Jan Kautz
Jan Kautz is NVIDIA’s vice president of Learning and Perception Research, leading work in computer vision, machine learning, and embodied AI. He studied computer science in Germany, earned an MMath in Canada, completed a PhD at MPI for Computer Science, and researched real-time rendering at MIT. At UCL, he worked on computer graphics and computational photography; Eurographics gave him its 2007 Young Researcher Award for precomputed radiance transfer. His NVIDIA career moved from visual computing into machine-learning research leadership, with later work on humanoid robotics, gaming agents, and motion models.
Timeline
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1993–2003
Training in visual computing
He studies computer science at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, earns an MMath at Waterloo, and completes a PhD with distinction at MPI for Computer Science in 2003.
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July 2003
Rendering at MIT
He joins Fredo Durand’s group at MIT as a postdoctoral researcher, where he works on appearance editing and realistic, real-time rendering.
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2006–2012
A graphics lab at UCL
He joins UCL as a lecturer in 2006, then advances through senior lecturer and reader roles to professor of visual computing in 2012. His work covers computer graphics, realistic rendering, shadows, and computational photography. Eurographics gives him its 2007 Young Researcher Award for contributions to realistic imagery and precomputed radiance transfer.
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2013–2017
Leading visual computing research
He joins NVIDIA as a senior research scientist in 2013, then moves through senior research manager and visual computing director roles to senior director of visual computing and machine learning research in 2017.
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2025
A model for humanoid robots
His team releases NVIDIA Isaac GR00T N1 at GTC 2025, an open foundation model for generalized humanoid robot reasoning and skills.
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2026
Models for play and motion
At CVPR 2026, NitroGen, an open foundation model for generalist gaming agents, receives a Best Paper Honorable Mention. He also coauthors SONIC, a Science Robotics paper on natural humanoid whole-body control.
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As of October 2026
Leading NVIDIA’s LPR group
He is vice president of Learning and Perception Research at NVIDIA and leads LPR. The group works on embodied AI and computer vision, with robot policies, efficient foundation models, and perception and reasoning systems.
Sources and credits
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