PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Jordan Boyd-Graber

Also known as Jordan Boyd-Graber Ying

Jordan Boyd-Graber is a natural language processing researcher who studies how people and AI work together. He earned a computer science Ph.D. at Princeton in 2010 and worked on human-guided topic models at Maryland before moving to Colorado and back. His QANTA system beat Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings in 2015, and he won the 2015 Karen Spärck Jones Award from BCS and the 2017 NSF CAREER Award. He helped develop a bilingual maternal-health chatbot and studied human-computer workflows and trust in quizbowl. Since August 2026, he is a professor of natural language processing and Human–AI Collaboration at Nanyang Technological University.

Born
1982

Years link to their sources.

Timeline

  1. 2010

    Degrees at Princeton and Caltech

    At Caltech, he earns undergraduate degrees in history and computer science. He earns a computer science Ph.D. at Princeton in 2010, advised by Dave Blei.

  2. 2010–2014

    Human-guided topic models

    From 2010 to 2014, he is an assistant professor of information studies at Maryland, with a joint appointment in UMIACS from 2011 to 2014. In April 2012, he presents a statistical model that uses human hints and suggestions to refine topic models.

  3. 2014–2017

    Colorado, QANTA and awards

    From 2014 to 2017, he is an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Colorado Boulder. In 2015, he wins the Karen Spärck Jones Award from BCS, and his QANTA quiz-bowl robot beats Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings in a head-to-head match. In 2017, he receives an NSF CAREER Award for Human-Computer Cooperation for Word-by-Word Question Answering and returns to Maryland in August.

  4. September 2023

    A bilingual health chatbot

    In September 2023, he helps develop a chatbot for new mothers that answers infant and maternal health questions in English and Spanish, using information from reputable online sources such as the CDC.

  5. November 2025

    Full professor at Maryland

    In November 2025, he is a full professor at the University of Maryland.

  6. November 2025

    Measuring human-computer workflows

    In November 2025, his talk argues for measuring human-computer workflows and the performance of the combined team.

  7. June 2026

    Trust in quizbowl collaboration

    In June 2026, he studies human-AI partnerships through high-stakes quizbowl and reports that trust may matter more than intelligence. QANTA now outperforms highly skilled human competitors on many measures of raw accuracy.

  8. August 2026

    Professor at NTU

    In August 2026, he moves to Nanyang Technological University. There, he is a professor of Natural Language Processing and Human–AI Collaboration in the College of Computing & Data Science.

Career

  1. Since 2026Nanyang Technological UniversityProfessor of Natural Language Processing and Human–AI Collaboration
  2. 2014–2017University of Colorado BoulderAssistant Professor of Computer Science
  3. 2010–2014University of MarylandAssistant Professor of Information Studies

Education

  1. 2010Princeton UniversityPh.D. in computer science
  2. California Institute of TechnologyUndergraduate degrees in history and computer science

From the biography.

  1. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Nanyang Technological University. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  2. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes Nanyang Technological University. 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 Nanyang Technological University. 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. 5 of the 25 people with the most-cited recent papers also lead on career citationsIncludes Nanyang Technological University. We compare citations to 2023–2025 papers with career citations and h-index, after correcting reviewed publication-date errors: who leads, when they started and where they work.

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 Jordan Boyd-Graber yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Making Topics More Human(e) | MITH mith.umd.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. College Welcomes 15 New Faculty Members this Fall | University of Maryland biology.umd.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Karen Spärck Jones Award: Past winners | BCS bcs.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. Three CU Engineering researchers earn NSF CAREER Awards | University of Colorado Boulder colorado.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Jordan Boyd-Graber: FAQ | University of Colorado Boulder home.cs.colorado.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. Boyd-Graber — NSF Institute for Trustworthy AI in Law & Society (TRAILS) trails.umd.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. Helpful AI Models: You can't always get what you want, but you might get what you need by Prof Jordan Boyd-Graber | College of Computing and Data Science | NTU Singapore ntu.edu.sg. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. Can AI and People Play Nice? | NSF Institute for Trustworthy AI in Law & Society (TRAILS) trails.umd.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  9. Jordan Boyd-Graber: FAQ boydgraber.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  10. AI Faculty | NTU College of Computing and Data Science ntu.edu.sg. Checked 21 October 2026.