PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Juan L. Reutter

Also known as Juan Reutter, Juan Lorenzo Reutter de la Maza

Juan Reutter is a computer scientist whose research explains what graph neural networks can distinguish and how they can model graph data. He began graduate study in engineering sciences at PUC Chile in 2007, coauthored a data exchange paper that won ACM PODS's best paper award in 2011, and completed a PhD at the University of Edinburgh in 2013. He received ERCIM's Cor Baayen Award in 2014 and coauthored papers on GNN expressiveness in 2021 and 2022 and on knowledge graph foundation models in 2025. In 2026, he shared the Alonzo Church Award for work on graph query languages that influenced SQL and GQL standards. As of October 2026, he is an associate professor in PUC Chile's Department of Computer Science and director of the Millennium Institute for Foundational Research on Data.

Badges

Timeline

  1. 2007

    Graduate study at PUC Chile

    In 2007, he begins graduate study in Engineering Sciences at PUC Chile under academic Marcelo Arenas.

  2. 2009–2013

    A PhD and a database paper

    He starts a PhD at the University of Edinburgh in 2009 under Leonid Libkin and completes it in May 2013 with a thesis on graph patterns and query answering. With Marcelo Arenas and Jorge Pérez, he publishes 'Data Exchange beyond Complete Data,' which wins the ACM PODS best paper award in 2011.

  3. 2014

    The Cor Baayen Award

    He receives the 2014 ERCIM Cor Baayen Award.

  4. 2021

    Local parameters for GNNs

    In 2021, he coauthors 'Graph Neural Networks with Local Graph Parameters' with Pablo Barceló, Floris Geerts and Maksimilian Ryschkov. The paper characterizes the distinguishing power of these GNNs with a variant of the Weisfeiler–Leman test and graph structural properties.

  5. 2022

    An ICLR paper on GNNs

    With Floris Geerts, he receives an ICLR 2022 Outstanding Paper Award for 'Expressiveness and Approximation Properties of Graph Neural Networks.' Their tensor-language analysis links GNN expressiveness and separation power to treewidth and Weisfeiler–Leman tests.

  6. 2025

    Knowledge graph foundation models

    In 2025, he coauthors 'How Expressive are Knowledge Graph Foundation Models?' at ICML. The study shows that model expressiveness depends on the motifs used to learn relation representations.

  7. 2026

    An Alonzo Church Award

    He shares the 2026 Alonzo Church Award with six researchers for research on logical languages for property graph queries. Their work informs SQL and GQL standards.

  8. As of October 2026

    Associate professor and director

    As of October 2026, he is an associate professor in PUC Chile's Department of Computer Science and director of the Millennium Institute for Foundational Research on Data (IMFD).

Career

  1. NowPontifical Catholic University of ChileAssociate professor
  2. NowMillennium Institute for Foundational Research on DataDirector

Education

  1. 2013University of EdinburghPhD
  2. From 2007Pontifical Catholic University of Chile

From the biography.

  1. The United States employs an estimated 48% of people shaping AIIncludes Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. 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. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. 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.
  3. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes University of Edinburgh. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.
  4. Universities had a net outflow of 2,068 moves in AI careersIncludes University of Edinburgh. Our estimates of career flows and median h-index across universities and companies in AI, including the role of joint appointments and earlier academic jobs.

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 Juan L. Reutter yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Académico de Ingeniería UC recibe premio Cor Baayen 2014 ing.uc.cl. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. JUAN LORENZO REUTTER DE LA MAZA | Ingeniería UC ing.uc.cl. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Graph Neural Networks with Local Graph Parameters proceedings.neurips.cc. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. Announcing the ICLR 2022 Outstanding Paper Award Recipients blog.iclr.cc. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. How Expressive are Knowledge Graph Foundation Models? research.google. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. Winner of the 2026 Alonzo Church Award siglog.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. En entrevista con Cooperativa Ciencia, Juan Reutter, director del IMFD, profundizó sobre el Premio Alonzo Church 2026 y cómo la IA está transformando la formación de los programadores imfd.cl. Checked 21 October 2026.