Martin Riedmiller
Martin Riedmiller is a computer scientist known for work on neural networks and reinforcement learning. He wrote his 1992 thesis on Rprop, a learning algorithm for neural networks, and earned a PhD at Karlsruhe in 1996. His professorships at Dortmund, Osnabrück and Freiburg ran from 2002 to 2015, and his robot soccer team Brainstormers won five RoboCup world titles between 1998 and 2008. In April 2015 he joined DeepMind, and he co-authored the Nature paper on human-level control through deep reinforcement learning. As of October 2026, he is chief AI officer at Vesoma, a humanoid startup in Munich, after serving as research director at Google DeepMind.
- Now at
- Vesoma and Google DeepMind
- Works
- 205
- Citations
- 54,833
- h-index
- 46
Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 15 October 2026.
Timeline
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1981–1986
Programming games for the ZX81
From 1981 to 1986 he works as a game programmer and author for the ZX81 and ZX Spectrum.
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1992–1996
The Rprop learning algorithm
In 1992 he finishes his computer science studies in Karlsruhe with a thesis on Rprop, a learning algorithm for neural networks. In 1996 he earns a PhD there.
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1998–2008
Brainstormers and five RoboCup titles
Brainstormers, one of the first teams to use reinforcement learning as its core method, competes at RoboCup from 1998 to 2008 and wins five world titles.
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2002–2015
Professor at three universities
In 2002 he becomes a professor of neuroinformatics and machine learning at Dortmund. He moves to Osnabrück in 2003 and to Freiburg in 2009.
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2005
Neural Fitted Q Iteration
In 2005 he develops Neural Fitted Q Iteration, a data-efficient reinforcement learning algorithm.
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2010–2015
Co-founding Cognit
In 2010 he co-founds Cognit, a lab for learning machines, one of the first AI startups.
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2015
Research scientist at DeepMind
In April 2015 he joins DeepMind as a research scientist and team lead of the Controls team. He co-authors the Nature paper 'Human-level control through deep reinforcement learning'.
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As of October 2026
Chief AI officer at Vesoma
At Vesoma, a humanoid startup in Munich, he is chief AI officer, after serving as research director at Google DeepMind.
Sources and credits
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- Martin Riedmiller
- Martin Riedmiller – Wikipedia
- RoboCup Symposium 2016: Invited Speakers
- Human-level control through deep reinforcement learning | Nature
- Munich humanoid startup Vesoma exits stealth with 60-person team, DeepMind AI chief | Dealroom News
- Vesoma Emerges From Stealth With a Humanoid Built to Learn | Humanoids Daily