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Max Welling

Max Welling is a Dutch computer scientist and prominent figure in machine learning, renowned for his foundational contributions to probabilistic deep learning, including the co-development of variational autoencoders (VAEs) that have revolutionized generative modeling in artificial intelligence. He holds a research chair in machine learning as a full professor at the University of Amsterdam's Informatics Institute, where he directs the Amsterdam Machine Learning Lab (AMLab), and is co-founder and Chief AI Officer of CuspAI, an AI startup focused on materials design.^[1]^[2] Welling's academic journey began with a PhD in theoretical high-energy physics from Utrecht University in 1998, supervised by Nobel laureate Gerard 't Hooft, focusing on quantum gravity.^[3] Following his doctorate, he pursued postdoctoral research at the California Institute of Technology (1998–2000), University College London under Geoffrey Hinton (2000–2001), and the University of Toronto (2001–2003), transitioning from physics to machine learning.^[1] He joined the University of Amsterdam in 2013, while previously holding a professorship at the University of California, Irvine, and serving as Vice President of Technologies at Qualcomm AI Research.^[4] Welling is also a fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), a founding board member of the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS), a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (since 2025), and co-founder of Scyfer B.V., a University of Amsterdam spin-off focused on deep learning applications.^[5]^[1]^[6] His research emphasizes Bayesian methods, deep generative models, and the mathematical foundations of deep learning, with over 190,000 citations and an h-index of 117 as of 2025.^[7] Notable works include the seminal paper on VAEs, which introduced efficient variational inference for latent variable models and earned the ICLR Test of Time Award in 2024, as well as advancements in semi-supervised learning with deep generative models.^[8] Welling has received prestigious honors such as the ECCV Koenderink Prize in 2010 for contributions to computer vision and the ICML Test of Time Award in 2021, reflecting the enduring impact of his probabilistic approaches to neural networks and AI scalability.^[9]^[10]

Education

Doctoral studies

Max Welling was born in October 1968 in the Netherlands.^[11] He pursued his early academic studies in physics in the Netherlands, building a strong foundation in theoretical principles that informed his later research.^[12] Welling completed his PhD in theoretical high energy physics at Utrecht University in 1998, under the supervision of Gerard 't Hooft, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1999 for elucidating the quantum structure of electroweak interactions.^[13] His doctoral thesis, titled Classical and Quantum Gravity in 2+1 Dimensions and defended on January 19, 1998, centered on quantum field theory applications to gravitational models in lower-dimensional spacetimes.^[14]^[15] These investigations emphasized mathematical frameworks for describing classical and quantum gravitational dynamics.^[15] During his graduate studies, Welling grew interested in computational techniques for simulating physical phenomena, which motivated his eventual shift toward applying such methods beyond traditional physics.^[12] The rigorous mathematical supervision under 't Hooft fostered analytical approaches that later shaped his probabilistic modeling in machine learning.^[16]

Postdoctoral research

Following his PhD in theoretical physics from Utrecht University in 1998, Max Welling held a postdoctoral fellowship at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) from 1998 to 2000 as a Sherman Fairchild Postdoctoral Scholar, where he focused on computational physics simulations under the supervision of Pietro Perona.^[17]^[16] This position allowed him to apply numerical methods from his physics training to complex simulation problems, laying groundwork for his later transition to machine learning. Welling then conducted postdoctoral research under Geoffrey E. Hinton, first at University College London from 2000 to 2001, and subsequently at the University of Toronto from 2001 to 2003, marking his entry into machine learning through work on energy-based models.^[4]^[16] During this period, he collaborated closely with Hinton on probabilistic graphical models, leveraging concepts from statistical physics to address inference challenges in undirected models like Boltzmann machines. His physics background from the PhD provided key analytical tools for developing Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods, bridging simulations in physical systems to probabilistic modeling in AI.^[18] Welling's initial publications from the Toronto period advanced Boltzmann machines and MCMC techniques, including algorithms for efficient sampling in high-dimensional spaces. Notable contributions include the 2002 paper introducing a contrastive divergence learning algorithm for mean-field Boltzmann machines, which improved training by approximating gradients without full MCMC sampling. He also co-authored work on approximate inference in Boltzmann machines using mean-field and Bethe approximations to handle NP-hard exact inference.^[18] Additionally, in collaboration with Hinton and others, he developed energy-based models for sparse overcomplete representations, demonstrating their application to feature learning in high-dimensional data like natural images. These efforts established foundational techniques for generative modeling and sampling that influenced subsequent developments in deep learning.

