Pavel Brazdil

Also known as Pavel Bernard Brazdil

Pavel Brazdil is a machine learning researcher at the University of Porto whose work centres on metalearning and the automatic selection of learning algorithms. Born in the Czech Republic, he graduated in electrical engineering at Brno in 1968, earned an AI doctorate at the University of Edinburgh in 1981, and won the best paper award at ECAI 1984. After moving to Porto in 1982, he became a founder of its machine learning and data mining group, which dates from 1988, chaired the Portuguese Association for Artificial Intelligence from 2000 to 2003, and became a Fellow of EurAI in 2008. The Metalearning book he co-authored appeared at Springer in 2009, with a second edition in 2022. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Porto, a title he received in 2019, and a Research Coordinator at INESC TEC.

Now at: Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science and University of Porto
Born: 1945
Works: 207
Citations: 5,007
h-index: 32
Badges: Bridge
Wayfarer
Loyal
Pioneer

Years link to their sources. Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

1968–1982

From Brno to an Edinburgh PhD

Born in the Czech Republic, he graduates in electrical engineering at Brno University of Technology in 1968 and works at the IBM Hursley R&D lab in Hampshire from 1971. His Edinburgh studies begin in 1973 as an M.Phil., which becomes a PhD supervised by Gordon Plotkin and ends with an AI doctorate in 1981. In 1982, he moves to Portugal to lecture at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Porto.
1984

Best paper at ECAI 1984

At ECAI 1984 in Pisa, his paper "Use of Derivation Trees in Discrimination" wins the best paper award.
1988–2003

Full professor and the METAL project

The machine learning and data mining group he helps found at Porto dates from 1988 and is now part of LIAAD at INESC TEC. In 1998, he becomes a full professor at the Faculty of Economics, and from 1999 to 2002 he is principal investigator of METAL, a meta-learning assistant for user support in machine learning and data mining. The Portuguese Association for Artificial Intelligence has him as its chairman from 2000 to 2003.
2007–2011

Directing the LIAAD unit

The R&D unit LIAAD at INESC TEC has him as director and scientific coordinator from 2007 to 2011.
2008

EurAI Fellow

In 2008, he becomes a Fellow of EurAI, the European Association for Artificial Intelligence.
2009–2022

The Metalearning books

Metalearning: Applications to Data Mining appears from Springer in 2009, written with Giraud-Carrier, Soares and Vilalta. A second edition, Metalearning: Applications to Automated Machine Learning and Data Mining, follows in March 2022 with Jan N. van Rijn, Carlos Soares and Joaquin Vanschoren. Metalearning has been a research line since the 1990s, alongside AutoML and the automatic selection and configuration of machine learning algorithms.
2019

Professor Emeritus at Porto

The University of Porto names him Professor Emeritus at its formal session in March 2019. In September 2019, the Portuguese Association for Artificial Intelligence honours him in Guimarães for his work in machine learning and his contribution to the development of AI in Portugal.
As of October 2026

Research Coordinator at INESC TEC

He officially retires in July 2015 and continues his R&D work, including teaching Master and Doctoral courses and supervising postgraduate students, as a Research Coordinator at INESC TEC's Artificial Intelligence and Decision Support centre. In 2025, he co-authors the chapter "Agent-Based Modeling and Learning in Economics: An Overview" with Pedro Campos and Anand Rao in Machine Learning Perspectives of Agent-Based Models.

Career

Since 2007Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and ScienceDirector and Scientific Coordinator, Research Coordinator
2007–2025Institute for Systems Engineering and Computers
2000–2003Portuguese Association for Artificial IntelligenceChairman
1982–2007University of PortoLecturer, Founder
1971–1982IBM