Jenna Wiens honored with Humboldt Foundation Research Award

Jenna Wiens, associate professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Michigan, has been selected to receive the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Research Award by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The award recognizes her outstanding academic contributions in the spheres of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Established in 2015, the Humboldt Foundation’s Carl Friedrich von Siemens Research Award seeks to honor leading researchers in recognition of their career contributions to their field. Up to 100 awards are given each year to internationally recognized researchers across all disciplines, from engineering to literature. Awardees receive a prize of 65,000 euros and are invited for a research stay of up to a year in Germany.

Wiens is an international leader in machine learning and artificial intelligence. Much of her work is inspired by use-cases in healthcare. Her work has led to considerable advances in the development of novel computational methods to organize, process, and glean actionable information from patient data. This includes models to predict adverse health outcomes and disease progression. Overall, in collaboration with other researchers and clinicians, Wiens has played a crucial role in forwarding the adoption of machine learning in healthcare.

With the support of the Humboldt Foundation, Wiens plans to continue her work in machine learning in Germany in collaboration with researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry. 

“I am honored to be selected for this award and join the select ranks of extraordinary Humboldt Research Award recipients,” said Wiens. “I look forward to building productive collaborations with  colleagues in Germany, with the goal of advancing machine learning and artificial intelligence for healthcare.”

Wiens joined CSE in 2014 after receiving her PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She was selected as one of Forbes’ “30 Under 30” in 2015 and was included in MIT Technology Review’s List of Innovators in 2017. Wiens received an NSF CAREER Award in 2016 and was named an Arthur P. Sloan Fellow in 2020. At U-M, Wiens was named a Morris Wellman Faculty Development Professor in 2017, received the EECS Outstanding Achievement Award in 2020, and was selected for the U-M Sarah Goddard Power Award in 2023.