PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Steffen Staab

Steffen Staab is a computer scientist whose work on knowledge technologies has earned fellowships from the ACM, EurAI and ELLIS. He studied computer science and computational linguistics at Erlangen-Nuremberg and Pennsylvania before earning a doctorate at Freiburg in 1998. In 2004 he took a professorship at Koblenz-Landau, where he founded the Institute for Web Science and Technologies in 2009. Stuttgart brought him in 2020 to establish an Institute for Artificial Intelligence, and he became its first executive director in 2023. As of October 2026, he heads that institute while also holding a Southampton chair that began in 2015.

Works
767
Citations
28,145
h-index
81

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 14 October 2026.

Photo of Steffen Staab

Timeline

  1. 1970–1998

    Studies and a Freiburg doctorate

    Born in 1970, he studies computer science and computational linguistics at Erlangen-Nuremberg and Pennsylvania. He earns a doctorate from Freiburg in 1998.

  2. 2004–2009

    Founding the WeST institute

    In 2004 he becomes a professor of databases and information systems at Koblenz-Landau. He founds the Institute for Web Science and Technologies there in 2009.

  3. 2014–2015

    EurAI fellow and Southampton chair

    The European Association for Artificial Intelligence names him a Fellow in 2014. He holds the Web and Computer Science chair at Southampton from March 2015.

  4. February 2020

    A Cyber Valley chair in Stuttgart

    He takes up the Analytic Computing Cyber Valley professorship at the University of Stuttgart in February 2020. He drives the founding of an Institute for Artificial Intelligence there.

  5. July 2023

    Directing a new AI institute

    He becomes the first executive director of the Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Stuttgart in July 2023.

  6. February 2024

    A Fellow of the ACM

    The Association for Computing Machinery names him a Fellow in February 2024 for his research contributions to knowledge technologies.

  7. October 2024

    An ELLIS Fellow

    The European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems elects him an ELLIS Fellow in October 2024, in its Semantic, Symbolic, and Interpretable Machine Learning program.

  8. As of October 2026

    Heading the Stuttgart AI institute

    He heads the Institute for Artificial Intelligence at the University of Stuttgart.

Sources and credits

Photo: ki.uni-stuttgart.de; Prof. Dr. Steffen Staab | Institute for Artificial Intelligence | University of Stuttgart; creator not stated. License: Not stated by source. Source: ki.uni-stuttgart.de. Cropped to a square and resized. Ask us to remove or replace this photo.

  1. Prestigious award for Steffen Staab | News | Feb 19, 2024 | University of Stuttgart uni-stuttgart.de. Checked 14 October 2026.
  2. Understanding the significance of data | News | Feb 12, 2020 | University of Stuttgart uni-stuttgart.de. Checked 14 October 2026.
  3. Die Bedeutung von Daten verstehen | News | 12.02.2020 | Universität Stuttgart uni-stuttgart.de. Checked 14 October 2026.
  4. Prof. Dr. Steffen Staab joins IntCDC as Participating Researcher | News | Oct 7, 2021 | Cluster of Excellence Integrative Computational Design and Construction for Transformative Architecture (IntCDC) | University of Stuttgart intcdc.uni-stuttgart.de. Checked 14 October 2026.
  5. Institute for Artificial Intelligence established | News | Jul 14, 2023 | University of Stuttgart uni-stuttgart.de. Checked 14 October 2026.
  6. Cyber Valley scientist Steffen Staab appointed Fellow of ACM | Cyber Valley cyber-valley.de. Checked 14 October 2026.
  7. Prof. Dr. Steffen Staab elected as an ELLIS Fellow | News | Oct 16, 2024 | Institute for Artificial Intelligence | University of Stuttgart ki.uni-stuttgart.de. Checked 14 October 2026.
  8. Keynote Speakers | ICKG 2025 cyprusconferences.org. Checked 14 October 2026.