Michael Kearns
Michael Kearns is an American computer scientist and University of PennsylvaniaUniversity of PennsylvaniaThe University of Pennsylvania, commonly called Penn, is a private research university and Ivy League member in Philadelphia. It traces its origins to a 1740 charity-school project; Benjamin Franklin proposed his academy in 1749, classes began in 1751, and a 1791 merger established the institution under its present name. Penn has 12 schools, with undergraduate education concentrated in arts and sciences, engineering, nursing and Wharton. Enrollment totaled 29,384 in fall 2025, and the fiscal 2025 endowment was $24.81 billion. As of October 2026, J. Larry Jameson was president, with his term scheduled to end on June 30, 2027.Open the full entry professor who works on computational learning theory, algorithmic game theory, and algorithmic fairness and privacy; he formerly headed the AI department at AT&TAT&TAT&T (AT&T Inc.) is a telecommunications company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Its predecessor was SBC Communications, a regional holding company created in the 1984 breakup of the Bell System; SBC merged with the original AT&T Corp. in 2005 and adopted its name, and it has since operated a nationwide wireless network and fiber broadband, at one time also owning DIRECTV and WarnerMedia.Open the full entry Bell Labs, co-wrote The Ethical Algorithm with Aaron Roth, and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2021.
Contents17 sections
Key facts
1985–1989Berkeley and Harvard
Kearns studied mathematics and computer science at the University of California, BerkeleyUniversity of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) is a campus of the University of California system; the University of California was founded in 1868 through a merger of two institutions and moved to Berkeley, California, in 1873.Open the full entry, graduating in 1985, and then earned a PhD in computer science at Harvard UniversityHarvard UniversityHarvard University is a private research university in Massachusetts, established by the Massachusetts Bay Colony legislature in 1636 and named in 1639 for early benefactor John Harvard. Its principal campuses are in Cambridge and the Allston and Longwood neighborhoods of Boston. It includes Harvard College, graduate and professional schools, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Two governing boards share oversight. Alan M. Garber was president as of October 2026, and the endowment stood at $56.9 billion at the end of fiscal 2025.Open the full entry in 1989 under Leslie Valiant.[1]
December 1988Formulates the “Hypothesis Boosting Problem”
In December 1988, in a machine learning class project note titled “Thoughts on Hypothesis Boosting,” he formulated the “Hypothesis Boosting Problem” formally.[2]
1989Dissertation Wins ACM Award
His dissertation, “The Computational Complexity of Machine Learning,” won a Distinguished Dissertation Award from the ACMAustralian Community MediaAustralian Community Media (ACM) is an Australian regional and rural news publishing group with more than 100 brands, including The Canberra Times; in 2019 Nine sold it to a company controlled by interests associated with Antony Catalano and Thorney Investment Group.Open the full entry and was published by the MIT Press.[3]
He then held postdoctoral positions at MIT’s Laboratory for Computer Science and at the International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley.[1]
1991–2001AT&T Bell Labs
From 1991 to 2001 he did machine learning and AI research at AT&T Bell Labs, including several years as head of its AI department.[4]
1994Computational Learning Theory Textbook
In 1994 the MIT Press published An Introduction to Computational Learning Theory, which he co-wrote with U.V. Vazirani.[3]
2002Joins the University of Pennsylvania
In 2002 he joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Computer and Information Science.[5]
April 2005National Center Professorship
In April 2005 Penn named him National Center Professor of Resource Management and Technology in its School of Engineering and Applied Science. He was then co-director of Penn’s Institute for Research in Cognitive Science.[3]
Early 2010sNETS Program and Quantitative Trading
In the early 2010s he was the founding director of Penn Engineering’s new Networked and Social Systems Engineering (NETS) program, worked closely with a quantitative trading group at SAC Capital in New York, and advised companies including Wealthfront.[6]
October 2013Founds the Warren Center
In October 2013 Penn launched the Warren Center for Network & Data Sciences, funded by a gift from Fred and Robin Warren, with him as founding director and Rakesh Vohra as co-director. He said the center would study not just networks and the data they generate but also the thorny social implications that go along with them.[7]
November 2019Publishes The Ethical Algorithm
