PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Risi Kondor

Risi Kondor is a machine-learning researcher whose work on group equivariant neural networks and computational harmonic analysis reaches into chemistry and physics. A 2002 ICML paper with John Lafferty proposed diffusion kernels on graphs, and he completed a computer science PhD at Columbia in 2007. He received a DARPA Young Faculty Award in 2016 and, with Shubhendu Trivedi, proved a result on convolution and equivariance for compact groups at ICML 2018. With Brandon Anderson and Truong-Son Hy, he presented the Cormorant molecular network in 2019, worked at the Flatiron Institute from 2019 to 2021, and coauthored ATOM3D, which received the NeurIPS 2021 Datasets and Benchmarks Award. He is an associate professor at the University of Chicago and, since August 2025, the founder and CEO of Intertwiner Inc.

Now at
University of Chicago and Intertwiner Inc.
Badges

Timeline

  1. 1995–2007

    Degrees from Cambridge to Columbia

    He earns a BA in mathematics at the University of Cambridge in 1995, an MS in knowledge discovery and data mining at Carnegie Mellon University in 2002, and a PhD in computer science at Columbia University in 2007.

  2. 2002

    Diffusion kernels on graphs

    In 2002, he and John Lafferty present Diffusion Kernels on Graphs and Other Discrete Input Spaces at ICML. The paper proposes diffusion kernels, a class of exponential kernels based on the heat equation that discretize the Gaussian kernel, for graphs and other discrete structures.

  3. 2014

    Assistant professor at Chicago

    After postdoctoral appointments at the Gatsby Unit at UCL and at the Center for the Mathematics of Information at Caltech, he is an assistant professor at the University of Chicago. In 2014, he takes part in the Simons Institute's Algorithmic Spectral Graph Theory program as a visiting scientist.

  4. 2016

    A DARPA Young Faculty Award

    He receives a DARPA Young Faculty Award in 2016.

  5. 2018

    Equivariance and compact groups

    At ICML 2018, he and Shubhendu Trivedi give a theoretical treatment of convolution and equivariance in neural networks for the action of any compact group. They prove that, given natural constraints, convolutional structure is a necessary condition for equivariance to a compact group's action, using representation theory and noncommutative harmonic analysis.

  6. 2019–2021

    Cormorant and the Flatiron Institute

    In 2019, he, Brandon Anderson and Truong-Son Hy present Cormorant at NeurIPS, a rotationally covariant neural network that learns atomic potential energy surfaces and ground state properties of molecules. From June 2019 to September 2021, he works at the Flatiron Institute as a Senior Research Scientist with its Center for Computational Mathematics.

  7. 2021

    ATOM3D wins a NeurIPS award

    In 2021, ATOM3D: Tasks on Molecules in Three Dimensions, coauthored with Raphael Townshend, Russ Altman, Ron Dror and others, receives a Datasets and Benchmarks Award at NeurIPS. The paper presents benchmark datasets spanning several key classes of biomolecules for deep learning on 3D molecular structure.

  8. Since August 2025

    Founder and CEO of Intertwiner

    From August 2025, he is founder and CEO of Intertwiner Inc. He is also an associate professor of computer science, statistics and the Computational and Applied Mathematics Initiative at the University of Chicago and faculty co-director of AI + Science at its Data Science Institute. His group contributes to the theory of group equivariant neural networks, which are used in physics, chemistry, computer vision and medical imaging.

Career

  1. Since 2025Intertwiner Inc.Founder and CEO
  2. Since 2014University of ChicagoAssistant Professor
  3. 2019–2021Simons FoundationSenior Research Scientist
  4. 2014University of California, BerkeleyVisiting Scientist
  5. University College LondonPostdoctoral Researcher
  6. California Institute of TechnologyPostdoctoral Researcher

Education

  1. 2007Columbia UniversityPhD in Computer Science
  2. 2002Carnegie Mellon UniversityMS in Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining
  3. 1995University of CambridgeBA in Mathematics

From the biography.

  1. 11% of AI doctorate holders from 2010 to 2016 founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduationIncludes Risi Kondor. We estimate how often AI doctorate holders founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduation, how waiting times compare between founders and top jobs, and which universities trained the most.
  2. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes University of Chicago. 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 University of Chicago. 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. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes University of Chicago. 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.

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. Risi Kondor (Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing) simons.berkeley.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  2. Diffusion Kernels on Graphs and Other Discrete Input Spaces | ML Anthology mlanthology.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  3. Risi Kondor – Department of Computer Science, University of Chicago computerscience.uchicago.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  4. On the Generalization of Equivariance and Convolution in Neural Networks to the Action of Compact Groups (PMLR) proceedings.mlr.press. Checked 22 October 2026.
  5. [1802.03690] On the Generalization of Equivariance and Convolution in Neural Networks to the Action of Compact Groups arxiv.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  6. NeurIPS Poster Cormorant: Covariant Molecular Neural Networks neurips.cc. Checked 22 October 2026.
  7. [1906.04015] Cormorant: Covariant Molecular Neural Networks arxiv.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  8. Risi Kondor | DSI (University of Chicago Data Science Institute) datascience.uchicago.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  9. Risi Kondor homepage people.cs.uchicago.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  10. NeurIPS 2021 Awards neurips.cc. Checked 22 October 2026.