Vasant Honavar
Artificial Intelligence Researcher, Educator, and Leader | Director, Center for Artificial Intelligence Foundations and Scientific Applications | Huck Chair in Biomedical AI and Data Sciences @ Penn State
Updated 8 months ago
36+
Years Experience
34
Roles
21
Skills
5
Education
About
I currently hold the Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Biomedical Data Sciences and Artificial Intelligence at Penn State University. I have extensive research, curriculum and program development, and leadership in Artificial Intelligence, Data Sciences, and Informatics. My research has resulted in scalable methods for learning predictive models from (distributed, heterogeneous, multi-modal, longitudinal, and very high-dimensional) data; representation learning from complex data; eliciting causal effects from observational and experimental data; selective sharing of knowledge across disparate knowledge bases; and applications in bioinformatics and health informatics (predictive and causal modeling of health risks and health outcomes from clinical, socio-demographic, and behavioral data). I have published over 300 research articles that have been cited more than 19000 times (h-index = 63). I have mentored 39 PhD students, 10 postdoctoral researchers and scores of masters and undergraduate researchers and junior faculty who have gone on to establish successful careers. I have co-founded and led innovative interdisciplinary graduate and undergraduate programs. I have received multiple awards and honors including the National Science Foundation (NSF) Director’s Award for Superior Accomplishment for my leadership of the NSF Big Data Program, Iowa Board of Regents Award for Faculty Excellence and numerous other awards from Iowa State University and Pennsylvania State University. I have been elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the European Association for Innovation, and Distinguished member of the Association for Computing Machinery. As the Director of the Center for Artificial Intelligence Foundations and Scientific Applications, I lead new research initiatives that leverage AI and data sciences to advance scientific knowledge and innovation across diverse domains, such as life sciences, biomedical and health sciences, material sciences, and more. As Associate Director of the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences, I lead strategic faculty co-hire initiatives, multi-institutional partnerships, and interdisciplinary research collaborations. My key focus is to develop and apply cutting-edge AI and data sciences methods to address complex scientific challenges and societal problems, as well as to create and disseminate interdisciplinary curricula that integrate AI and data sciences across all disciplines.
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Experience (34 roles)
11 yrs 11 mos
Current5 roles · Apr 2021 - Present
Professor of Informatics and Intelligent Systems
CurrentCo-led the development of an AI Bachelors Degree Program. Developed AI undergraduate and graduate curricula and courses, designed and taught graduate and undergraduate AI courses - on machine learning, causal inference, deep learning, knowledge representation, and related topics, including first-yea...
Associate Director for AI and Strategic Initiatives, NSF NCEMS
CurrentLeadership in artificial intelligence and data sciences for advancing discovery in molecular and cellular sciences, research initiatives in AI for science, and education and training initiatives for preparing the next generation of scientists at the intersection of AI and life sciences. Skills: Lead...
Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Biomedical Data Sciences and Artificial Intelligence
CurrentResearch and education in Artificial Intelligence (Knowledge Representation, Machine Learning, Causal Inference) and Data Sciences, with applications to Predictive and Causal Modeling in Biological, Biomedical, Behavioral, Cognitive, Social and Physical Sciences Skills: Leadership · Data Science · A...
Professor of Public Health Sciences
CurrentResearch in biomedical data sciences and artificial intelligence, with emphasis on predictive and causal modeling of health risks and outcomes from biomedical, behavioral, environmental and sociodemographic data Skills: Data Science · Higher Education · Data Mining · Bioinformatics · Curriculum Deve...
Director, Center for Artificial Intelligence Foundations and Scientific Applications
CurrentDeveloped new research initiatives focused on accelerating science through advances in artificial intelligence; with initial emphasis on life sciences; biomedical and health sciences; material sciences leading to several large externally funded research projects. Skills: Leadership · Data Science · ...
Steering Committee Member
CurrentEnvisioning, developing and deploying federated data and computing infrastructure for data and computation Intensive collaborative research across disciplinary and organizational boundaries. Initial scientific foci are structural biology and materials discovery. Skills: Higher Education · Computer S...
11 yrs 11 mos
Current11 roles · Sep 2013 - Present
Professor of Computer Science (Graduate Program)
CurrentResearch, graduate (PhD) student training and teaching in Computer Science (especially artificial intelligence, big data analytics, machine learning, and related topics). Skills: Data Science · Artificial Intelligence · Higher Education · Data Mining · Bioinformatics · Curriculum Development · Machi...
