PeopleofSuperintelligence

Lab leader

Jingren Zhou

Also known as 周靖人, Zhou Jingren

Jingren Zhou is an Alibaba executive whose name appears on the Qwen3 Technical Report and on Gated Attention for Large Language Models, a NeurIPS 2025 Best Paper. He studied at USTC and earned a PhD at Columbia University in 2004. Zhou worked at Microsoft Research from 2004 to 2015 before becoming CTO of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence in 2022. The Association for Computing Machinery named him an ACM Fellow in 2024, and he joined the Alibaba Partnership in October 2025 while heading the Tongyi AI lab. He is Alibaba's chief scientist and leads the establishment of its AI Future Research Institute, a role he received in June 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1994–2004

    Studying at USTC and Columbia

    He enters the USTC School of the Gifted Young in 1994 and graduates in 1999. He receives a PhD in computer science from Columbia University in 2004.

  2. 2004–2015

    A Microsoft research partner

    From 2004 to 2015 he works at Microsoft as a Research and Development Partner and a researcher at Microsoft Research.

  3. 2022–2023

    CTO of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence

    He becomes CTO of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence in 2022. In 2023 he is named an executive director of Alibaba East China.

  4. 2024

    Named an ACM Fellow

    The Association for Computing Machinery names him one of 55 ACM Fellows in its 2024 class.

  5. 2025

    Qwen3 and a NeurIPS best paper

    He is one of the authors of the Qwen3 Technical Report. His name also appears on Gated Attention for Large Language Models, a NeurIPS 2025 Best Paper.

  6. October 2025

    Joining the Alibaba Partnership

    He joins the Alibaba Partnership in October 2025, while he also heads the Tongyi AI lab.

  7. Since June 2026

    Alibaba's chief scientist

    In June 2026, Alibaba names him its chief scientist, and he leads the establishment of the AI Future Research Institute.

Sources and credits

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  1. School of the Gifted Young Alumni | Jingren Zhou (9400) Selected 2024 ACM Fellow en.scgy.ustc.edu.cn. Checked 14 October 2026.
  2. Zhou Jingren（Vice President of Alibaba Group, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence CTO, Alibaba Partnership, and Chief Scientist）_Baiduwiki baike.baidu.com. Checked 14 October 2026.
  3. Jingren Zhou | nextomoro nextomoro.com. Checked 14 October 2026.
  4. [2505.09388] Qwen3 Technical Report arxiv.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  5. [2505.06708] Gated Attention for Large Language Models: Non-linearity, Sparsity, and Attention-Sink-Free arxiv.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  6. NeurIPS 2025 Awards neurips.cc. Checked 14 October 2026.
  7. Alibaba Adds Cloud Unit Executive to Top Leadership Group - Caixin Global caixinglobal.com. Checked 14 October 2026.
  8. Alibaba upgrades its big model organizational structure and establishes Token Foundry business unit-Sapce in China - TAIBO en.taibo.cn. Checked 14 October 2026.
  9. Alibaba's Major AI Restructuring: Wu Yongming Heads Token Foundry, Zhou Jingren Promoted to Chief Scientist eu.36kr.com. Checked 14 October 2026.