PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Marcus Brubaker

Also known as Marcus A. Brubaker

Marcus Brubaker is an AI researcher whose work spans generative models and machine-learning methods for three-dimensional molecular reconstruction. He earned a computer science PhD at the University of Toronto in 2011, helped build protein reconstruction algorithms at Structura Biotechnology, and led research at Borealis AI from 2018 to 2020. In 2019, he coauthored a review of normalizing flows; in 2024, he coauthored work on text-guided image and scene editing, and in 2026, he coauthored ORBIT++, a paper on benchmarking structure-from-motion methods with 360° video. He joined Google DeepMind's Toronto team in August 2024 and is a research scientist there and an associate professor at York University.

Badges

Timeline

  1. 2011

    A computer science PhD

    He completes a PhD in computer science at the University of Toronto in 2011.

  2. 2015

    3D molecular reconstruction

    In 2015, he presents an iterative method for three-dimensional molecular reconstruction that lets one computer do in a day work that had required hundreds of computers and several weeks.

  3. By 2017

    Structura and protein reconstruction

    By 2017, he co-founds Structura Biotechnology with PhD student Ali Punjani. The company develops machine-learning algorithms to reconstruct high-resolution protein structures, and its cryoSPARC software rapidly determines molecular structures.

  4. 2018–2020

    Research director at Borealis AI

    From 2018 to 2020, he serves as Research Director of Borealis AI, a machine-learning research lab founded by the Royal Bank of Canada.

  5. 2019

    Normalizing flows for generative models

    In 2019, he coauthors a review explaining how normalizing flows model tractable distributions with efficient, exact sampling and density evaluation.

  6. 2020–2021

    Conference reviewer honors

    He receives Top Reviewer recognition from ICML in 2020 and Outstanding Reviewer recognition from the British Machine Vision Conference in 2021.

  7. 2023–2024

    Promotion and text-guided editing

    In July 2023, he receives tenure and promotion to Associate Professor at York University. A 2024 paper, Watch your steps, explores local image and scene editing by text instructions.

  8. Since August 2024

    Research scientist at Google DeepMind

    In August 2024, he joins Google DeepMind as a research scientist in Toronto and is an associate professor of computer science at York University. At ICCV 2025, he coauthors RoMo, a paper on robust motion segmentation for structure from motion. In 2026, he coauthors ORBIT++, a paper that benchmarks structure-from-motion methods with 360° video.

Career

  1. Since 2024Google DeepMindResearch scientist
  2. Since 2023York UniversityAssociate Professor of Computer Science
  3. 2018–2020Royal Bank of CanadaResearch Director
  4. From 2017Structura BiotechnologyCo-founder

Education

  1. 2011University of TorontoPhD

From the biography.

  1. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes Marcus Brubaker. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.
  2. 16% of AI career moves in the 2020s went from a university to a companyIncludes Marcus Brubaker. 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.
  3. 11% of AI doctorate holders from 2010 to 2016 founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduationIncludes Marcus Brubaker. We estimate how often AI doctorate holders founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduation, how waiting times compare between founders and top jobs, and which universities trained the most.
  4. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Includes Google. 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.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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

  1. Marcus Brubaker - Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence vectorinstitute.ai. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. 3-D vision: UTSC computer scientists develop better way to visualize molecules | University of Toronto utoronto.ca. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. 2017 Research and Innovation Annual Report - Student Experience 2017.research.utoronto.ca. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. [1908.09257] Normalizing Flows: An Introduction and Review of Current Methods arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. About Me - Marcus A. Brubaker mbrubake.github.io. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. Marcus Brubaker - Centre for Innovation in Computing at Lassonde lassonde.yorku.ca. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. Google at ICCV 2025 research.google. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. ORBIT++: Benchmarking SfM in the Wild with 360° Video arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.