PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Johannes Gehrke

Johannes Gehrke is a computer scientist whose career spans data-mining research, data privacy, and AI engineering for Teams. After earning his PhD at Wisconsin, he joined Cornell in 1999, where his group built the Himalaya mining engine for high-speed data streams. His research produced ℓ-diversity, and he later led artificial-intelligence and machine-learning work for Microsoft Teams, including deep neural networks. SIGKDD gave him its 2021 Innovation Award for data-mining algorithms and privacy. He is now a Technical Fellow for AI at Uber.

Now at
Uber
Works
453
Citations
40,060
h-index
80

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 15 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1999

    Joining Cornell

    He earns his PhD from Wisconsin and joins Cornell's computer science faculty as an assistant professor in fall 1999.

  2. 1999–2000

    Building the Himalaya engine

    In 1999–2000, his Cornell group builds a scalable mining engine for interactive, spreadsheet-style data analysis and explores online mining of high-speed data streams for electronic commerce and intrusion detection.

  3. 2006

    Privacy beyond k-anonymity

    With three coauthors, he proposes ℓ-diversity to address privacy attacks against k-anonymized data in 2006.

  4. 2008

    Microsoft acquires FAST

    After joining FAST Search & Transfer in 2005, he works for it from Germany during his 2007–2008 sabbatical. Microsoft acquires FAST in 2008, and he returns to Cornell.

  5. By 2019

    AI for Microsoft Teams

    By 2019, he leads architecture and artificial intelligence and machine-learning work for the cloud behind Teams. His team redesigns the Teams chat service and replaces parts of its software pipeline with deep neural networks; he also helps build Delve and the Office Graph.

  6. 2021

    A SIGKDD Innovation Award

    In 2021, SIGKDD gives him its Innovation Award for contributions to data-mining algorithms and data privacy.

  7. 2021

    Managing director of research

    In 2021, he serves as Managing Director of Research in Redmond and head of machine learning for the cloud behind Teams.

  8. Since 2026

    Technical Fellow at Uber

    He is a Technical Fellow for AI at Uber in Seattle, where he works on bringing AI to a global platform for mobility, delivery, and autonomy; he joins Uber in 2026.

Sources and credits

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  1. Faculty Personnel Changes cs.cornell.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  2. Gehrke cs.cornell.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  3. ℓ-Diversity: Privacy beyond k-anonymity pure.psu.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  4. Making the future of work work for you with Dr. Johannes Gehrke microsoft.com. Checked 14 October 2026.
  5. SIGKDD Honors Career Achievements in Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining kdd.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  6. BEADS Summit 2026 bifold.berlin. Checked 14 October 2026.