Dr. Anima Anandkumar

Professor

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Biography

Anima Anandkumar has made fundamental contributions to artificial intelligence, particularly in revolutionizing scientific modeling and discovery. She invented Neural Operators to learn multiscale phenomena that occur in nature, including fluid dynamics, material modeling, and wave propagation. Anandkumar employed these Neural Operators to train AI-based high-resolution weather models, achieving performance tens of thousands of times faster than existing physics-based forecasting systems used by premier weather agencies. Her AI algorithms have also enabled significant scientific advances in modeling plasma evolution for nuclear fusion, safe autonomous drone flights, innovative medical devices, drugs, and functional enzymes. Throughout her career, she has spearheaded the development of tensor methods, probabilistic latent variable models, and conducted analysis on non-convex optimization. Anima is a fellow of IEEE, ACM, and AAAI. She has received numerous awards including the Time 100 Impact Award, IEEE Kiyo Tomiyasu Award, and the Schmidt Sciences AI2050 senior fellowship, as well as accolades from the Guggenheim Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan, and the Blavatnik Foundations. Additionally, she has been recognized with an NSF Career Award and a Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. Anandkumar has presented her work on AI and science before notable bodies including the White House Science Council and the National AI Advisory Committee and has been featured at TED 2024.

Research Interests

Courses

Foundations of Machine Learning Statistical Inference

Requirements for California Institute of Technology

Doctorate Program
Requirements
TOEFL
Total
Required:100
IELTS
Overall
Required:7
Prerequisites
Bachelor's degree or equivalent Strong background in mathematics and physical sciences
Application Checklist
  • Online Application
  • Statement of Purpose
  • Three Letters of Recommendation
  • Transcripts
  • Resume/CV
Specialization Notes

Most Caltech graduate programs are PhD-only. GRE General and Subject tests vary by department; many have made them optional or no longer accept them.