PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Torsten Schaub

Torsten Schaub is a computer scientist at the University of Potsdam whose group builds open-source answer set programming systems, a way to solve knowledge-intensive combinatorial problems by describing them. After a dissertation at the Technical University of Darmstadt and a habilitation at Rennes in 1995, he became a professor at Potsdam in 1997. His group's clasp solver helped organize a US broadcast spectrum auction in 2016, and in 2018 he won the Prominent Paper Award of the journal Artificial Intelligence with Martin Gebser and Benjamin Kaufmann while the company Potassco Solutions grew out of his group. He became a EurAI Fellow in 2012, served as President of the Association of Logic Programming from 2014 to 2019, and shared a 10 Years Test of Time Award at FLoC 2026 for the Clingo 5 paper. He is a professor at Potsdam and managing and scientific director of Potassco Solutions GmbH.

Now at
University of Potsdam and Potassco Solutions GmbH
Badges

Timeline

  1. 1990–1995

    Doctorate and habilitation

    He completes his diploma in 1990 and his dissertation in 1992, both in informatics, at the Technical University of Darmstadt, where he is a research assistant from 1990 to 1993. From 1993 to 1995, he is a research associate at IRISA/INRIA in Rennes, and in 1995 he earns his habilitation in informatics from the University of Rennes I.

  2. 1995–1997

    Professor at Potsdam

    He becomes University Professor at the University of Angers in 1995, and in 1997 he joins the University of Potsdam as University Professor for knowledge processing and information systems. His research covers reasoning from incomplete, inconsistent, and evolving information, with a focus on answer set programming.

  3. 2012

    Becoming a EurAI Fellow

    In 2012, he becomes a Fellow of the European Association for Artificial Intelligence (EurAI). The EurAI Fellows Program honors up to 3% of the total membership of all EurAI member societies.

  4. 2014–2019

    Association president and Inria chair

    He serves as President of the Association of Logic Programming from 2014 to 2019, after his election in 2014. Over the same years, he holds an Inria International Chair at Inria Rennes - Bretagne Atlantique, and in 2014 he is program co-chair of ECAI'14.

  5. 2016

    Clasp in a US spectrum auction

    In 2016, researchers at the University of British Columbia use clasp, the answer set solver developed by a team around him at Potsdam, to organize the reallocation and auction of US broadcast licences for the Federal Communications Commission. He describes the open-source system as a universal solver for knowledge-intensive combinatorial optimization problems, and it ends up saving several billion dollars in the spectrum reallocation.

  6. 2018

    Paper award and Potassco Solutions

    In 2018, he, Martin Gebser and Benjamin Kaufmann receive the Prominent Paper Award of the journal Artificial Intelligence for "Conflict-Driven Answer Set Solving: From Theory to Practice", which lays out the design of the clasp system. The company Potassco Solutions also comes out of his research group in 2018, and he is its managing and scientific director.

  7. 2026

    A Test of Time Award

    At the Federated Logic Conference (FLoC) 2026, the paper "Theory Solving Made Easy with Clingo 5", by Martin Gebser, Roland Kaminski, Benjamin Kaufmann, Max Ostrowski, Philipp Wanko and Schaub, receives the 10 Years Test of Time Award.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor and Potassco director

    He is University Professor for knowledge processing and information systems at the University of Potsdam and managing and scientific director at Potassco Solutions GmbH. He is program co-chair of the 2025 KR conference in Melbourne, and in July 2026 he gives an invited talk at CP 2026 in Lisbon on combining answer set programming with constraint programming.

Career

  1. Since 1997University of PotsdamUniversity Professor for knowledge processing and information systems
  2. NowPotassco Solutions GmbHManaging and scientific director
  3. 2014–2019Association of Logic ProgrammingPresident
  4. 2014–2019InriaInria International Chair
  5. 1995–1997University of AngersUniversity Professor
  6. 1993–1995IRISA/INRIAResearch associate
  7. 1990–1993TU DarmstadtResearch assistant

Education

  1. 1995Université Rennes 1Habilitation in informatics
  2. 1992TU DarmstadtDoctorate in informatics
  3. 1990TU DarmstadtDiploma in informatics

From the biography.

  1. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes University of Potsdam. 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 University of Potsdam. 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 University of Potsdam. 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. People shaping AI work at a median of 3 organizations over a career: 3 for university starters and institute and lab starters, versus 2 for company startersIncludes Inria. Across 6,853 people shaping AI with a dated work role, we estimate a median of 3 parent organizations over a career (mean 3.6), comparing role groups, starting sectors and starting decades from the 1950s to 2020–2026.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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

  1. Torsten Schaub's Homepage cs.uni-potsdam.de. Checked 20 October 2026.
  2. Torsten Schaub - POPL 2016 popl16.sigplan.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  3. Awards | European Association for Artificial Intelligence eurai.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  4. Der universale Problemlöser – „KI made in Potsdam“ auf dem Siegeszug rund um die Welt uni-potsdam.de. Checked 20 October 2026.
  5. Wirkungsvoll – Veröffentlichung von Potsdamer Informatikern erhält den „Prominent Paper Award 2018“ der Fachzeitschrift „Artificial Intelligence“ uni-potsdam.de. Checked 20 October 2026.
  6. A proud moment at FLoC 2026: Test of Time Award uni-potsdam.de. Checked 20 October 2026.
  7. Potassco at CP 2026 in Lisbon uni-potsdam.de. Checked 20 October 2026.
  8. Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, KR 2025, Melbourne, Australia, November 1-17, 2025 cs.uni-potsdam.de. Checked 20 October 2026.