Director, Center for Big Data Analytics and Discovery Informatics
CurrentFostered fundamental research in algorithms, methods, and software for big data analytics and discovery informatics; catalyzed interdisciplinary collaborations that leverage large-scale data analytics and predictive modeling to advance sciences, engineering, and humanities, with particular emphasis...
Professor of Neuroscience (Graduate Program)
CurrentResearch and graduate training in neuroinformatics, computational neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, computational models of learning, perception, and action. Skills: Data Science · Higher Education · Data Mining · Bioinformatics · Curriculum Development · Deep Learning · Big Data · Research · Sc...
Associate Director, Institute for Computational and Data Sciences
CurrentCo-developed and co-led the institute's strategic research initiatives in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence; developed the Center for Artificial Intelligence Foundations and Scientific Applications; Led strategic faculty co-hire initiatives with several departments and colleges; developed mul...
Faculty Member, Operations Research (Graduate Program)
CurrentResearch and graduate training in machine learning, optimization, and related topics. Skills: Higher Education · Curriculum Development · Big Data · Research · Science · University Teaching
Director, Artificial Intelligence Research Laboratory
CurrentLed research projects, and training graduate and postdoctoral students artificial intelligence, machine learning from large, federated, multimodal, longitudinal, richly structured data, causal inference from observational and experimental data, representing and reasoning about preferences, knowledge...
Faculty Member, Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences
CurrentResearch and graduate training in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. Skills: Data Science · Artificial Intelligence · Higher Education · Data Mining · Bioinformatics · Curriculum Development · Machine Learning · Big Data · Computational Biology · Research · Science · Informatics · University ...
Professor of Data Sciences
CurrentEstablished and led research programs in Artificial intelligence, Data Sciences, and related areas; Co-led the development of an inter college Data Sciences undergraduate degree program; developed and taught graduate and undergraduate courses in artificial intelligence, machine learning, causal infe...
Professor of Bioinformatics and Genomics (Graduate Program)
CurrentResearch and graduate training in bioinformatics and computational biology. Skills: Data Science · Higher Education · Data Mining · Bioinformatics · Curriculum Development · Machine Learning · Computer Science · Deep Learning · Big Data · Computational Biology · Research · Science · Informatics · Un...
Professor of Informatics (Graduate Program)
CurrentSkills: Data Science · Artificial Intelligence · Higher Education · Data Mining · Bioinformatics · Curriculum Development · Machine Learning · Computer Science · Deep Learning · Big Data · Computational Biology · Research · Science · Informatics · University Teaching
Faculty Member, Institute for Computational and Data Sciences
CurrentResearch on data analytics applied to scientific discovery. Skills: Data Science · Higher Education · Curriculum Development · Machine Learning · Computer Science · Big Data · Computational Biology · Research · Science · Informatics · University Teaching
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Education (5)
University of Wisconsin-Madison
1985 - 1990
Skills: Research · Informatics · Artificial Intelligence · Data Mining · University Teaching · Machine Learning · Computer Science · Data Science
Drexel University
1983 - 1984
Skills: Research · University Teaching · Image Processing
Bangalore University
1977 - 1982
Skills (21)
Publications (20)▼
Can machine learning predict late seizures after intracerebral hemorrhages? Evidence from real-world data.
