PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Hubert Mara

Hubert Mara is an Austrian computer scientist and Professor of Archaeoinformatics at Freie Universität Berlin who applies 3D computer vision and machine learning to archaeological finds such as cuneiform tablets. After studying computer science at TU Wien, he developed the open-source GigaMesh Software Framework for his 2012 Heidelberg PhD, making the writing on weathered gravestones and damaged cuneiform texts legible again. From 2014 to 2020, he led Heidelberg's Forensic Computational Geometry Laboratory. In 2023, his lab at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg presented an AI system that recognizes cuneiform signs on 3D models, trained on models of nearly 2,000 tablets. He joined Freie Universität Berlin in 2024 and has been a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute since 2025.

Timeline

  1. 1994–2006

    Computer science at TU Wien

    Born in Neunkirchen, Austria, he earns a Matura in electrical engineering in Wiener Neustadt in 1994. From 2002 to 2006, he works as a student assistant in TU Wien's Pattern Recognition and Image Processing group, and he graduates in computer science from TU Wien in 2006. During his studies, he joins excavations in Israel and Peru.

  2. 2007–2008

    Marie Curie Fellow in Florence

    From 2007 to 2008, he is a Marie Curie Fellow at PIN, the University of Florence's campus in Prato, where he works at the VAST-Laboratory and helps develop the London Charter for the Computational Visualization of Cultural Heritage. In October 2007, he demonstrates 3D acquisition and multispectral readings of polychrome ceramics from Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum at a cultural heritage informatics meeting in Toronto.

  3. 2009–2012

    GigaMesh and a Heidelberg PhD

    He moves to Heidelberg University's Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing (IWR) in 2009 and earns an interdisciplinary PhD in computer science and mathematics in 2012, with Willi Jäger and Hans Georg Bock as reviewers. For the dissertation, he develops the GigaMesh Software Framework, free and open-source software for 3D data that makes the writing on weathered gravestones and damaged cuneiform texts legible again.

  4. 2014–2020

    Forensic Computational Geometry Laboratory

    He founds and heads the Forensic Computational Geometry Laboratory, a junior research group at Heidelberg University funded under the German Excellence Initiative from 2014 to 2020, which works on 3D computer vision and machine learning for archaeological finds. In 2020, he and Bartosz Bogacz publish a method that classifies the periods of 3D-scanned cuneiform tablets with geometric neural networks. His Heidelberg team also receives a 2020 European Heritage Award of Europa Nostra in the research category for its collaboration on the Scanning for Syria project.

  5. 2020–2024

    From mainzed to Halle

    In June 2020, he becomes managing director of mainzed, the Mainz Centre for Digitality in the Humanities and Cultural Studies at Mainz University of Applied Sciences. In November 2021, he moves to Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg as tenure-track junior professor for eHumanities in the Institute of Computer Science, where he heads the Computer Science in the Humanities working group until 2024.

  6. 2023

    AI that reads cuneiform in 3D

    In November 2023, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg announces an AI system from his lab that recognizes cuneiform signs on 3D models of tablets, built with partners in Mainz and trained on models of nearly 2,000 tablets. His master's student Ernst Stötzner develops the system, and the team wins a Best Paper Award at the Graphics and Cultural Heritage conference in 2023.

  7. 2024

    Professor of Archaeoinformatics in Berlin

    In 2024, he declines a W3 professorship in image processing and visualization in digital humanities at the University of Augsburg and a retention offer from Halle. He becomes Professor of Archaeoinformatics at the Institute of Computational Ancient Studies in Freie Universität Berlin's Department of History and Cultural Studies, which announces his arrival in November 2024.

  8. Since 2025

    Corresponding member of the DAI

    In 2025, he becomes a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI). He is Professor of Archaeoinformatics at Freie Universität Berlin, where his research covers the automatic recognition of cuneiform writing and Minoan and Mycenaean seal impressions in 3D and the automatic dating of digitized finds.

  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. Hubert Mara - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  2. Prof. Dr. Hubert Mara • Institute of Computational Ancient Studies • Department of History and Cultural Studies geschkult.fu-berlin.de. Checked 19 October 2026.
  3. Archives & Museum Informatics: International Cultural Heritage Informatics Meeting - 2007: Speaker: Biography: Hubert Mara archimuse.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  4. Informatik in den Geisteswissenschaften | Computer Science in the Humanities | eHumanities blogs.urz.uni-halle.de. Checked 19 October 2026.
  5. AI: Researchers develop automatic text recognition for ancient cuneiform tablets – Popular Archeology popular-archaeology.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  6. New professors in Archaeoinformatics, History of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, Jewish Studies and the History of Knowledge geschkult.fu-berlin.de. Checked 19 October 2026.
  7. Prof. Dr. Hubert Mara • Ada Lovelace Center for Digital Humanities (ADA) ada.fu-berlin.de. Checked 19 October 2026.