In November 2019 he and his Penn colleague Aaron Roth published The Ethical Algorithm: The Science of Socially Aware Algorithm Design, whose central thesis concerns “the science of designing algorithms that embed social norms such as fairness and privacy into their code.”[8]
Promoting the book, he said that a singular focus on accuracy is largely the reason for the algorithmic misbehavior being seen.[9]
A Library Journal review called the book a solid introduction for general readers without a technical background, while noting that practitioners and computer science students would need to look elsewhere for more technical advice.[10]
November 19, 2019Appears on the Lex Fridman Podcast
On November 19, 2019, he appeared on Lex FridmanLex FridmanLex Fridman is a Soviet-born, US-raised computer scientist and podcast host who works as an MIT research scientist on human-AI interaction and autonomous driving. His Lex Fridman Podcast is known for hours-long conversations with guests including heads of state and technology leaders.Open the full entry’s podcast to discuss The Ethical Algorithm, including algorithmic fairness, bias and privacy, differential privacy, and algorithmic ethics at Facebook and in social networks, as well as game theory, Nash equilibrium and algorithmic trading.[11]
June 2020Becomes an Amazon Scholar
In June 2020 he joined AmazonAmazonAmazon is a publicly traded U.S. technology and retail company founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994, with its principal corporate offices in Seattle. Its businesses span e-commerce, logistics and fulfillment, digital advertising, membership and entertainment services, consumer electronics, and Amazon Web Services cloud computing.Open the full entry as an Amazon Scholar, working on algorithmic fairness and privacy within AWS. In 2021 he and Roth received a PROSE Award from the Association of American Publishers in the computing and information sciences category for The Ethical Algorithm.[5]
April 2021Elected to the National Academy of Sciences
In April 2021 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Penn Engineering described him as an expert in machine learning, algorithmic game theory and microeconomics who uses theoretical and experimental methods to study how new information technology affects issues such as privacy and fairness.[12]
December 7, 2023“Responsible AI in the Wild”
In December 2023 he and Roth wrote about their more than three years as Amazon Scholars at AWS, arguing that the fairness and privacy definitions and algorithms from research are relevant but only one part of a larger AI workstream spanning data, models, services, enterprise customers and end users.[13]
As of October 2026: Academic and Advisory Roles
He has worked in quantitative and algorithmic trading on Wall Street, including at Lehman Brothers, Bank of America, SAC Capital and Morgan StanleyMorgan StanleyMorgan Stanley is an American global financial services firm that grew from an investment banking partnership into a publicly traded financial group spanning investment banking, securities trading, wealth management, and investment management.Open the full entry, and serves on the scientific advisory board of the Alan Turing Institute, on FINRA’s market surveillance advisory group, and as external faculty of the Santa Fe Institute.[14]
He is an elected member or fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the ACM, the AAAI and the Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory.[14]
Related Organizations, Websites, and Public Accounts
Personal website: Public link: https://cis.upenn.edu/~mkearns (opens in a new window)[4]
X: Public account: https://x.com/mkearnsupenn (opens in a new window)[5]
Sources
- ICML-2003 Invited Talks (opens in a new window)
- Thoughts on Hypothesis Boosting (opens in a new window)
- 4/19/05, National Center Professor of Resource Management and Technology - Almanac, Vol. 51, No. 29 (opens in a new window)
- MICHAEL KEARNS (opens in a new window)
- Two Amazon Scholars elected to prestigious science organizations (opens in a new window)
- Michael Kearns – Simons Foundation (opens in a new window)
- 10/22/13, Launching the Warren Center for Network & Data Sciences at Penn - Almanac, Vol. 60, No. 10 (opens in a new window)
- Amazon Scholars Michael Kearns and Aaron Roth discuss the ethics of machine learning (opens in a new window)
- The challenges around creating an “ethical algorithm” (opens in a new window)
- The Ethical Algorithm: The Science of Socially Aware Algorithm Design | Library Journal (opens in a new window)
- Michael Kearns: Algorithmic Fairness, Bias, Privacy, and Ethics in Machine Learning | Lex Fridman Podcast (opens in a new window)
- Michael Kearns Elected to National Academy of Sciences (opens in a new window)
- Responsible AI in the Wild (opens in a new window)
- Michael Kearns – Tapestry Networks (opens in a new window)