Pearl Pu
Pearl Pu leads the Human-Computer Interaction group at EPFL. She earned a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and was an assistant professor at the University of Connecticut from 1988 to 1993. In 1997 she co-founded Iconomic Systems, a travel e-commerce company that she chaired until its sale to i:FAO in 2001. Her 2011 paper with Li Chen and Rong Hu proposed a user-centric evaluation framework for recommender systems. EurAI named her a Fellow in 2021, and in 2014 she received a Worldwide Innovation Challenge Award from the French president.
Timeline
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1988–1993
An assistant professor in Connecticut
She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and is an assistant professor at the University of Connecticut from September 1988 to August 1993.
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1997–2001
Co-founding Iconomic Systems
In 1997 she co-founds Iconomic Systems, a company known for an agent-based approach to travel e-commerce, and she chairs it until its sale to i:FAO in 2001.
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2006
Example-critiquing with suggestions
With Paolo Viappiani and Boi Faltings, she co-writes a Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research paper in 2006 on preference-based search using example-critiquing with suggestions.
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2008
General chair of RecSys 2008
Her role as general chair of the ACM Recommender Systems conference in Lausanne dates from October 2008.
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2011
A user-centric evaluation framework
A 2011 paper with Li Chen and Rong Hu proposes a user-centric evaluation framework for recommender systems.
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2014
A French innovation award
In 2014 she receives the Worldwide Innovation Challenge Award from the French president, recognizing her LivelyPlanet project.
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2021
A EurAI fellowship
EurAI names her a Fellow in 2021, listing her among its current fellows.
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As of October 2026
Heading the HCI group
She leads the Human-Computer Interaction group at EPFL, and her EPFL teaching and research post dates from 2008.
Sources and credits
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