Meet the PI and current members of our team below.

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 the University of Hamburg. After completing an 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 in 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, he is an Area Chair for NeurIPS 2026, an Associate Editor of the Electronic Journal of Statistics and Sankhya A, an Editorial Board Reviewer of the Journal of Machine Learning Research, and was an Associate Editor of the Canadian Journal of Statistics. 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 the University of Hamburg. He is also a frequent commentator on social and traditional media and a keynote speaker on data science and AI.

johannes.lederer@uni-hamburg.de

Postdoctoral Researchers

Francesco Iafrate

Francesco received his Master’s degree and PhD in Statistics from Sapienza University of Rome. He then work as a research fellow at the Sapienza University, Department of Basic and Applied Sciences for Engineering, until 2024. Francesco is 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 is working on mathematical theories for deep learning.

gitte.kremling@uni-hamburg.de

Ali Mohaddes

Ali received his Master’s degree in applied mathematics from Sharif University of Technology and his PhD in mathematics from the University of Hamburg. Ali is working on rough paths and the mathematical theory of deep learning.

ali.mohaddes@uni-hamburg.de

Yuha Park

Yuha received her Master’s degree in Statistics from the Chonnam National University, Republic of Korea, in 2017, followed by a PhD in Statistics from the 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 applications of deep learning in civil engineering.

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 the 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 the Ruhr University Bochum in cooperation with an engineering company. She received her Master’s degree in mathematics from the Ruhr University Bochum in 2022. Ayla and Johannes are currently working on time-series forecasting based on deep learning.

ayla.jungbluth@rub.de

Amir Lavasani

Amir received a Master’s degree in mathematics from the University of Hamburg. He is working on algorithms and theories for modern machine-learning pipelines.

amir.miri.lavasani@uni-hamburg.de

Benedikt Lütke 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. He currently compares frequentist and Bayesian inference methods, with a particular focus on robustness. Benedikt is co-advised by Nadja Klein (KIT Karlsruhe).

benedikt.luetke.schwienhorst@uni-hamburg.de

Lara Meyn-Grünhagen

Lara received a Master’s degree in technomathematics from the University of Hamburg and the Hamburg University of Technology. She is working on mathematical frameworks for high-dimensional extremes and their applications in neuroscience.

lara.meyn@studium.uni-hamburg.de

Jiayuan Zheng

Jiayuan received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology. She then joined the PhD program in Shanghai under the supervision of Prof. Jing Zhao and Prof. Wenzhe Sun, and she is a visiting student in our group at the University of Hamburg. Jiayuan is working at the intersection of transportation and data science.

251490149@st.usst.edu.cn

Podcast Team and Student Assistants

Milena Braig

Milena completed her Bachelor’s degree in mathematics at the Ruhr University Bochum in 2023 with her thesis on statistical guarantees for convolutional neural networks. Currently is currently enrolled in the Master’s program in mathematics at the University of 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 Bachelor’s degree in empirical cultural studies and media studies at the University of Hamburg. She is particularly interested in digital anthropology and as the program is defined by its interdisciplinary research approach, she has previously engaged with artificial intelligence in different contexts of the humanities: educational work in museums, AI narratives in media, and ethics in AI and robotics. Ronja is working for the podcast Data Science Talks as a student assistant.

ronja.maack@studium.uni-hamburg.de

Nico Räcker

Nico studies media and communication at the 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

Jonathan Welle

Jonathan is a musician, DJ, and sound engineer. Jonathan is the audio lead of our podcast team.

jonathan@suedpol.org

Associated Members

Rodrigo Ribeiro

Rodrigo is a professor of mathematics at IMPA Tech, Brazil. 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 Oliveira and at the Universidad Católica de Chile with Alejandro Ramirez, focusing on random walks in random environments. He was then Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Denver, specializing in discrete probability and random processes, before joining IMPA Tech. He collaborates with our team on theoretical and applied data science.

rodrigo.ribeiro@impatech.edu.br

Alumni

Former postdoctoral researchers and PhD students with subsequent jobs:

Yunqi Bu

Data scientist at Amazon, Seattle

Ayşe Çobankaya

Postdoctoral researcher at Çukurova Üniversitesi

Somnath Chakraborty

Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki

Shih-Ting Huang

Postdoctoral researcher at Washington University, St. Louis

Mike Laszkiewicz

AI expert at the State Police Office

Nehemy Lim

Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Connecticut, Storrs

Fang Xie

Assistant Professor at the BNU-HKBU United International College, Zhuhai

Rui Zhuang

Data scientist at Microsoft, Bellevue