Academic career

University of California, Irvine

Max Welling was appointed as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Cognitive Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, in 2003. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2008. During his tenure, Welling established and led efforts in building a vibrant machine learning research community at UCI, including contributions to the Center for Machine Learning and Intelligent Systems, where he focused on advancing probabilistic approaches in the field. He mentored several PhD students, guiding their work on Bayesian inference methods and related topics in statistical machine learning. Welling secured key funding to support his research, including NSF grants IIS-0447903 and IIS-0535278, which enabled investigations into probabilistic modeling techniques applicable to areas such as vision and data analysis. These grants facilitated collaborations with other UCI faculty and external partners, fostering interdisciplinary work in computational modeling. Additionally, he received a 2006 Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) award, which supported advanced research in probabilistic frameworks for visual recognition and learning. After nine years at UCI, Welling departed in 2013 to take up a professorship at the University of Amsterdam, drawn by enhanced opportunities for scaling machine learning research within Europe's burgeoning AI ecosystem.

University of Amsterdam

In 2013, Max Welling was appointed as Full Professor and Research Chair in Machine Learning at the University of Amsterdam's Informatics Institute, part of the Faculty of Science.^[19]^[20] This role marked his transition from the University of California, Irvine, where his prior faculty experience in building machine learning programs informed the establishment of collaborative research environments at the UvA.^[4] Upon joining the UvA, Welling founded the Amsterdam Machine Learning Lab (AMLAB) in 2013 and has directed it continuously since then, guiding a team focused on interdisciplinary AI projects that bridge computer science, statistics, and applied domains.^[1]^[9] Under his leadership, AMLAB has fostered collaborations with industry partners, such as through co-directed labs including the Qualcomm-UvA Lab (QUVA) and the Bosch-UvA DELTA Lab, emphasizing practical advancements in AI methodologies.^[21]^[22] Welling has supervised numerous PhD students and postdoctoral researchers at AMLAB, prioritizing AI applications in scientific fields like physics and biology to drive innovative problem-solving. As of 2025, he remains actively engaged in his professorial duties, including teaching graduate-level courses on probabilistic AI, while contributing to European AI initiatives such as the European Lighthouse on AI for Science (ELISE) and the European AI for Science Summit (AIS25).^[23]^[24]^[25]

Research contributions

Probabilistic methods

Max Welling has significantly advanced variational inference methods for approximate Bayesian computation within neural networks, enabling efficient handling of uncertainty in complex models. A key contribution is the development of a scalable framework that leverages the evidence lower bound (ELBO) to optimize the variational posterior approximation. The ELBO is defined as

\mathcal{L}(\theta, \phi; x) = \mathbb{E}_{q_\phi(z|x)}[\log p_\theta(x,z) - \log q_\phi(z|x)],

which provides a tractable lower bound on the log marginal likelihood, allowing stochastic gradient-based optimization even for high-dimensional latent variables in neural architectures. This approach, introduced in collaboration with Diederik Kingma, facilitates approximate inference by reparameterizing the sampling process to make it differentiable, thus scaling to large datasets without relying on expensive Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulations.^[26] In the realm of Bayesian neural networks (BNNs), Welling's work focuses on improving uncertainty quantification by specifying appropriate priors on network weights and deriving flexible variational posteriors. For instance, he co-developed multiplicative normalizing flows to enhance the expressiveness of approximate posteriors in BNNs, transforming simple distributions like Gaussians into more complex ones that better capture multimodal posteriors and epistemic uncertainty. These priors, often chosen as scale mixtures or hierarchical structures, allow BNNs to quantify both aleatoric and epistemic uncertainties in predictions, outperforming deterministic networks in tasks with limited data. This has proven particularly useful for reliable decision-making in safety-critical applications, where overconfident predictions are mitigated through posterior sampling.^[27] Welling's early contributions to MCMC methods for energy-based models laid groundwork for efficient sampling in deep architectures. In joint work with Yee Whye Teh and others, he explored MCMC techniques to learn sparse representations in overcomplete models, using contrastive divergence as an approximation to full MCMC for tractable training on high-dimensional data.^[28] Building on this, adaptations of Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC) were incorporated to explore the energy landscape more effectively, leveraging Hamiltonian dynamics to propose distant samples and reduce autocorrelation in chains for deep energy-based models. These methods improve mixing in non-convex potentials typical of deep networks. These probabilistic techniques have enabled scalable inference on large datasets, with applications in computer vision—such as modeling image distributions on benchmarks like MNIST and CIFAR-10—and in physics simulations, where they support Bayesian inference for complex dynamical systems like particle interactions. For example, stochastic gradient variants of MCMC, developed by Welling, allow approximate posterior sampling in scenarios with massive data volumes, as seen in simulations of physical processes. These inference methods also underpin generative models, where variational approximations facilitate learning latent representations.

