PeopleofSuperintelligence

Lab leader

Jimmy Ba

Also known as Jimmy Lei Ba

Jimmy Ba is a University of Toronto computer scientist whose work on Adam and layer normalization helps neural networks optimize and stabilize. He completed undergraduate, master’s and PhD studies in Toronto, then joined its computer science faculty in 2018. In 2023, he joined xAI as a founding member and left in February 2026. Adam received ICLR’s 2025 Test of Time Award, and Ba is an associate professor at Toronto as of October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2014

    Adapting stochastic steps

    He and Diederik P. Kingma introduce Adam, a method for stochastic optimization based on adaptive estimates of lower-order moments.

  2. 2016

    Keeping hidden states steady

    With Jamie Ryan Kiros and Geoffrey Hinton, he coauthors Layer Normalization. The method normalizes a layer’s activations for each training case and stabilizes hidden-state dynamics in recurrent networks.

  3. By 2017

    Completing Toronto degrees

    By 2017, he had completed undergraduate, master’s and PhD studies in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Toronto.

  4. 2018

    Joining Toronto faculty

    He joins the University of Toronto’s computer science faculty as an assistant professor in fall 2018.

  5. July 2023

    A founding team role

    At xAI’s July 2023 launch, he was named among its 12 founding members.

  6. 2025

    An award for Adam

    In 2025, ICLR names Adam, coauthored by Ba and Diederik P. Kingma, a Test of Time Award winner.

  7. February 2026

    Leaving xAI

    In February 2026, he left xAI after helping found the company.

  8. As of October 2026

    A Toronto faculty role

    As of October 2026, he is an associate professor of computer science at the University of Toronto.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Jimmy Ba yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. [1412.6980] Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimization arxiv.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  2. [1607.06450] Layer Normalization arxiv.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  3. Six U of T researchers join Vector Institute utoronto.ca. Checked 14 October 2026.
  4. Elon Musk Announces xAI and Its 12-Man Team: Here’s Who They Are | Observer observer.com. Checked 14 October 2026.
  5. Half of xAI's co-founders have now left Elon Musk's AI startup the-decoder.com. Checked 14 October 2026.
  6. Announcing the Test of Time Award Winners from ICLR 2015 blog.iclr.cc. Checked 14 October 2026.
  7. FDS Colloquium: Jimmy Ba (U of T), "Closing the Loop: ASI in 2026?" - Yale FDS fds.yale.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.