PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Sarah Dean

Sarah Dean is a computer scientist whose work connects machine learning, optimization and control with systems that change over time. She coauthored the 2018 ICML Best Paper on long-term fairness effects and completed a Berkeley PhD on reliable machine learning in feedback systems in 2021. Her 2024 AI2050 fellowship supported tools to reduce harmful effects of large-scale AI, and her 2026 research used early reading data to forecast future paper popularity. She is an assistant professor of computer science at Cornell, where her work has applications in robotics and recommendation systems.

Works
39
Citations
1,308
h-index
13

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 27 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2018

    Delayed impact of fair machine learning

    With Lydia T. Liu, Esther Rolf, Max Simchowitz and Moritz Hardt, she coauthors “Delayed Impact of Fair Machine Learning.” The paper shows that common fairness criteria may fail to improve outcomes over time and can harm groups, and it wins the 2018 ICML Best Paper Award.

  2. 2021

    Reliable machine learning in feedback systems

    She earns a B.S.E. in electrical engineering and mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2021, she completes an EECS PhD at Berkeley with the dissertation “Reliable Machine Learning in Feedback Systems.” The thesis studies data-driven control and how fairness constraints and recommendation systems affect people.

  3. 2021–2022

    A UW postdoc and Cornell

    She works as a postdoctoral researcher with Jamie Morgenstern at the University of Washington in fall 2021 and joins Cornell CS in 2022.

  4. 2024

    An AI2050 fellowship

    In December 2024, she receives an AI2050 Early Career Fellowship from Schmidt Sciences to develop tools that prevent unanticipated negative consequences of large-scale AI systems such as chatbots and personal recommendation systems.

  5. 2026

    Benchmark datasets for lead-lag forecasting

    In 2026, she is senior author of “Benchmark Datasets for Lead-Lag Forecasting on Social Platforms.” Her team uses machine-learning models to predict five-year paper popularity from one month of arXiv download data; early GitHub pushes and stars show a similar pattern for later forks.

  6. Since 2022

    Assistant professor at Cornell

    She joins Cornell's Department of Computer Science in 2022 and is an assistant professor. Her research studies optimization, machine learning and dynamics for data-driven control and decision-making, with applications ranging from robotics to recommendation systems.

Career

  1. Since 2022Cornell UniversityAssistant professor
  2. University of WashingtonPostdoctoral researcher

Education

  1. 2021University of California, BerkeleyEECS PhD
  2. University of PennsylvaniaB.S.E. in electrical engineering and mathematics

From the biography.

Checked career sources: sdean.website.

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. Delayed Impact of Fair Machine Learning arxiv.org. Checked 26 October 2026.
  2. ICML 2018 Awards icml.cc. Checked 26 October 2026.
  3. Sarah Dean | Department of Computer Science | Cornell Bowers cs.cornell.edu. Checked 26 October 2026.
  4. Reliable Machine Learning in Feedback Systems | EECS at UC Berkeley www2.eecs.berkeley.edu. Checked 26 October 2026.
  5. Sarah Dean sdean.website. Checked 26 October 2026.
  6. Schmidt Sciences names Sarah Dean an AI2050 Fellow | Cornell Chronicle news.cornell.edu. Checked 26 October 2026.
  7. Today’s clicks can reveal tomorrow’s breakthroughs | Cornell Chronicle news.cornell.edu. Checked 26 October 2026.