Generative models

Max Welling has made foundational contributions to generative modeling, particularly through the development of variational autoencoders (VAEs) and extensions to other probabilistic architectures. In collaboration with Diederik P. Kingma, he co-authored the seminal 2013 paper "Auto-Encoding Variational Bayes," which introduced VAEs as a class of probabilistic graphical models that combine deep neural networks with variational inference to learn latent representations of data.^[26] The VAE architecture consists of an encoder that maps input data to a latent space distribution, typically parameterized by mean \mu and variance \sigma^2, and a decoder that reconstructs the data from samples in this space, enabling efficient generation of new samples. A key innovation was the reparameterization trick, which allows backpropagation through stochastic layers by expressing latent variables as z = \mu + \sigma \odot \epsilon, where \epsilon \sim \mathcal{N}(0, I) and \odot denotes element-wise multiplication, facilitating end-to-end training via stochastic gradient descent.^[26] This approach relies on variational inference as the optimization backbone, approximating the intractable posterior distribution to maximize a lower bound on the data likelihood.^[26] Building on VAEs, Welling extended generative models to semi-supervised learning settings. In the 2014 NeurIPS paper "Semi-supervised Learning with Deep Generative Models," co-authored with Kingma, Danilo Rezende, and Shakir Mohamed, he proposed deep generative models that integrate labeled and unlabeled data to improve classification performance when labels are scarce.^[29] These models use a joint generative-discriminative framework where the generative component learns the underlying data distribution, while the discriminative part infers class labels, achieving state-of-the-art results on datasets like MNIST by leveraging unlabeled examples to refine latent representations.^[29] This work demonstrated how generative priors can enhance generalization in low-data regimes, with empirical improvements in accuracy over purely supervised baselines. Earlier in his career, Welling advanced unsupervised feature learning using restricted Boltzmann machines (RBMs), stochastic neural networks that model data as joint distributions over visible and hidden units. In the 2003 NeurIPS paper "Wormholes Improve Contrastive Divergence," co-authored with Andriy Mnih and Geoffrey E. Hinton, he introduced techniques to accelerate training of RBMs by modifying the Markov chain sampling process with "wormholes" that connect distant states, reducing mixing time in contrastive divergence (CD) learning.^[30] CD approximates maximum likelihood by performing short Gibbs sampling chains starting from data, and Welling's improvements addressed limitations in standard CD by enhancing exploration of the model distribution, leading to better feature extraction for tasks like image denoising and pretraining deep networks. His contributions to CD-based training, including extensions to mean-field approximations in Boltzmann machines, laid groundwork for scalable unsupervised learning in early deep learning pipelines.^[31] More recently, Welling has focused on equivariant generative models tailored for geometric data, particularly in molecular design. In the 2022 paper "Equivariant Diffusion for Molecule Generation in 3D," co-authored with Emiel Hoogeboom, Victor Garcia Satorras, and Clément Vignac, he developed an E(3)-equivariant diffusion model that generates molecular structures invariant to rotations and translations by incorporating symmetry-aware score matching in the reverse diffusion process.^[32] This approach outperforms non-equivariant baselines in generating valid 3D molecules, as measured by metrics like validity and novelty on benchmarks such as QM9, enabling applications in drug discovery by producing geometrically feasible conformers directly in continuous space.^[32] These models extend generative paradigms to handle the symmetries inherent in physical systems, improving efficiency and realism in structure generation. In 2023, Welling co-introduced Bayesian Flow Networks (BFNs), a new class of generative models that perform amortized Bayesian inference to sample jointly from data and latent variables, allowing for exact likelihood computation and diverse generation without autoregressive factorization. Presented at ICLR 2024, BFNs address limitations in existing flow and diffusion models by iteratively updating distribution parameters via forward and backward passes, showing promise for structured data like molecules and sequences.^[33]

