PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Melanie Zeilinger

Also known as Melanie N. Zeilinger

Melanie Zeilinger is a control researcher at ETH Zurich whose work brings machine learning into control systems while keeping them safe. After a diploma in engineering cybernetics from Stuttgart, she completed a PhD on real-time model predictive control at ETH Zurich in 2011 that won the ETH Medal, then held postdoctoral posts at EPFL, UC Berkeley and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. Her papers include cautious model predictive control with Gaussian processes, demonstrated on autonomous race cars, and a predictive safety filter to which any reinforcement learning algorithm can be applied. She received the European Control Award in 2023 and was named to the Top 100+ Women in AI, Data & Robotics – Switzerland 2026 list. Today she is an associate professor who heads ETH Zurich's Intelligent Control Systems group, and an ELLIS Fellow.

Works
339
Badges

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026. Citations and h-index are hidden because this OpenAlex record may be incomplete or mix in other authors.

Timeline

  1. 2006–2011

    Doctorate in real-time MPC

    She earns a diploma in engineering cybernetics from the University of Stuttgart in 2006 and a PhD in electrical engineering from ETH Zurich in 2011. Her doctoral thesis, "Real-time Model Predictive Control", wins the ETH Medal.

  2. 2011–2015

    Postdocs at EPFL, Berkeley and Tübingen

    From 2011 to 2012, she is a postdoctoral fellow at EPFL in Lausanne. As a Marie Curie fellow from 2012 to 2015, she works in a joint program between the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at UC Berkeley and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen.

  3. 2015–2019

    Assistant professor at ETH Zurich

    ETH Zurich appoints her Assistant Professor of Intelligent Control Systems, and she starts in the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering in August 2015, where she leads the Intelligent Control Systems group at the Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control. From 2018 to 2019, she is a professor at the University of Freiburg in Germany.

  4. 2017–2018

    Cautious MPC and safety filters

    In 2017, she coauthors "Cautious Model Predictive Control using Gaussian Process Regression" with Lukas Hewing and Juraj Kabzan, a method that models part of a system's dynamics with a Gaussian process and is demonstrated on autonomous racing of remote-controlled cars. In December 2018, she and Kim P. Wabersich introduce a predictive safety filter that turns a constrained dynamical system into a safe system to which any reinforcement learning algorithm can be applied.

  5. 2020

    Review of learning-based MPC

    In 2020, she coauthors "Learning-Based Model Predictive Control: Toward Safe Learning in Control" with Lukas Hewing, Kim P. Wabersich and Marcel Menner in the Annual Review of Control, Robotics, and Autonomous Systems. The review groups the field into learning better prediction models from data, learning the controller's cost and constraints, and using MPC to give learning-based controllers constraint satisfaction properties.

  6. 2023

    The European Control Award

    She receives the 2023 European Control Award, which the European Control Association gives for outstanding contributions by a young researcher in systems and control. By 2023, she is an associate professor at ETH Zurich, an associate editor for IEEE Control Systems Magazine and IEEE Control Systems Letters, and one of the founders of the Conference on Learning for Dynamics and Control (L4DC).

  7. 2026

    Top 100+ Women in AI

    In 2026, she is named to the Top 100+ Women in AI, Data & Robotics – Switzerland 2026 list, one of six NCCR Automation principal investigators honoured.

  8. As of October 2026

    Associate professor and ELLIS Fellow

    An associate professor at ETH Zurich by March 2025, she leads the Intelligent Control Systems group in the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering and is a principal investigator in NCCR Automation. She is also an ELLIS Fellow in Reinforcement Learning & Control at the ELLIS Unit Zurich.

Career

  1. Since 2015ETH ZurichAssistant Professor of Intelligent Control Systems
  2. 2018–2019University of FreiburgProfessor
  3. 2012–2015University of California, BerkeleyMarie Curie fellow
  4. 2012–2015Max Planck Institute for Intelligent SystemsMarie Curie fellow
  5. 2011–2012EPFLPostdoctoral fellow

Education

  1. 2011ETH ZurichPhD in electrical engineering
  2. 2006University of StuttgartDiploma in engineering cybernetics

From the biography.

  1. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes ETH Zurich. 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. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes ETH Zurich. 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.
  3. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes ETH Zurich. 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.
  4. Universities had a net outflow of 2,068 moves in AI careersIncludes ETH Zurich. 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 with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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  1. Melanie Zeilinger | IEEE Control Systems Society ieeecss.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  2. Dr. Melanie Zeilinger awarded the ETH medal - EPFL actu.epfl.ch. Checked 20 October 2026.
  3. Melanie Zeilinger | NCCR Automation nccr-automation.ch. Checked 20 October 2026.
  4. New women professors appointed at ETH Zurich - August 2015 · Women Professors Forum eth-wpf.ch. Checked 20 October 2026.
  5. [1705.10702] Cautious Model Predictive Control using Gaussian Process Regression arxiv.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  6. [1812.05506] A predictive safety filter for learning-based control of constrained nonlinear dynamical systems arxiv.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  7. Learning-Based Model Predictive Control: Toward Safe Learning in Control sonar.ch. Checked 20 October 2026.
  8. European Control Award - ECC26 ecc26.euca-ecc.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  9. Control Group and OHMC Seminars: Melanie Zeilinger, ETH Zürich agriforwards.eng.cam.ac.uk. Checked 20 October 2026.
  10. Six PIs honoured as Top 100+ Women in AI, Data & Robotics – Switzerland 2026 nccr-automation.ch. Checked 20 October 2026.
  11. Melanie Zeilinger | European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems ellis.eu. Checked 20 October 2026.
  12. DDLC Seminar: Melanie Zeilinger (ETH Zurich) | Cornell Duffield Engineering duffield.cornell.edu. Checked 20 October 2026.