PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Jerry Li

Jerry Li is a computer scientist whose work in learning theory helped launch algorithmic robust statistics, the study of learning from data that an adversary has corrupted. He earned a B.S. at the University of Washington in 2013, an S.M. at MIT in 2014 and a Ph.D. at MIT in 2018 under Ankur Moitra. His 2016 paper "Robust Estimators in High Dimensions without the Computational Intractability", written with Ilias Diakonikolas, Gautam Kamath, Daniel Kane, Moitra and Alistair Stewart, won the 2026 Gödel Prize. A Fall 2018 fellowship at the Simons Institute and a role as principal researcher at Microsoft Research Redmond came before his move to the University of Washington. He is an associate professor at the University of Washington's Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, where he studies learning theory, quantum information theory and the science of large foundation models.

Badges

Timeline

  1. 2013–2014

    Degrees from Washington and MIT

    He earns a B.S. in computer science and mathematics at the University of Washington in 2013 and an S.M. in electrical engineering and computer science at MIT in 2014, working under Nir Shavit. His master's thesis is The SprayList: A Scalable Relaxed Priority Queue.

  2. 2016

    Robust estimation in high dimensions

    In 2016, while a graduate student at MIT, he coauthors "Robust Estimators in High Dimensions without the Computational Intractability" with Ilias Diakonikolas, Gautam Kamath, Daniel Kane, Ankur Moitra and Alistair Stewart, and the team presents it at FOCS. The paper gives the first computationally efficient algorithms with dimension-independent error guarantees for agnostically learning several classes of high-dimensional distributions when an adversary corrupts a fraction of the samples.

  3. 2018

    A Ph.D. and a Simons fellowship

    He completes his Ph.D. at MIT in 2018 under Ankur Moitra, with a thesis titled Principled Approaches to Robust Machine Learning and Beyond. In Fall 2018, he is the VMware Research Fellow at the Simons Institute.

  4. By 2019

    Researcher at Microsoft Research

    In February 2019, he gives a talk at TTIC, listed as Jerry Li of Microsoft Research, on nearly optimal algorithms for robust mean estimation. He works at Microsoft Research Redmond as a principal researcher in the PhysAGI group, formerly called Machine Learning Foundations, before joining the University of Washington.

  5. 2021

    A COLT best paper runner-up

    His paper "Statistical Query Algorithms and Low-Degree Tests Are Almost Equivalent", written with Matthew Brennan, Guy Bresler, Samuel B. Hopkins and Tselil Schramm, is Best Paper Runner Up at COLT 2021.

  6. 2023

    A theory of diffusion models

    At ICLR 2023, the paper "Sampling Is as Easy as Learning the Score: Theory for Diffusion Models With Minimal Data Assumptions", which he coauthors with Sitan Chen, Sinho Chewi, Yuanzhi Li, Adil Salim and Anru R. Zhang, is a notable top 5% paper.

  7. 2026

    The 2026 Gödel Prize

    In 2026, he shares the Gödel Prize with Ilias Diakonikolas, Gautam Kamath, Daniel Kane, Ankur Moitra and Alistair Stewart for the 2019 SIAM Journal on Computing version of "Robust Estimators in High Dimensions without the Computational Intractability". The award committee writes that the paper helped launch modern algorithmic high-dimensional robust statistics, and the authors receive the prize at ICALP 2026.

  8. As of October 2026

    Associate professor at Washington

    He is an associate professor (without tenure) at the University of Washington's Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. His research interests include learning theory, quantum information theory, the science of large foundation models and high-dimensional statistics.

Career

  1. NowUniversity of WashingtonAssociate Professor (without tenure)
  2. 2018Simons Institute for the Theory of ComputingVMware Research Fellow
  3. Microsoft ResearchPrincipal Researcher

Education

  1. 2018Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyPh.D.
  2. 2014Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyS.M. in electrical engineering and computer science
  3. 2013University of WashingtonB.S. in computer science and mathematics

From the biography.

  1. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes Jerry Li. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.
  2. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes University of Washington. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.
  3. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes University of Washington. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.
  4. Of 943 people shaping AI who worked at Google, 446 work there nowIncludes University of Washington. Our estimates of where the 943 people shaping AI who worked at Google and Google DeepMind work now: 446 at Google and 452 across 278 other organizations.

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 Jerry Li yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Jerry Li | UW College of Engineering engr.washington.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Jerry Li, Associate Professor - Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering cs.washington.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Jerry Li jerryzli.github.io. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. [1604.06443] Robust Estimators in High Dimensions without the Computational Intractability arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Finding patterns in corrupted data | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology news.mit.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. Jerry Li simons.berkeley.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. [Colloquium] REMINDER: 2/15 Talks at TTIC: Jerry Li, Microsoft Research mailman.cs.uchicago.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. Professor Jerry Li recognized with the 2026 Gödel Prize cs.washington.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  9. The 2026 Gödel Prize sigact.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  10. The 2026 Gödel Prize eatcs.org. Checked 21 October 2026.