PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Ryan Prescott Adams

Also known as Ryan P. Adams, Ryan Adams

Ryan Prescott Adams is a computer scientist whose work applies machine learning to scientific and engineering problems. He earned degrees at MIT and Cambridge, held a research fellowship at the University of Toronto, and joined Harvard's faculty. His research includes Bayesian online changepoint detection and machine-learning hyperparameter optimization; he co-founded Whetlab, which he sold to Twitter in 2015, and received the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship. At Princeton, he is a professor of computer science and co-leads AI for Accelerating Invention.

Works
165
Citations
30,765
h-index
54
Badges

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 27 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2004–2009

    Degrees at MIT and Cambridge

    He earns a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and computer science at MIT in 2004, then completes a PhD in physics at Cambridge under David MacKay in 2009.

  2. 2007

    Bayesian online changepoint detection

    In 2007, he and David J. C. MacKay present Bayesian Online Changepoint Detection, which derives an online algorithm for exact inference of the most recent changepoint.

  3. 2009–2011

    Junior fellow at Toronto

    From 2009 to 2011, he is a junior fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research in the University of Toronto's Department of Computer Science.

  4. 2011–2016

    Harvard assistant professor

    From 2011 to 2016, he is an assistant professor at Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

  5. 2012

    Practical Bayesian optimization

    In 2012, he coauthors Practical Bayesian Optimization of Machine Learning Algorithms with Jasper Snoek and Hugo Larochelle. The paper models algorithm performance with a Gaussian process and improves automatic tuning on latent Dirichlet allocation, structured SVMs, and convolutional neural networks.

  6. 2013–2015

    Co-founding Whetlab

    At Harvard, he co-founds Whetlab in 2013, a startup built from his machine-learning research, and sells it to Twitter in 2015.

  7. 2015

    Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship

    In 2015, he receives an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship while an assistant professor at Harvard.

  8. 2018

    Joining Princeton's faculty

    After three years in industry at Twitter and Google, he joins Princeton's faculty in 2018.

  9. 2024

    Co-leading AI for engineering

    In 2024, he co-leads Princeton's AI for Accelerating Invention initiative with Mengdi Wang, which applies AI across engineering design, simulation, fabrication, and control. His lab studies mechanical intelligence, using AI to examine how physical body design can make movement and control easier.

  10. As of October 2026

    Professor at Princeton

    As of October 2026, he is a professor of computer science at Princeton and works on machine learning and computational statistics with applications in science and engineering.

Career

  1. NowPrinceton UniversityProfessor of Computer Science, Co-lead, AI for Accelerating Invention initiative
  2. From 2013WhetlabCo-founder, Whetlab
  3. 2011–2016Harvard UniversityAssistant Professor
  4. 2009–2011University of TorontoJunior Research Fellow

Education

  1. 2009University of CambridgePhysics PhD
  2. 2004Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyBachelor's degree in electrical engineering and computer science

From the biography.

Checked career sources: cs.princeton.edu, hdsr.mitpress.mit.edu, cs.princeton.edu, engineering.princeton.edu, engineering.princeton.edu.

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. It's an exciting time in machine learning and statistics, says Ryan P. Adams cs.princeton.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  2. Ryan Adams (2021–2025) hdsr.mitpress.mit.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  3. [0710.3742] Bayesian Online Changepoint Detection arxiv.org. Checked 27 October 2026.
  4. [1206.2944] Practical Bayesian Optimization of Machine Learning Algorithms arxiv.org. Checked 27 October 2026.
  5. Ryan Adams and Ariel Amir named 2015 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellows seas.harvard.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  6. AI for Accelerating Invention: Launch Event cs.princeton.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  7. This AI does more than just think engineering.princeton.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  8. Ryan P. Adams engineering.princeton.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.