Leena Chennuru Vankadara to start her group at the Gatsby Unit

We are delighted to announce that Dr Leena Chennuru Vankadara will join the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit as Lecturer in February 2025. Her group will develop theoretical understandings of scaling and generalization in deep learning and causality.

Having completed her Master of Science degree in Intelligent Adaptive Systems at University of Hamburg, Leena joined the International Max Planck Research School for Intelligent Systems. There she worked with Debarghya Ghoshdastidar and Ulrike von Luxburg investigating theoretical foundations of kernel clustering and causal learning with emphasis on the problems of identification, estimation, and computation. She then joined Amazon Research as an Applied Scientist where she pursued fundamental research in the theory of scaling and causal learning.

“Deep learning theory and causality present some of the most fascinating challenges in modern machine learning. Classical theories of statistical learning and optimization often struggle to explain the empirical success of deep learning algorithms or even provide reliable guidance on their behaviour, especially as models scale to unprecedented levels. Meanwhile, causality is still in its nascency, with formal mechanisms still emerging.” said Dr Leena Chennuru Vankadara.

“I am thrilled to join the Gatsby Unit, a community of exceptional talent committed to pursuing the fundamental science of learning. With the Unit’s rich history of producing world-class theoreticians and its strong culture of collaboration and cohesion, I can think of no better place to establish my research group. I am very excited to be able to tackle the aforementioned open research questions at the Unit, leveraging its collaborative environment to push the boundaries of our understanding in both machine and natural learning.”

Leena’s group will develop efficient, reliable, and trustworthy machine learning models through two distinct research directions: understanding the theoretical underpinnings of deep learning and causal learning theory.

“Leena will bring an outstanding research programme in the theory of deep learning and causality, that both complements and extends themes of central importance to the Unit in our studies of both machine and natural intelligence. We are tremendously excited to welcome her to our community next February,” said Professor Maneesh Sahani, Director of the Gatsby Unit.

For more information on Leena and her research, please visit her webpage.