PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Zico Kolter

Also known as J. Zico Kolter, J Kolter, J. Kolter, J. Z. Kolter

Zico Kolter is a Carnegie Mellon computer scientist whose research spans optimization, robust machine learning, and AI safety. He earned computer science degrees at Georgetown and Stanford, held a postdoctoral fellowship at MIT, and joined Carnegie Mellon in 2012. With Brandon Amos, he developed OptNet, which places quadratic optimization problems inside trainable neural networks; with Vaishnavh Nagarajan, he shared the 2019 NeurIPS Outstanding New Directions Paper Award for work on whether uniform-convergence bounds can explain deep-learning generalization. At Bosch, he served as chief scientist of AI research in 2019, became head of CMU's Machine Learning Department and joined OpenAI's board in 2024, and joined an AI Safety Science program in 2025 to study adversarial transfer. As of October 2026, he is a professor and department head at CMU, leads OpenAI's Safety and Security Committee, and is co-founder and Chief Scientist of Gray Swan AI.

Now at
Carnegie Mellon University, OpenAI and Gray Swan AI
Works
318

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 15 October 2026. Citations and h-index are hidden because this OpenAlex record may be incomplete or mix in other authors.

Timeline

  1. 2005–2012

    Degrees and MIT research

    At Georgetown, he earns a B.S. in computer science in 2005. At Stanford, he completes a Ph.D. in computer science in 2010. In 2012, he is a postdoctoral fellow at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

  2. 2012–2017

    Optimization inside neural networks

    He joins Carnegie Mellon in 2012. With Brandon Amos, he publishes OptNet in 2017, a method that places quadratic optimization problems inside trainable deep networks.

  3. 2019

    A NeurIPS paper award

    In 2019, he serves as chief scientist of AI research at Bosch and works on methods for robust and explainable machine learning. With Vaishnavh Nagarajan, he wins the NeurIPS Outstanding New Directions Paper Award for a paper on uniform-convergence limits in deep-learning generalization.

  4. 2020

    A Sloan Research Fellowship

    He receives a 2020 Sloan Research Fellowship in computer science.

  5. June 2024–August 2024

    Head of machine learning

    In June 2024, he becomes head of CMU's Machine Learning Department. In August 2024, he joins OpenAI's board and its Safety and Security Committee.

  6. 2025

    Studying adversarial transfer

    In 2025, he joins the AI Safety Science program to study why attacks developed for one AI model can work against other models.

  7. As of October 2026

    Head of CMU machine learning

    As of October 2026, he is a professor and head of CMU's Machine Learning Department and leads OpenAI's Safety and Security Committee. He is also a co-founder and Chief Scientist of Gray Swan AI.

Sources and credits

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  1. DCS Colloquia cs.rutgers.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  2. Kolter, Gkioulekas Named Sloan Research Fellows csd-web-01.andrew.cmu.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  3. OptNet: Differentiable Optimization as a Layer in Neural Networks proceedings.mlr.press. Checked 14 October 2026.
  4. Bosch AI research paper honored at 2019 NeurIPS Conference bosch-presse.de. Checked 14 October 2026.
  5. [1902.04742] Uniform convergence may be unable to explain generalization in deep learning arxiv.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  6. Kolter Named Head of Carnegie Mellon University Machine Learning Department csd.cs.cmu.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  7. Carnegie Mellon's Kolter Joins OpenAI's Board of Directors, Safety and Security Committee cs.cmu.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  8. Kolter Joins New $10M AI Safety Science Program cmu.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  9. Bio zicokolter.com. Checked 14 October 2026.
  10. OpenAI adds a prominent AI doomer to its board of directors techcrunch.com. Checked 14 October 2026.
  11. Gray Swan, The AI Security Company Trusted by Every Major Frontier Lab, Raises $40M Series A grayswan.ai. Checked 14 October 2026.