PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Manik Varma

Manik Varma is a researcher whose work spans statistical texture classification, extreme multi-label learning and machine learning for tiny devices. His 2004 Oxford thesis explored texture classification; he later coauthored FastXML and Parabel for large label sets and a 2017 paper on machine learning in 2 KB of RAM for IoT devices. He received the 2019 Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in Engineering Sciences, and ACM named him a Fellow in 2023. He is a Distinguished Scientist and Vice President at Microsoft Research India, where he coauthored HARNESS-LM, a 2026 paper on SLMs for sponsored-search retrieval.

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Timeline

  1. 2004

    Texture classification at Oxford

    His 2004 PhD thesis from the University of Oxford investigates statistical methods for classifying textures from images under unknown viewing and illumination conditions.

  2. August 2014

    FastXML for million-label learning

    With Yashoteja Prabhu, he publishes FastXML at KDD in August 2014, a tree classifier for extreme multi-label learning. It optimizes an nDCG ranking loss and trains on problems with more than a million labels.

  3. May 2017

    Machine learning in 2 KB

    In May 2017, he coauthors Resource-efficient Machine Learning in 2 KB RAM for the Internet of Things with Ashish Kumar and Saurabh Goyal at ICML.

  4. April 2018

    Parabel for search advertising

    With Yashoteja Prabhu, Anil Kag, Shrutendra Harsola and Rahul Agrawal, he publishes Parabel in April 2018. The method builds a balanced label hierarchy to predict which of 7 million Bing queries may lead to an ad click, with predictions in milliseconds.

  5. 2019

    The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize

    He receives the 2019 Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in Engineering Sciences for contributions to extreme classification, resource-efficient machine learning and computer vision.

  6. 2023

    An ACM Fellowship

    ACM names him among the 68 new Fellows in 2023.

  7. March 2025

    Distinguished Scientist and Vice President

    In March 2025, he is a Distinguished Scientist and Vice President at Microsoft Research India.

  8. As of October 2026

    Distinguished Scientist at Microsoft Research

    He is a Distinguished Scientist and Vice President at Microsoft Research India. In May 2026, he coauthors HARNESS-LM, a three-phase training recipe for SLMs in sponsored-search retrieval.

Career

  1. NowMicrosoft ResearchDistinguished Scientist and Vice President

Education

  1. 2004University of OxfordPhD

From the biography.

  1. 16% of AI career moves in the 2020s went from a university to a companyIncludes Manik Varma. We estimate that 16% of AI career moves in the 2020s went from a university to a company; 29% of moves starting at a university went to a company, and 76% ended the university role.
  2. Among employers with 30+ full-time cases, OpenAI leads primary technical role H-1B pay at $310,000, and Amazon, Google and Microsoft file 57% of all casesIncludes Microsoft. Across 440,669 certified US H-1B filings from 44 employers (FY2020–FY2026), OpenAI leads primary technical role base pay at $310,000 and xAI leads overall base pay at $290,000.
  3. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Includes Microsoft. Our estimates of which organizations employed the most people shaping AI each year from 1955 to 2025, tracing the shift from university labs to companies.
  4. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes Microsoft. 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.

Sources and credits

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

  1. Statistical Approaches to Texture Classification robots.ox.ac.uk. Checked 20 October 2026.
  2. FastXML: A Fast, Accurate and Stable Tree-classifier for eXtreme Multi-label Learning microsoft.com. Checked 20 October 2026.
  3. EdgeML: Edge Machine Learning: Publications microsoft.com. Checked 20 October 2026.
  4. Parabel: Partitioned Label Trees for Extreme Classification with Application to Dynamic Search Advertising microsoft.com. Checked 20 October 2026.
  5. Awardee Details: Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize ssbprize.gov.in. Checked 20 October 2026.
  6. Manik Varma at Microsoft Research: News and awards microsoft.com. Checked 20 October 2026.
  7. Microsoft Research India – The lab culture microsoft.com. Checked 20 October 2026.
  8. Manik Varma at Microsoft Research microsoft.com. Checked 20 October 2026.
  9. Manik Varma at Microsoft Research: Publications microsoft.com. Checked 20 October 2026.