PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Thomas Stützle

Also known as Thomas Stuetzle, Thomas Stutzle

Thomas Stützle is an AI researcher whose work includes ant colony optimization, stochastic local search and automatic algorithm configuration. He earned a Diplom in Business Engineering at Universität Karlsruhe (TH) in 1994, a computer science PhD at Technische Universität Darmstadt in 1998, and a Habilitation there in 2004. His 1997 MAX-MIN Ant System report applied the method to quadratic assignment; in 2004, he coauthored Stochastic Local Search: Foundations and Applications with Holger Hoos and Ant Colony Optimization with Marco Dorigo. His 2002 GECCO paper on configuring metaheuristics received the 2012 SIGEVO Impact Award, and he was named an IEEE Fellow in 2016. In 2016, his coauthored irace paper described software that uses iterated racing for automatic configuration; as of October 2026, he is a research associate at IRIDIA and coordinates ULB’s Heuristic Optimisation course.

Born
1968
Works
648
Citations
42,340
h-index
79
Badges

Years link to their sources. Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1994–2004

    Degrees at Karlsruhe and Darmstadt

    He earns a Diplom in Business Engineering at Universität Karlsruhe (TH) in 1994, a computer science PhD at Technische Universität Darmstadt in 1998, and a Habilitation there in 2004.

  2. 1997

    MAX-MIN Ant System report

    In July 1997, he publishes the technical report MAX-MIN Ant System for Quadratic Assignment Problems through TU Darmstadt’s FG Intellektik.

  3. 2004

    Stochastic Local Search

    In 2004, he coauthors Stochastic Local Search: Foundations and Applications with Holger Hoos.

  4. 2004

    Ant Colony Optimization

    In 2004, he coauthors Ant Colony Optimization with Marco Dorigo.

  5. 2002–2012

    A SIGEVO Impact Award

    At GECCO 2002, he coauthors A Racing Algorithm for Configuring Metaheuristics with Mauro Birattari, Luis Paquete, and Klaus Varrentrapp. The paper receives the 2012 SIGEVO Impact Award.

  6. 2016

    An IEEE Fellowship

    In 2016, he becomes an IEEE Fellow for contributions to the design and engineering of heuristic optimization algorithms.

  7. 2016

    The irace package

    In 2016, he coauthors “The irace package: Iterated Racing for Automatic Algorithm Configuration.” The package implements the Iterated Race method for automatically configuring optimization algorithms.

  8. As of October 2026

    Research associate at IRIDIA

    As of October 2026, he is a research associate of the Belgian F.R.S.-FNRS at IRIDIA, Université Libre de Bruxelles. For the 2026–2027 academic year, he coordinates ULB’s Heuristic Optimisation course, which focuses on heuristic optimisation and stochastic local search.

Career

  1. Since 2026Free University of BrusselsResearch Associate
  2. NowNational Fund for Scientific ResearchResearch Associate
  3. 2006–2010University of Konstanz
  4. 1999–2026Université Libre de Bruxelles

Education

  1. 2004TU DarmstadtHabilitation
  2. 1998TU DarmstadtPhD in computer science
  3. 1994Karlsruhe Institute of TechnologyDiplom in Business Engineering

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

  1. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Free University of Brussels. 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.
  2. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes Free University of Brussels. 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.
  3. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes Free University of Brussels. 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. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes TU Darmstadt. We estimate that Google holds the highest combined h-index at 8,016, while universities account for 73% of the deduplicated total across AI organizations.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Thomas Stützle yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Thomas Stützle | CoDE Department, Université Libre de Bruxelles code.ulb.ac.be. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Ant colony optimization algorithms - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Heuristic optimisation - ULB ulb.be. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. DI-fusion: A Racing Algorithm for Configuring Metaheuristics difusion.ulb.ac.be. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. GECCO 2012 - Competitions sigevo.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. Thomas Stuetzle - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. IJCCI 2016 - Keynote Speakers ijcci.scitevents.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. Home Page Thomas Stützle / Thomas Stuetzle iridia.ulb.ac.be. Checked 21 October 2026.
  9. irace: Iterated Racing for Automatic Algorithm Configuration - CRAN cran.r-project.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  10. Iterated Racing for Automatic Algorithm Configuration - irace mlopez-ibanez.github.io. Checked 21 October 2026.
  11. Heuristic optimisation - ULB ulb.be. Checked 21 October 2026.