Our research encompasses diverse projects and collaborations at the University of Hamburg and beyond. Find below information about the PI and the current team.
PI | Post-Doctoral | PhD | Student Assistants | External Members | Alumni
Principal Investigator
Johannes Lederer
Johannes is a data-science professor, podcaster, and entrepreneur. Johannes holds the Chair of Mathematics for Data-Driven Methods in the Department of Mathematics, Computer Science, and Natural Sciences at University of Hamburg. After completing a MSc in Physics at ETH Zürich and Paris VI in 2010, he obtained his Doctor of Sciences under the supervision of Sara van de Geer and Peter Bühlmann at ETH Zürich in 2013. He then joined UC Berkeley as a postdoctoral researcher hosted by Martin Wainwright, before serving as the Jacob Wolfowitz Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Statistical Science at Cornell University starting 2013. In 2015, Johannes became Assistant Professor of Statistics and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Washington. He was then appointed as Professor at Ruhr University Bochum in 2018 and, in 2023, joined the University of Hamburg in his current role. Johannes was also an Affiliate Faculty at the University of Washington and Visiting Professor at UC Louvain (2017), University of Hong Kong (2020), and University Gustave Eiffel (2023). Moreover, Johannes is an Associate Editor of the Electronic Journal of Statistics, Canadian Journal of Statistics, and Sankhya A. Johannes is a founding member of Hamburg Virtual Initiative for Science & Technology in AI, a member of Kiez of Computing and Data Science, and the outreach delegate for mathematics at University of Hamburg. He is also a frequent voice on social and classical media and a keynote speaker on data science and AI.
johannes.lederer@uni-hamburg.de
Post-Doctoral Researchers
Francesco Iafrate
Francesco received his Master’s degree and PhD in Statistics from Sapienza Univeristy of Rome. He then joined the Department of Basic and Applied Sciences for Engineering in Sapienza University as a Research Fellow until 2024. Francesco and Johannes are working at the intersection of high-dimensional statistics and time-series analysis.
francesco.iafrate@uni-hamburg.de
Gitte Kremling
Gitte received her Master’s degree in applied mathematics and computer science from FH Aachen in 2019, followed by a PhD in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA, in 2024. Her doctoral research focused on mathematical statistics and asymptotic theory. Now, Gitte and Johannes are working on mathematical theories for deep learning.
gitte.kremling@uni-hamburg.de
Yuha Park
Yuha received her Master’s degree in Statistics from Chonnam National University, Republic of Korea, in 2017, followed by a PhD in Statistics from Seoul National University, Republic of Korea, in 2024. Her doctoral research focused on statistical machine learning and the minimax optimality of statistical testing. Yuha is currently working on methods and applications of deep learning.
yuha.park@uni-hamburg.de
Mahsa Taheri
Mahsa received her Master’s degree in artificial intelligence from IUT, Iran, in 2017, and her PhD in mathematics from Ruhr-University Bochum in 2022. Mahsa and Johannes are working at the intersection of mathematics and computer science in high-dimensional statistics and deep learning.
mahsa.taheri@uni-hamburg.de
PhD Students
Pegah Golestaneh
Pegah received her Master’s degree in artificial intelligence from IUT, Iran, in 2016. Pegah and Johannes are developing statistical theories for deep learning.
pegah.golestaneh@uni-hamburg.de
Ayla Jungbluth
Ayla is a PhD student in mathematical statistics at Ruhr-University Bochum in cooperation with an engineering company. She received her Master’s degree in mathematics from Ruhr-University Bochum in 2022. Ayla and Johannes are currently working on time-series forecasting based on deep learning.
ayla.jungbluth@rub.de
Benedikt Lüdtke Schwienhorst
Benedikt obtained his Master’s degree in statistics from the Humboldt University of Berlin. He wrote his Master’s thesis on the use of dropout regularization in extended generalized linear models. Currently, he works on the comparison of frequentist and Bayesian methods for inference in particular with respect to robustness. Benedikt is co-advised by Nadja Klein (KIT Karlsruhe).
benedikt.luetke.schwienhorst@uni-hamburg.de
Ali Mohaddes
Ali received his Master’s degree in applied mathematics from Sharif University of Technology. He did his Master’s thesis on rough paths and their applications in machine learning. Now, he is working on the mathematical theory of deep learning and on extreme-value theory.
ali.mohaddes@uni-hamburg.de
Student Assistants
Juan Ainto
Juan received his Bachelors degree in applied mathematics from the University of Cologne. Currently, he does a Masters program in industrial mathematics at the University of Hamburg and the Hamburg University of Technology. He is particularly interested in Deep Learning and Graph Neural Networks.
juan.ainto@studium.uni-hamburg.de
Milena Braig
Milena completed her Bachelors degree in mathematics at the Ruhr/University Bochum in 2023 with her thesis on statistical guarantees for convolutional neural networks. Currently she does her Masters program in mathematics at the University Hamburg and has a particular interest in high-dimensional statistics and deep learning. As a student assistant, Milena is part of the priority program “Theoretical Foundations of Deep Learning’’ of the German Research Foundation.
milena.braig@studium.uni-hamburg.de
Ronja Maack
Ronja is currently studying for a Bachelors degree in empirical cultural studies and media studies at the University of Hamburg. She is particularly interested in digital anthropology and as the programm is defined by its interdisciplinary research approach, she has engaged with artificial intelligence in different contexts of the humanities before: educational work in museums, AI narratives in media, ethics in AI and robotics etc. Ronja is working for the podcast Data Science Talks as a student assistant.
ronja.maack@studium.uni-hamburg.de
Lara Meyn
Lara is studying for a Master’s degree in technomathematics at the University of Hamburg and the Hamburg University of Technology. In her studies, she focuses on analysing large amounts of data using mathematical and machine-learning methods.
lara.meyn@studium.uni-hamburg.de
Nico Räcker
Nico studies media and communication at Hamburg University of Applied Sciences. His academic focus includes exploring the impact of AI on journalism and the media industry, for example, in relation to algorithms. Alongside his studies, he works as a student assistant for the “Data Science Talks” podcast.
nico.raecker@web.de
External Members
Rodrigo Ribeiro
Rodrigo is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Denver, specializing in discrete probability and random processes. He earned his PhD from the Federal University of Minas Gerais, in Brazil, where he researched random graphs with preferential attachment. He completed postdoctoral work at IMPA under the supervision of Roberto I. Oliveira and at the Universidad Católica de Chile with Alejandro Ramirez, focusing on random walks in random environments. He is conduction research with the team on theoretical and applied data science.
rodrigo.ribeiro@colorado.edu
Alumni
Former post-doctoral researchers and PhD students with subsequent jobs:
Yunqi Bu
Data Scientist at Amazon, Seattle
Ayşe Çobankaya
Postdoc at Çukurova Üniversitesi
Somnath Chakraborty
Postdoc at University of Helsinki
Shih-Ting Huang
Post-doctoral researcher at Washington University, St. Louis
Mike Laszkiewicz
AI expert at the State Police Office
Nehemy Lim
Visiting Assistant Professor at University of Connecticut, Storrs
Fang Xie
Assistant Professor BNU-HKBU United International College, Zhuhai
Rui Zhuang
Data scientist at Microsoft, Bellevue
Johannes Lederer 