Epilepsy & Behavior · May 5, 2024
Performance of an open machine learning model to classify sleep/wake from actigraphy across ∼24-hour intervals without knowledge of rest timing
Sleep Health · Aug 10, 2023
A practical guide to machine learning interatomic potentials – Status and future
Current Opinion in Solid State and Materials Science · Mar 3, 2025
Checking Consistency of CP-Theory Preferences in Polynomial Time
Proceedings of the Thirty-Ninth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence · Jan 15, 2025
On a Connection Between Imitation Learning and RLHF
Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Conference on Learning Representations. · Apr 2, 2025
TabLog: Test-Time Adaptation for Tabular Data Using Logic Rules
Proceedings of the International Conference on Machine Learning · Jun 20, 2024
Class Incremental Learning from First Principles: A Review
Transactions on Machine Learning Research · Feb 10, 2025
3M-Diffusion: Latent Multi-Modal Diffusion for Language-Guided Molecular Structure Generation
Proceedings of the First Conference on Language Modeling (COLM 2024) · Oct 3, 2024
A Simple, Fast Algorithm for Continual Learning from High-Dimensional Data
International Conference on Representation Learning (ICLR 2023) · May 1, 2023
Hyperdimensional Representation Learning for Node Classification and Link Prediction
Proceedings of the 18th ACM International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining. · Jan 15, 2025
Forecasting User Interests Through Topic Tag Predictions in Online Health Communities
IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics. · Apr 28, 2023
SimPER: A Minimalist Approach to Preference Alignment Without Hyperparameters
Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Conference on Learning Representations. · Apr 2, 2025
Inducing Clusters Deep Kernel Gaussian Process for Longitudinal Data
Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Machine Learning · Feb 21, 2024
How to Leverage Demonstration Data in Alignment for Large Language Model? A Self- Imitation Learning Perspective
Proceedings of the 2024 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing · Nov 12, 2024
DSPO: Direct Score Preference Optimization for Diffusion Model Alignment
Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Conference on Learning Representations. · Apr 2, 2025
Calibrated Preference Optimization for Direct Language Model Alignment
Proceedings of the Thirty-eighth Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems · Dec 10, 2024
EsaCL: An Efficient Continual Learning Algorithm.
Proceedings of the SIAM Conference on Data Mining. · Mar 8, 2024
Causal Effect Estimation Using Random Hyperplane Tessellations
Proceedings of the Conference on Causal Learning and Reasoning · Mar 8, 2024
Efficient Contrastive Learning for Fast and Accurate Inference on Graphs
Proceedings of the International Conference on Machine Learning · Jun 20, 2024
Representing and Reasoning with Multi-Stakeholder Qualitative Preference Queries
European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI-23) · Oct 1, 2023
Languages (7)▼
Honors & Awards (13)▼
National Science Foundation Director’s Award for Collaborative Integration
Issued by National Science Foundation · Sep 2012
Associated with National Science Foundation
ACM Distinguished Member
Issued by ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) · Oct 2018
For outstanding scientific contributions to computing.
Outstanding Career Achievement in Research Award
Issued by College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Iowa State University · Jan 2008
Associated with Iowa State University For excellence in research
Senior Faculty Excellence in Research Award
Issued by College of Information Sciences and Technology, Pennsylvania State University · May 2016
Associated with Penn State University
Regents Award for Faculty Excellence
Issued by Iowa Board of Regents · Jan 2007
Associated with Iowa State University In recognition of outstanding service to Iowa State University and the State of Iowa through lead role in developing a nationally recognized Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Program
Sudha Murty Distinguished Visiting Chair of Neurocomputing and Data Science
Issued by Indian Institute of Science · Oct 2016
Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Biomedical Data Sciences and Artificial Intelligence
Issued by The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, Pennsylvania State University · Oct 2021
For scientific contributions at the interface between artificial intelligence and data sciences and biomedical sciences.
European Alliance for Innovation (EAI) Fellow
Issued by European Alliance for Innovation · Jan 2019
In recognition of technical excellence and activities with global impact
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow
Issued by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Information, Computing, and Communications Section (Section T) · Nov 2018
For distinguished contributions to research and technical leadership in data science
125 People of Impact
Issued by Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison · Jul 2016
"125 People of Impact" - alumni and faculty recognized for their contributions on the occasion of the 125th anniversary celebration of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Edward Frymoyer Endowed Chair in Information Sciences and Technology
Issued by College of Information Sciences and Technology, Pennsylvania State University · Sep 2013
The endowed chair was established in 1999 through a gift of $1.5 million from the Edward M. Frymoyer Foundation. The holder of the Frymoyer Chair is expected to have a significant impact not only in the College, but also across multiple disciplines at the University and in the public and private sectors. Funds from the endowment supports the chair holder's contributions to instruction, research, and public service with the overall intent to foster the use, benefits, and effectiveness of the information sciences around the globe.
Margaret Ellen White Graduate Faculty Award
Issued by Iowa State University · Jan 2011
Associated with Iowa State University For excellence in mentoring of graduate students
National Science Foundation Director's Award for Superior Accomplishment
Issued by National Science Foundation · Sep 2013
Associated with National Science Foundation "For exemplary leadership in the implementation and execution of the Big Data initiative and related innovative interagency collaboration".
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