PeopleofSuperintelligence

Builder

Jean-Christophe Fillion-Robin

Also known as Jean‐Christophe Fillion‐Robin, J-C Fillion-Robin, jcfr

Jean-Christophe Fillion-Robin is a software engineer who spent years at Kitware heading development of 3D Slicer, an open-source medical imaging platform whose version 5.0 added segmentation modules for AI-powered image analysis. With a master's degree in electrical engineering and information processing from CPE Lyon in France, he was named a primary implementer of the Qt rewrite of Slicer's interface in 2009 and coauthored the 2012 paper presenting 3D Slicer as an image computing platform. Kitware promoted him to Technical Expert in 2014, and he led the 3D Slicer 4.5 effort in 2015. Beyond Slicer, he co-created the scikit-build packaging tool, presented at PyData Carolinas in 2016, and coauthored the 2024 SciPy paper on its successor, scikit-build-core. He works at NVIDIA, where the Holoscan SDK is among his featured projects.

Now at
NVIDIA

Timeline

  1. By 2009

    Rewriting Slicer's interface in Qt

    With a master's degree in electrical engineering and information processing from CPE Lyon in France, he is named in 2009 as a primary implementer, alongside Julien Finet and Sébastien Barré, of Kitware's NAMIC-funded project to rewrite the 3D Slicer interface with Qt. The two-year supplement is worth about $350,000.

  2. 2012

    3D Slicer as an imaging platform

    He is among the 15 authors of the 2012 Magnetic Resonance Imaging paper "3D Slicer as an Image Computing Platform for the Quantitative Imaging Network," with Andriy Fedorov and Ron Kikinis. The paper presents 3D Slicer as a free open source application for medical image computing.

  3. 2014

    Promotion to Technical Expert

    Kitware promotes him to Technical Expert in 2014, crediting his work on 3D Slicer and his lead of open-source initiatives such as the Common Toolkit project (CTK).

  4. 2015

    Lead on 3D Slicer 4.5

    He leads the 3D Slicer 4.5 development effort at Kitware, a release announced in November 2015 with over 60 extensions and 150 feature improvements.

  5. 2016

    Scikit-build at PyData Carolinas

    At PyData Carolinas 2016, he presents scikit-build, an improved build system generator for CPython C extensions, with Matt McCormick, Max Smolens and Omar Padron. A Technical Expert and lead developer of 3D Slicer at Kitware, he is a co-creator of python-cmake-buildsystem, scikit-build and the Common Toolkit (CTK).

  6. 2022

    3D Slicer 5.0 with AI tools

    With Samantha Horvath, he leads the 3D Slicer project at Kitware when version 5.0 ships in July 2022, the first major release since 2010. It adds extended segmentation modules for AI-powered medical image analysis and lets users install packages directly from the Python Package Index.

  7. 2024

    Scikit-build-core at SciPy

    In July 2024, he coauthors the SciPy paper on scikit-build-core, a build backend for CPython C, C++, Fortran and Cython extensions, with Henry Schreiner and Matt McCormick. At SciPy 2024 he is a distinguished engineer at Kitware and the original author of scikit-build, and he also presents ITK-Wasm with Matt McCormick.

  8. As of October 2026

    Working at NVIDIA

    He works at NVIDIA, with the Holoscan SDK among his featured open-source projects. He is based in Carrboro, North Carolina.

Career

  1. NowNVIDIA
  2. From 2014KitwareTechnical Expert, Distinguished Engineer

Education

  1. CPE LyonMaster's degree in electrical engineering and information processing

From the biography.

Videos

YouTube videos in which Jean-Christophe Fillion-Robin speaks or appears, newest first. A model chose them from YouTube search results. List updated 22 October 2026.

  1. Harnessing 3D Slicer for Research & Product DevelopmentKitware · 9 April 2025 · 1 h 1 min
  2. Jean Christophe Fillion Robin, Matt McCormick, Max Smolens, Omar Padron | Scikit build: A buildPyData · 4 October 2016 · 37 min

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  1. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes NVIDIA. We estimate that Google holds the highest combined h-index at 8,016, while universities account for 73% of the deduplicated total across AI organizations.
  2. 20% of people at companies who shape AI also hold a university role, led by Google and Stanford UniversityIncludes NVIDIA. 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. Google alumni have founded or led 133 other organizations, more than any other AI labIncludes NVIDIA. We estimate that alumni of 17 major AI labs went on to found or lead 350 other organizations, including 226 they founded, and we trace 472 career moves directly between 23 labs since 2010.
  4. Universities (31%) and startups and other companies (25%) employ the largest shares of 2020–2026 entrantsIncludes NVIDIA. 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.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Jean-Christophe Fillion-Robin yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. NousNav - Jean-Christophe Fillion-Robin, M.S. nousnav.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Kitware is Awarded NAMIC Qt Supplement for Biomedical Computing kitware.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. 3D Slicer as an Image Computing Platform for the Quantitative Imaging Network - PMC pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. Fall New Hires & Promotions at Kitware kitware.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Kitware Announces the Release of 3D Slicer 4.5 for Medical Image Analysis kitware.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. PyData Carolinas 2016 | Jean-Christophe Fillion-Robin pydata.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. PyData Carolinas 2016 | Presentation: Scikit-build: A build system generator for CPython C extensions. pydata.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. Kitware Announces Latest Release of 3D Slicer 5.0 kitware.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  9. Scikit-build-core - SciPy Proceedings proceedings.scipy.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  10. Jean-Christophe Fillion-Robin :: SciPy 2024 :: pretalx cfp.scipy.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  11. jcfr (Jean-Christophe Fillion-Robin) · GitHub github.com. Checked 21 October 2026.