Gunnar Rätsch
Also known as Gunnar Ratsch
As of October 2026, Gunnar Rätsch heads the Biomedical Informatics Group in ETH Zurich's Department of Computer Science, where he develops and applies advanced data analysis and modeling techniques to molecular profiles, medical records and images. He completed a doctorate at the University of Potsdam in 2001 with a thesis on robust boosting, and he led a machine-learning group in genome biology in Tübingen from 2005 to 2011. He co-wrote the paper that introduced the SHOGUN machine learning toolbox in 2010. A 2019 paper he co-authored on disentangled representations received an ICML Outstanding Paper award. In May 2016 he and his lab moved to Zürich to join ETH Zurich's Computer Science Department, and ELLIS lists him as a program director and fellow.
Timeline
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2001–2004
A boosting thesis in Potsdam
He completes a Dr. rer. nat. at the University of Potsdam in 2001 with a thesis on robust boosting via convex optimization. By 2004 he is a postdoc at Fraunhofer FIRST in Berlin and at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics.
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2005–2011
A genome biology group in Tübingen
He leads the machine learning in genome biology group at the Friedrich Miescher Laboratory in Tübingen from 2005 to 2011.
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2010
The SHOGUN machine learning toolbox
He co-authors the paper that presents The SHOGUN Machine Learning Toolbox in 2010. The toolbox offers support vector machines, hidden Markov models and multiple kernel learning.
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2012
Associate faculty at Sloan Kettering
He joins Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center as associate faculty in 2012.
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2015–2016
Full professor at ETH Zurich
The ETH Board names him full professor of biomedical informatics in 2015. In May 2016 he and his lab move to Zürich to join the Computer Science Department of ETH Zurich.
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2019
An ICML Outstanding Paper
A paper he co-authors, “Challenging Common Assumptions in the Unsupervised Learning of Disentangled Representations”, wins an ICML 2019 Outstanding Paper award.
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As of October 2026
Heading the biomedical informatics group
He heads the Biomedical Informatics Group in ETH Zurich's Department of Computer Science, where he develops and applies advanced data analysis and modeling techniques to molecular profiles, medical records and images. ELLIS lists him as a Program Director and Fellow.
Sources and credits
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