Bio | Aske Plaat

Bio in 100 words

Aske Plaat is professor in artificial intelligence at Leiden University, Scientific Director of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science (LIACS), and heads the Sustainable Energy Learning Lab and the Reinforcement Learning Group. He is the author of two textbooks on Deep Reinforcement Learning. His research interests are in reinforcement learning and self-learning systems. He has won the Novag Award for the best computer chess publication. He is co-author of an ERC Advanced grant on combinatorial algorithms for high energy physics. Previously he has worked at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Tilburg University, the University of Alberta, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Bio in 200 words

Aske Plaat is professor in artificial intelligence at Leiden University, where he is scientific director of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science (LIACS) and heads the Sustainable Energy Learning Lab and the Reinforcement Learning Group. He is interested in adaptive systems, reinforcement learning and games. He is the author of two textbooks on Deep Reinforcement Learning. Since the start he has been involved in the Cyber Security Academy in Leiden. He is also co-founder of the Leiden Center of Data Science and he has initiated the SAILS program for Society, Artificial Intelligence, and Life Science, the university wide program for artificial intelligence. Plaat studied at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada and the Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands. There he received his PhD in artificial intelligence in 1996 for a thesis on search algorithms. After his graduation he did post-doctoral research on the Cilk system in the supercomputing technologies group at the MIT Lab for Computer Science. The group’s chess program Cilkchess won the 1996 Dutch Open Computer Chess Championship in Leiden. He has worked at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam on distributed algorithms for world-wide scalable secure computing. Outside academia, he has worked for consultancies, the Netherlands Ministries of Finance and Justice, and the aviation, games and media industry. In his spare time he likes cycling, sailing, and opera.

Longer Bio

Aske Plaat (1966) is professor in artificial intelligence, and Scientific Director of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science (LIACS) of Leiden University, the Netherlands, where he heads the Sustainable Energy Learning Lab and the Reinforcement Learning Group. Plaat has a background in artificial intelligence and distributed systems. His research interests is reinforcement learning, combinatorial reasoning, and games.

Plaat studied at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada and the Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands. There he received his PhD in artificial intelligence in 1996 for a thesis on search algorithms. This work answered an open question in the relationship between two search algorithms and formed the basis for the creation of the MTD(f) algorithm. His supervisors were Jonathan Schaeffer (University of Alberta, Edmonton) and Arie de Bruin (Erasmus University, Rotterdam). Three years earlier he received a Master’s degree in Information Management from Erasmus University Rotterdam. His Master’s thesis was on compiler support for remote procedure calls. His supervisor was Jan van den Berg.

Previously, he has worked as professor of Information and Complex Decision Making at the Department of Communication and Information Sciences at Tilburg University. Aske Plaat received, with his co-authors, the ICGA Novag award for the best computer chess publication of 1994/1995. After his graduation he did post-doctoral research on the Cilk system with Charles Leiserson at the supercomputing technologies group at the MIT Lab for Computer Science. The group’s chess program Cilkchess, using MTD(f), won the 1996 Dutch Open Computer Chess Championship in Leiden. Cilk technology is now part of Intel’s parallel compiler suite. In 1997 he was awarded the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Postdoctoral Fellowship, and an NWO/SION grant to work with Henri Bal at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam on distributed algorithms for world-wide applications (or scalable computing, as it is now called).

With PI Jos Vermaseren (Nikhef) he is co-author of the HEPGAME project that was awarded a five year Advanced Grant by the European Research Council (proposal) on 12/12/2012. HEPGAME uses machine learning algorithms to solve very complex high energy physics problems. In 2017 the Amsterdam-Leiden-Delft Quantum Software consortium received a 10 year NWO Gravitation grant, of which he leads the Quantum Machine Learning part.

Plaat has (co-)chaired and (co-)edited conferences on combinatorial algorithms, information management and governance. He is the author of two textbooks on Deep Reinforcement Learning. He is a member of the board of the national SIKS research school for Artificial Intelligence and of IPN Informatics Platform Netherlands. He was a member of the PRACE Access Committee. He has supervised over 50 students.

In Leiden, he is a co-founder of CFER, the Computing Facility of Excellent Research, the LCDS Leiden Center of Data Science, the CCLS Center for Computational Life Science, and the SAILS program for Social science, Artificial Intelligence, and Life Science.

Outside academia, he has worked for consultancies, the Netherlands Ministries of Finance and Justice, and the aviation, games and media industry. In his spare time he likes cycling, sailing, and Italian opera.

Hi-rez Photo: lustrum

Resume

Google Scholar citations on Google scholar

LinkedIn Resume on LinkedIn

Education
Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

1996 PhD, Artificial Intelligence
1993 MSc, Economics/Management of Information Systems

Positions

2016- Scientific Director, Leiden University, department of Computer Science
2014- Professor, Leiden University, department of Computer Science
2009-2014 Professor, Tilburg University, department of Communication and Information Sciences
2000-2013 Change Manager, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Justice, The Hague
1997-1999 Postdoctoral Researcher, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Computer Science, Parallel and Distributed Systems
1996-1997 Postdoctoral Fellow, Lab for Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass., Supercomputing Technologies

Research

Machine Learning, Reinforcement Learning, Combinatorial Search, Games

Grants, Memberships

Leiden Sustainable Energy Learning Lab, 2022, 5 year
Initiator of the 2019 Leiden University SAILS initiative on Artificial Intelligence
LIACS participates in the 2019 NWO Gravitation 10 year grant to the Hybrid Intelligence Center
LIACS participates in the 2017 NWO Gravitation 10 year grant to the Quantum Software Consortium
co-author of ERC Advanced grant HEPGAME, 2012, 5 year
eScience Integrator at the Netherlands eScience Center 2015-2018
Board of SIKS research school
(co-)Chair of 8 conferences
co-founder of the Computing Facility for Excellent Research ALICE
co-founder of the Leiden Center of Data Science
co-founder of the Center for Computational Life Science

Office

My office is in Snellius, first floor, room 158. My door is always open, even when it is closed.

Leiden University
Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science LIACS
Niels Bohrweg 1
2333 CA Leiden
The Netherlands

Please contact Daniëlle Toret by email for an appointment (or at 071-527 7045).

Phone

My cell phone is +31-6-4646.7007, I mostly use it for text messages, there is no voice mail.
Please send a message with your question so that I can get back. TL;DR. If your message is short, I typically respond, especially if I find the message interesting. If I have not responded the same evening, try a short version of your message.

If you are looking for a PhD position, please go to the LIACS web pages.

Our secretaries can be reached at:
071-527 7045

Email

My email address is