PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

John DeNero

John DeNero is a UC Berkeley Teaching Professor whose research covers natural language processing and computer science education. He completed a computer science PhD at Berkeley in 2010 with Dan Klein, then worked on Google Translate before joining the faculty in 2014. With Klein, he coauthored the 2010 Pac-Man teaching paper, and in 2015 he co-founded LILT with Spence Green. At Berkeley, he co-founded the Data Science major in 2018 and authored the free textbook Composing Programs. As of October 2026, he is Faculty Director of Pedagogy for Data Science Undergraduate Studies and LILT’s Chief Scientist.

Works
91
Citations
1,885
h-index
25
Badges

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 28 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2001–2002

    Degrees at Stanford

    He earns a BS in Mathematical and Computational Science and Symbolic Systems at Stanford University in 2001 and an MA in Philosophy at Stanford in 2002.

  2. 2010–2014

    A doctorate and Google Translate

    He completes a computer science PhD at UC Berkeley in 2010, advised by Dan Klein. After the doctorate, he works as a senior research scientist at Google on Google Translate and natural language processing, before returning to Berkeley in 2014.

  3. 2010

    Teaching AI with Pac-Man

    In 2010, he and Dan Klein publish Teaching Introductory Artificial Intelligence with Pac-Man. Their projects use the video game to teach state-space search, multi-agent search, probabilistic inference, and reinforcement learning.

  4. 2014

    Joining the Berkeley faculty

    He joins the UC Berkeley faculty in 2014 to focus on undergraduate education in computer science and data science. His teaching includes co-developing introductory courses in both subjects.

  5. 2015

    Co-founding LILT

    He co-founds LILT with Spence Green, and the company incorporates in March 2015. LILT develops AI for translation.

  6. 2018

    A major and teaching award

    In 2018, he co-founds UC Berkeley’s Data Science major. He receives the UC Berkeley Distinguished Teaching Award in 2018.

  7. 2021

    Associate dean for undergraduate studies

    In 2021, he becomes Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies in UC Berkeley’s Division of Computing, Data Science, and Society.

  8. 2022

    Correcting human translations

    He coauthors Automatic Correction of Human Translations in 2022 with Jessy Lin, Geza Kovacs, Aditya Shastry, and Joern Wuebker. The work introduces automatic correction of human translations and releases the Aced corpus with three datasets for this task. At NAACL 2022, the paper receives the best new task award, jointly with another paper, and the best new resource paper award.

  9. 2026

    Fiat Lux Faculty Award

    He receives UC Berkeley’s Fiat Lux Faculty Award in 2026. In October 2026, he presents work on 61A Bot, a personalized AI homework tutor used in Berkeley’s CS 61A course.

  10. As of October 2026

    Teaching professor and chief scientist

    In October 2026, he is a Teaching Professor and Giancarlo Teaching Fellow in UC Berkeley’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, and Faculty Director of Pedagogy for Data Science Undergraduate Studies. At LILT, he serves as co-founder and Chief Scientist; his research covers natural language processing and computer science education. His teaching materials include Composing Programs, which he authors, and Computational and Inferential Thinking, which he coauthors; both are free online textbooks.

Career

  1. Since 2015LILTCo-founder
  2. NowUniversity of California, BerkeleyTeaching Professor and Giancarlo Teaching Fellow
  3. NowUniversity of California, BerkeleyFaculty Director of Pedagogy for Data Science Undergraduate Studies
  4. NowLILTChief Scientist
  5. From 2014University of California, BerkeleyFaculty member
  6. GoogleSenior Research Scientist
  7. University of California, BerkeleyAssociate Dean for Undergraduate Studies, Division of Computing, Data Science, and Society

Education

  1. 2010University of California, BerkeleyPhD in computer science
  2. 2002Stanford UniversityMA in Philosophy
  3. 2001Stanford UniversityBS in Mathematical and Computational Science and Symbolic Systems

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

Checked career sources: eecs.berkeley.edu, denero.org.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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

  1. John DeNero | EECS at UC Berkeley www2.eecs.berkeley.edu. Checked 28 October 2026.
  2. John DeNero named CDSS Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies - EECS at Berkeley eecs.berkeley.edu. Checked 28 October 2026.
  3. Teaching Introductory Artificial Intelligence with Pac-Man | Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence ojs.aaai.org. Checked 28 October 2026.
  4. John DeNero denero.org. Checked 28 October 2026.
  5. About LILT & Agentic AI Translation | LILT lilt.com. Checked 28 October 2026.
  6. John DeNero and Arjun Singh recognized with UC Berkeley Achievement Awards | CDSS at UC Berkeley cdss.berkeley.edu. Checked 28 October 2026.
  7. John DeNero wins 2018 UC Berkeley Distinguished Teaching Award - EECS at Berkeley eecs.berkeley.edu. Checked 28 October 2026.
  8. Automatic Correction of Human Translations - ACL Anthology aclanthology.org. Checked 28 October 2026.
  9. How AI Is Transforming Computing Education at UC Berkeley | Research UC Berkeley vcresearch.berkeley.edu. Checked 28 October 2026.