PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Joao Marques-Silva

Joao Marques-Silva is an artificial-intelligence researcher whose work connects satisfiability solving and automated reasoning with explainable machine learning. He earned a PhD at the University of Michigan in 1995 and coauthored the GRASP algorithm with Karem Sakallah in 1996; they published a journal article on GRASP in 1999, and he completed a computer-science Habilitation at Lisbon in 2004. He received the 2009 CAV Award for contributions to high-performance Boolean satisfiability solvers, then held professorships in Dublin, Southampton and Lisbon before joining CNRS in 2020, where he was affiliated with IRIT in Toulouse and served as principal investigator of ANITI’s DeepLever chair. ANITI named him a EurAI Fellow in 2023, and he joined ICREA as a Research Professor in April 2024; his 2025 paper addressed model-agnostic explanations, and at SAT 2026 he presented work on Boolean satisfiability solvers for logic-based explanations. He is a Research Professor at ICREA and has been affiliated with IIIA-CSIC since September 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1995–1996

    A PhD and the GRASP algorithm

    He earns a PhD in electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan in 1995. In 1996, he and Karem Sakallah publish “GRASP - a new search algorithm for satisfiability.”

  2. 1999–2004

    A GRASP paper and Habilitation

    In 1999, he and Karem Sakallah publish a journal article on GRASP. He completes a computer-science Habilitation at the Technical University of Lisbon in 2004.

  3. 2009

    A CAV Award

    He receives the 2009 CAV Award for fundamental contributions to the development of high-performance Boolean satisfiability solvers.

  4. 2020

    From professorships to CNRS

    Before joining CNRS, he holds senior academic positions as professor of computer science at University College Dublin, the University of Southampton, and the University of Lisbon. He joins CNRS as a Senior Researcher (Directeur de Recherche) in 2020 and is affiliated with IRIT in Toulouse. He serves as principal investigator of ANITI’s DeepLever research chair, and his research applies formal logic and automated reasoning to explanations of complex machine-learning models.

  5. 2023

    A EurAI Fellowship

    ANITI names him a EurAI Fellow in 2023.

  6. April 2024

    Research Professor at ICREA

    He joins ICREA as a Research Professor in April 2024 and works in the Department of Computer Engineering and Digital Design at the University of Lleida.

  7. 2025–2026

    Model explanations at IJCAI and SAT

    In 2025, he coauthors “Efficient and Rigorous Model-Agnostic Explanations.” At SAT 2026, he presents “Trustable Explainable AI: SAT to the Rescue,” on logic-based explanations with Boolean satisfiability solvers.

  8. Since September 2026

    ICREA at IIIA-CSIC

    He is a Research Professor at ICREA and has been affiliated with IIIA-CSIC since September 2026.

Career

  1. Since 2026Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas
  2. Since 2024Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis AvançatsResearch Professor
  3. From 2024University of Lleida
  4. From 2020CNRSSenior Researcher (Directeur de Recherche)
  5. From 2020Institute for Research in Computer Science of Toulouse
  6. University College DublinProfessor of computer science
  7. University of SouthamptonProfessor of computer science
  8. University of LisbonProfessor of computer science
  9. Artificial and Natural Intelligence Toulouse InstitutePrincipal investigator of the DeepLever research chair

Education

  1. 2004Universidade Técnica de LisboaHabilitation
  2. 1995University of MichiganPhD

From the biography.

  1. The United States employs an estimated 48% of people shaping AIIncludes Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. We estimate where the people shaping AI work today, how universities, companies and research institutes split across countries, and how country shares have changed since the 1960s.
  2. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. 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. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. 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.
  4. Universities keep AI researchers for a median of 6 years, compared with 2 years at frontier labsIncludes CNRS. Across 15,811 dated work stays (6,529 people), median role tenure runs from 6 years at universities to 2 years at frontier labs. We compare all five organization types, starting decades from the 1970s to the 2020s, and the organizations that keep people longest.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Joao Marques-Silva yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. MaxSAT - SAT/SMT Solver Summer School 2011 - MIT Wiki Service wikis.mit.edu. Checked 20 October 2026.
  2. Publications | Joao Marques-Silva jpmarquessilva.github.io. Checked 20 October 2026.
  3. Joao Marques-Silva - SAT 2026 satisfiability.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  4. Marques Silva, Joao – ICREA Memoir 2025 memoir.icrea.cat. Checked 20 October 2026.
  5. Joao Marques-Silva appointed EurAI Fellow aniti.univ-toulouse.fr. Checked 20 October 2026.
  6. Joao Marques-Silva jpmarquessilva.github.io. Checked 20 October 2026.