIncludes Mila. Our estimates of the organizations where 550 people worked directly before joining 9 frontier AI labs across 620 career transitions, comparing the main feeder organizations per lab.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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

  1. [Tea Talk] Glen Berseth (UBC) July 20 2018 10:30 AA3195 - Lisa_seminaires - mailman.iro.umontreal.ca mailman.iro.umontreal.ca. Checked 22 October 2026.
  2. Tidying up with the robots nouvelles.umontreal.ca. Checked 22 October 2026.
  3. Progressive Reinforcement Learning with Distillation for Multi-Skilled Motion Control arxiv.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  4. Biography | Glen Berseth neo-x.github.io. Checked 22 October 2026.
  5. Glen Berseth – Institut Courtois institut-courtois.umontreal.ca. Checked 22 October 2026.
  6. Robust and Versatile Bipedal Jumping Control through Reinforcement Learning arxiv.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  7. Trois chaires en IA Canada-CIFAR sont renouvelées nouvelles.umontreal.ca. Checked 22 October 2026.
  8. Home | Glen Berseth neo-x.github.io. Checked 22 October 2026.
  9. Glen Berseth | Mila mila.quebec. Checked 22 October 2026.