PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Mennatallah El-Assady

Also known as Menna El-Assady

Mennatallah El-Assady is a computer scientist who designs interactive interfaces for human-AI collaboration and explainable AI, with a focus on text data. They did their doctoral work half at the University of Konstanz and half at Ontario Tech University, then worked as a research fellow at the ETH AI Center. In 2023, the ETH Board appointed them tenure-track assistant professor of computer science and they received the EuroVis Early Career Award; in 2024, they won the IEEE VIS Visualization Significant New Researcher Award. In February 2026, they joined the United Nations' Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence, representing Egypt. At ETH Zurich, they are an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, head the Interactive Visualization and Intelligence Augmentation Lab, and are an ELLIS Scholar.

Timeline

  1. 1991

    Colour-coded sheet music

    Born in 1991, they learn the flute at age seven and solve the problem of reading sheet music by painting every note in a different colour.

  2. By 2023

    Doctorate at Konstanz and Ontario Tech

    They carry out their doctoral work half at the University of Konstanz and half at Ontario Tech University in Canada, as a research associate in Konstanz's Data Analysis and Visualization group and in Ontario Tech's Visualization for Information Analysis lab. Their Konstanz dissertation of 2023, Levels of Explainability for Human-AI Interaction in Visual Text Analytics, derives three Explainability Spaces tailored to four user groups.

  3. 2023

    A EuroVis Early Career Award

    In 2023, they are named a Eurographics Junior Fellow and receive the EuroVis Early Career Award.

  4. September 2023

    Tenure-track professor at ETH

    After a postdoctoral research fellowship at the ETH AI Center, they are appointed by the ETH Board in September 2023 as Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Computer Science in ETH Zurich's Department of Computer Science. Their work sits at the intersection of data analysis, visualization, computational linguistics and explainable artificial intelligence, with a focus on visual analytics for text data.

  5. 2024

    IEEE VIS Significant New Researcher Award

    At the IEEE VIS Conference in 2024, they receive the Visualization Significant New Researcher Award, which honours their work at the intersection of visualization and machine learning.

  6. February 2026

    UN scientific panel on AI

    In February 2026, UN Secretary-General António Guterres announces the appointment of the 40 members of the Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence, and they join the panel representing Egypt. The panel brings together experts to provide independent, evidence-based assessments of AI's impact on society.

  7. As of October 2026

    Heading the IVIA Lab at ETH

    They are an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at ETH Zurich, where they head the Interactive Visualization and Intelligence Augmentation (IVIA) lab, and an ELLIS Scholar. They are also core faculty at the ETH AI Center. Their work designs interactive human-AI collaboration interfaces for problem-solving and decision-making, including the LingVis.io platform and the human-AI.io communication framework.

Career

  1. Since 2023ETH ZurichPostdoctoral Research Fellow, Assistant Professor of Computer Science
  2. From 2026United NationsPanel Member
  3. Until 2023University of KonstanzResearch Associate
  4. Until 2023Ontario Tech UniversityResearch Associate

Education

  1. 2023University of KonstanzPhD
  2. 2023Ontario Tech UniversityPhD

From the biography.

  1. Of 216 AI researchers who entered public life, 83 held advisory seats and 58 took public rolesIncludes Mennatallah El-Assady. Of 216 AI researchers who entered public life, 83 held advisory seats and 58 took public roles. Another 97 people moved from public careers into AI organizations or research, with 62% of dated records starting from 2020 on.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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  1. Five professors appointed | ETH Zurich ethz.ch. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Wie menschliche und künstliche Intelligenz sich ergänzen können | Netzwoche netzwoche.ch. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Levels of Explainability for Human-AI Interaction in Visual Text Analytics kops.uni-konstanz.de. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. Menna El-Assady honoured with Significant New Researcher Award | ETH Zurich ethz.ch. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Biography | Menna El-Assady el-assady.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. UN's First Global AI Scientific Panel Includes 4 ELLIS Researchers | European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems ellis.eu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. Panel Members | Independent International Scientific Panel on AI un.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. Mennatallah El-Assady | European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems ellis.eu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  9. Faculty – ETH AI Center | ETH Zurich ai.ethz.ch. Checked 21 October 2026.