PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Johann-Mattis List

Johann-Mattis List is a computational linguist whose software and data resources help researchers compare languages and trace language change. He earned a Magister Artium in comparative-historical linguistics in 2008 and pursued doctoral study in historical linguistics at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf from 2009 to 2012. His work includes LexStat, Concepticon, standards for cross-linguistic data and Lexibank; in 2025, with Arne Rubehn, he coauthored a paper that uses partial colexifications to improve concept embeddings. Since January 2023, he holds the University of Passau's Chair for Multilingual Computational Linguistics and leads its ERC-funded ProduSemy group; he teaches DigitaL in the 2026/27 winter semester and published work on sound-law notation and colexification in July 2026.

Born
1981

Years link to their sources.

Timeline

  1. 2008–2012

    Comparative linguistics studies

    He earns a Magister Artium in comparative-historical linguistics at Freie University Berlin in 2008 and studies historical linguistics as a doctoral student at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf from 2009 to 2012.

  2. 2012–2013

    LexStat and an open-source toolkit

    In 2012, he publishes “LexStat: Automatic Detection of Cognates in Multilingual Wordlists.” With Steven Moran, he publishes “An Open Source Toolkit for Quantitative Historical Linguistics” in 2013.

  3. 2016

    The Concepticon resource

    With Michael Cysouw and Robert Forkel, he introduces Concepticon in 2016, linking 30,222 labels from 160 concept lists to 2,495 concept sets with unique identifiers, labels and definitions.

  4. 2017–2024

    Research at Max Planck

    From January 2017 to February 2021, he is a senior scientist in the Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena and leads its ERC-funded group on computer-assisted language comparison. From March 2021 to March 2024, he is a senior scientist in the same department at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig.

  5. 2018

    Cross-Linguistic Data Formats

    In 2018, he coauthors the Cross-Linguistic Data Formats paper, which proposes shared standards for word lists and structural datasets in historical and typological language comparison.

  6. 2022

    Lexibank and the C.L. Toolkit

    He coauthors the 2022 Lexibank study of a public repository of standardized wordlists with computed phonological and lexical features. With Robert Forkel, he writes the C.L. Toolkit package that computes those features from wordlists.

  7. 2025

    Partial colexifications improve embeddings

    In 2025, with Arne Rubehn, he coauthors “Partial Colexifications Improve Concept Embeddings.” The paper uses partial colexifications to improve concept representations and evaluates the embeddings against lexical similarity ratings, semantic-shift records and word-association data.

  8. Since January 2023

    Professor at Passau

    Since January 2023, he holds the Chair for Multilingual Computational Linguistics at the University of Passau and leads the ERC-funded ProduSemy group. The University's winter semester 2026/27 schedule lists him teaching the Erasmus+ project DigitaL — Linguistics Reimagined. In July 2026, he publishes “Towards a Specification for the Formal Notation of Sound Laws” and coauthors the review “The ambiguity of the colexification term.”

Career

  1. Since 2023University of PassauProfessor, Chair for Multilingual Computational Linguistics
  2. 2017–2024Max Planck SocietySenior Scientist and Group Leader, Senior Scientist

Education

  1. 2012Heinrich Heine University DüsseldorfDoctoral student
  2. 2008Freie Universität BerlinMagister Artium

From the biography.

  1. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes University of Passau. 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.
  2. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes Max Planck Society. 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.
  3. People shaping AI work at a median of 3 organizations over a career: 3 for university starters and institute and lab starters, versus 2 for company startersIncludes Max Planck Society. Across 6,853 people shaping AI with a dated work role, we estimate a median of 3 parent organizations over a career (mean 3.6), comparing role groups, starting sectors and starting decades from the 1950s to 2020–2026.
  4. The United States employs an estimated 48% of people shaping AIIncludes Max Planck Society. 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.

Colleagues

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

Sources and credits

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  1. Johann-Mattis List - Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology eva.mpg.de. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. LexStat: Automatic Detection of Cognates in Multilingual Wordlists aclanthology.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. An Open Source Toolkit for Quantitative Historical Linguistics aclanthology.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. Concepticon: A Resource for the Linking of Concept Lists aclanthology.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Professor Johann-Mattis List, University of Passau digital.uni-passau.de. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. Cross-Linguistic Data Formats, advancing data sharing and re-use in comparative linguistics nature.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. Lexibank, a public repository of standardized wordlists with computed phonological and lexical features nature.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. Partial Colexifications Improve Concept Embeddings aclanthology.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  9. Classes - University of Passau uni-passau.de. Checked 21 October 2026.
  10. Vol. 9 No. 2 (2026): Computer-Assisted Language Comparison in Practice ojs.uni-passau.de. Checked 21 October 2026.