PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Yoelle Maarek

Also known as יואל מארק

As of October 2026, Yoelle Maarek is Chief Researcher for AI/IR at the Technology Innovation Institute (TII) in the UAE, where she leads new methods for its Falcon language models. She earned a Technion doctorate in 1989 and worked at IBM until 2006. At Google she founded the Google Haifa Engineering Center in 2006, and from 2009 she led research at Yahoo. In August 2017 she joined Amazon's Alexa Shopping Research as vice president of worldwide research. She became an ACM Fellow in 2013 for contributions to industrial leadership and to information retrieval and web search, and she was elected to the US National Academy of Engineering in 2021.

Works
140
Citations
3,625
h-index
31

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 15 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1985–1989

    Paris engineering and a Technion PhD

    She completes an engineering degree and a DEA in 1985, then earns a Technion PhD in computer science in 1989.

  2. 1989–2006

    Years at IBM Research

    She joins IBM in 1989 and becomes a distinguished engineer before moving to Google in 2006.

  3. 2006

    Opening Google's Haifa center

    In 2006 she founds the Google Haifa Engineering Center in Haifa, Israel, as Director of Engineering.

  4. 2009–2017

    Research leadership at Yahoo

    She joins Yahoo in 2009 and leads research in web search, data mining and machine learning.

  5. 2013–2021

    An ACM Fellowship and academy membership

    In 2013 she becomes an ACM Fellow for contributions to industrial leadership and to information retrieval and web search. In 2021 she is elected as an inaugural member of the SIGIR Academy and to the US National Academy of Engineering.

  6. August 2017

    Alexa Shopping Research at Amazon

    She joins Amazon's Alexa Shopping Research in August 2017 as vice president of worldwide research.

  7. January 2024

    A new AI/IR center in Haifa

    In January 2024 TII sets up a new AI/IR research center in Haifa, Israel.

  8. As of October 2026

    Chief Researcher for AI/IR

    She is Chief Researcher for AI/IR at the Technology Innovation Institute (TII) in the UAE, where she leads new methods for Falcon, TII's family of large language models.

Sources and credits

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  1. Dr. Yoelle Maarek | Technology Innovation Institute tii.ae. Checked 15 October 2026.
  2. Biography - Yoelle Maarek yoelle.com. Checked 15 October 2026.
  3. Yoelle Maarek - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 15 October 2026.
  4. Yahoo Senior Executive Yoelle Maarek Moves to Amazon calcalistech.com. Checked 15 October 2026.
  5. UAE-based Technology Innovation Institute to open Israeli AI/IR Research Center headed by Yoelle Maarek calcalistech.com. Checked 15 October 2026.