PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Robert Hawkins

Also known as Robert D. Hawkins

Robert Hawkins is a cognitive scientist whose research on how people build shared language extends to AI agents that adapt to partners and to multi-modal models tested on abstract visual reasoning. They graduated from Indiana University in 2014 with degrees in mathematics and cognitive science, finished a psychology PhD at Stanford in 2019, and won the Cognitive Science Society's 2020 Computational Modeling Prize for language. In 2022, they coauthored a NeurIPS Outstanding Paper on instilling human inductive biases in machines and the EMNLP Best Paper that introduced the KiloGram tangram resource. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute and a faculty post at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery in 2022–2024, they joined Stanford in 2024. At Stanford, they are an Assistant Professor of Linguistics, with a courtesy appointment in Psychology, and direct the Social Interaction Lab.

Badges

Timeline

  1. 2014–2019

    A Stanford psychology PhD

    Graduating from Indiana University in 2014 with degrees in mathematics and cognitive science, they go on to defend a dissertation in Stanford's Department of Psychology in 2019.

  2. 2020

    A CogSci prize and CoNLL paper

    In 2020, they win the Cognitive Science Society's Computational Modeling Prize for language. With Minae Kwon, Dorsa Sadigh and Noah Goodman, they also publish "Continual Adaptation for Efficient Machine Communication" at CoNLL, proposing an interactive repeated reference task as a benchmark and a regularized continual learning framework for an agent that starts from a generic language model.

  3. By 2022

    Postdoc at Princeton

    By 2022, they are at Princeton University as a C.V. Starr Postdoctoral Fellow at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute.

  4. 2022

    A NeurIPS Outstanding Paper

    A paper they coauthor with Sreejan Kumar, Thomas L. Griffiths and colleagues, "Using natural language and program abstractions to instill human inductive biases in machines", wins a NeurIPS 2022 Outstanding Paper Award. Co-training meta-learning agents on natural language task descriptions and programs guides them toward more human-like inductive biases.

  5. December 2022

    KiloGram and a Best Paper

    In December 2022, "Abstract Visual Reasoning with Tangram Shapes", coauthored with Anya Ji, Yoav Artzi and others, wins the Best Paper Award at EMNLP in Abu Dhabi. The paper introduces KiloGram, a resource for studying abstract visual reasoning in humans and machines, and uses it to evaluate recent multi-modal models.

  6. 2022–2024

    Faculty at Wisconsin

    From 2022 to 2024, they are a faculty member at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. In the Department of Psychology there, their Social Interaction Lab builds computational models of agents that learn to communicate in realistic, open-ended scenarios.

  7. Since 2024

    Assistant professor at Stanford

    In 2024, they join Stanford as an Assistant Professor of Linguistics, with a courtesy appointment in Psychology, and direct the Social Interaction Lab. A May 2025 paper with Ilia Sucholutsky, Katherine M. Collins, Nori Jacoby and Bill D. Thompson, "Using LLMs to Advance the Cognitive Science of Collectives", lays out how LLMs may address the complexity that has hindered the study of collectives. SemDial 2025, held in Bielefeld in September 2025, features their invited talk "Foraging for Common Ground".

Career

  1. Since 2024Stanford UniversityAssistant Professor of Linguistics, with a courtesy appointment in Psychology
  2. Until 2022Princeton UniversityC.V. Starr Postdoctoral Fellow
  3. 2022–2024University of Wisconsin–MadisonFaculty Member

Education

  1. 2019Stanford UniversityPhD
  2. 2014Indiana UniversityMathematics and Cognitive Science degrees

From the biography.

  1. 20% of people at companies who shape AI also hold a university role, led by Google and Stanford UniversityIncludes Stanford University. We estimate that 539 of the 6,766 people with a known current organization (8%) hold both a university role and a company role, including 20% of people at companies and 13% of people at universities.
  2. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Includes Stanford University. Our estimates of which organizations employed the most people shaping AI each year from 1955 to 2025, tracing the shift from university labs to companies.
  3. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Stanford University. 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.
  4. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes Stanford University. 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. Robert Hawkins rdhawkins.com. Checked 22 October 2026.
  2. Robert Hawkins | Symbolic Systems Program symsys.stanford.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  3. Continual Adaptation for Efficient Machine Communication - ACL Anthology aclanthology.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  4. Conference Awards - Cognitive Science Society cognitivesciencesociety.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  5. Cornell natural language processing scholars win Best Paper at top conference | Cornell Bowers bowers.cornell.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  6. [2205.11558] Using Natural Language and Program Abstractions to Instill Human Inductive Biases in Machines arxiv.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  7. Announcing the NeurIPS 2022 Awards – NeurIPS Blog blog.neurips.cc. Checked 22 October 2026.
  8. Abstract Visual Reasoning with Tangram Shapes - ACL Anthology aclanthology.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  9. Robert Hawkins – Wisconsin Institute for Discovery wid.wisc.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  10. Robert Hawkins – Information for Prospective Graduate Students – Department of Psychology – UW–Madison psych.wisc.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  11. Welcome to our new students and faculty! | Linguistics linguistics.stanford.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  12. [2506.00052] Using LLMs to Advance the Cognitive Science of Collectives arxiv.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  13. Hawkins at SemDial 2025 | Linguistics linguistics.stanford.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.