PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Raphael Sonabend

Also known as Raphael Sonabend-Friend

Raphael Sonabend is a researcher in machine learning for survival analysis, with research interests that also include AI ethics and model validation and benchmarking. He studied statistics at University College London, earning a BSc in 2018 and a PhD in 2021, and developed the mlr3proba R package that gives survival analysis a machine learning interface. At Imperial College London he did real-time COVID-19 modelling with the response team, co-authored a 2021 Lancet study of the delta variant in England, and published a 2022 Bioinformatics paper on C-hacking in the evaluation of survival predictions. In 2024 he co-edited Applied Machine Learning Using mlr3 in R with Bernd Bischl, Lars Kotthoff and Michel Lang. He is an Associate Director at NICE, co-founder and CEO of OSPO Now, and co-author with Andreas Bender of Machine Learning for Survival Analysis.

Now at
OSPO Now and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence
Badges

Timeline

  1. 2018–2021

    Statistics degrees at UCL

    He earns a BSc in Statistics at University College London in 2018 and a PhD in Statistics there in 2021. His research interests include machine learning and artificial intelligence, survival analysis, ethics in AI, and model validation and benchmarking.

  2. 2020–2021

    The mlr3proba survival package

    In August 2020, he posts mlr3proba, an R package for machine learning in survival analysis, on arXiv with Franz Király, Andreas Bender, Bernd Bischl and Michel Lang. The package connects survival models to mlr3's tuning and benchmarking tools, and the paper appears in Bioinformatics in 2021 from University College London's Department of Statistical Science. He is the main developer of mlr3proba and the previous maintainer of mlr3extralearners.

  3. 2021

    COVID-19 modelling at Imperial

    In 2021, he co-authors a Lancet study of England's COVID-19 roadmap out of lockdown, which estimates that the delta variant has a 76% transmission advantage over alpha. He works at Imperial College London's MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis as a research associate, on real-time modelling with the Imperial College COVID-19 response team.

  4. 2022

    Avoiding C-hacking in evaluation

    In 2022, he publishes "Avoiding C-hacking when evaluating survival distribution predictions with discrimination measures" in Bioinformatics with Andreas Bender and Sebastian Vollmer. The paper finds that discrimination-based evaluation of survival distributions is rarely described and often leads to unfair comparisons, and it recommends that survival software offer clear transformations between distribution and risk predictions. He is a postdoctoral researcher at Imperial College London and the University of Kaiserslautern, with the University of Cambridge's Engineering Department among his affiliations on the paper.

  5. 2024

    Editing the mlr3 book

    In 2024, he co-edits Applied Machine Learning Using mlr3 in R with Bernd Bischl, Lars Kotthoff and Michel Lang. CRC Press publishes the print book, and all profits go to the mlr organisation to support future maintenance and development of the mlr universe.

  6. October 2025

    Co-founding OSPO Now

    In October 2025, OpenChain announces OSPO Now as an official partner and quotes him as its co-founder. OSPO Now lets organisations outsource open source program office work, from community engagement to compliance management.

  7. As of October 2026

    Associate Director at NICE

    He is an Associate Director at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and CEO and co-founder of OSPO Now. With Andreas Bender, he writes Machine Learning for Survival Analysis, a Chapman & Hall/CRC book with a 2027 copyright and a free open-access online edition.

Career

  1. NowOSPO NowCEO and co-founder
  2. NowNational Institute for Health and Care ExcellenceAssociate Director
  3. From 2022University of KaiserslauternPostdoctoral researcher
  4. 2022University of CambridgeResearcher
  5. 2021Imperial College LondonResearch Associate, Postdoctoral researcher

Education

  1. 2021University College LondonPhD
  2. 2018University College LondonBSc

From the biography.

  1. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes University of Cambridge. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  2. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes University of Cambridge. 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. Companies supply the most prior-work hires at 7 of the 9 frontier AI labsIncludes University of Cambridge. Our estimates of the organizations where 550 people worked directly before joining 9 frontier AI labs across 620 career transitions, comparing the main feeder organizations per lab.
  4. 84% of people shaping AI with recorded undergraduate and doctoral schools changed institutions for their doctorateIncludes University of Cambridge. 84% of people shaping AI with recorded undergraduate and doctoral schools changed institutions for their doctorate. Across 2,116 people with both an undergraduate degree and a doctorate recorded, we trace which undergraduate schools feed which doctoral programs, how often students stay at the same school, and how paths differ by birth-country region.

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. Raphael Sonabend — Data Science and its Applications dsa.dfki.de. Checked 22 October 2026.
  2. [2008.08080] mlr3proba: An R Package for Machine Learning in Survival Analysis arxiv.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  3. mlr3proba: an R package for machine learning in survival analysis - PMC pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Checked 22 October 2026.
  4. Raphael Sonabend – mlr-org mlr-org.com. Checked 22 October 2026.
  5. Raphael Sonabend | About | Imperial College London imperial.ac.uk. Checked 22 October 2026.
  6. Non-pharmaceutical interventions, vaccination, and the SARS-CoV-2 delta variant in England: a mathematical modelling study - PMC ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Checked 22 October 2026.
  7. Avoiding C-hacking when evaluating survival distribution predictions with discrimination measures - PMC ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Checked 22 October 2026.
  8. Applied Machine Learning Using mlr3 in R mlr3book.mlr-org.com. Checked 22 October 2026.
  9. OSPO Now is the latest OpenChain Partner – OpenChain openchainproject.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  10. Machine Learning for Survival Analysis - 1st Edition - Andreas Bender routledge.com. Checked 22 October 2026.
  11. Machine Learning for Survival Analysis mlsabook.com. Checked 22 October 2026.