Industry and entrepreneurship

Early industry roles

In 2017, following the acquisition of his startup Scyfer B.V. by Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., Max Welling assumed the role of Vice President of Technologies at Qualcomm Netherlands, where he led AI research initiatives focused on mobile and edge computing applications.^[34]^[35] This position built on the earlier establishment of the Qualcomm-UvA Deep Vision Lab (QUVA) in 2015, a collaborative effort between Qualcomm and the University of Amsterdam that Welling co-directed to advance deep learning for embedded systems and real-time vision processing on resource-constrained devices.^[22]^[36] Welling co-founded Scyfer B.V. earlier that year as a spin-off from the University of Amsterdam, specializing in deep learning solutions for practical applications such as image recognition and predictive modeling.^[34] The company's acquisition by Qualcomm in August 2017 integrated its expertise into Qualcomm's broader AI ecosystem, enabling Welling and his team to contribute to scalable AI deployments on mobile platforms.^[34] During his tenure, Welling oversaw the development of probabilistic AI tools tailored for real-time signal processing, including innovations in modeling uncertainty from sensor inputs to enhance reliability in edge environments. A key outcome of this work was the pursuit of patents on techniques for machine learning based on probability distributions of sensor data, which addressed challenges in fusing noisy inputs from multiple sensors for applications like autonomous navigation and environmental monitoring. These efforts drew brief inspiration from prototypes informed by research at the Amsterdam Machine Learning Lab (AMLAB), adapting academic probabilistic methods to industry-scale hardware constraints. Welling maintained a hybrid role during this period, balancing his Qualcomm responsibilities with his professorship at the University of Amsterdam until 2021, fostering a bridge between academic innovation and commercial AI deployment.^[1]^[37]

Recent ventures

From 2021 to 2024, Max Welling served as a Distinguished Scientist at Microsoft Research AI for Science, where he led the Amsterdam laboratory focused on advancing AI-driven scientific discovery across domains such as molecular simulations and materials science.^[38]^[39] Under his leadership, the lab developed AI tools to accelerate simulations of physical systems, including equivariant diffusion models that generate 3D molecular structures while preserving symmetries essential for accurate physical predictions.^[40] These efforts aimed to bridge machine learning with quantum and classical simulations for applications in chemistry and physics.^[41] In 2024, Welling co-founded CuspAI, where he serves as chief technology officer, pioneering a startup that leverages generative AI for materials design to expedite the discovery of novel molecules.^[2]^[42] In September 2025, CuspAI raised $100 million in Series A funding, co-led by NEA and Northzone, to scale its AI platform for materials innovation addressing climate and energy challenges. The platform accelerates molecule property analysis by a factor of 10 compared to traditional methods, enabling rapid iteration in designing materials for real-world challenges.^[43] At CuspAI, key initiatives include AI systems for sustainable materials, such as advanced sorbents for carbon capture and efficient battery components, drawing briefly on generative modeling techniques from prior academic research to optimize molecular structures.^[44]^[45] Through these ventures, Welling has contributed to patents on equivariant neural architectures that enhance AI simulations for molecular and materials applications, including gauge-equivariant graph convolutional networks applicable to drug-like molecule design.^[46] Collaborations stemming from Microsoft Research and CuspAI extend to AI for drug discovery—such as structure-based modeling with equivariant diffusion—and climate initiatives, including partnerships with Hyundai Motor Group for innovative sustainable materials and Kemira for AI-optimized chemicals in water treatment and emissions reduction.^[47]^[48]^[20]

Recognition

Awards

Max Welling has received several prestigious awards recognizing his foundational contributions to machine learning and computer vision. In 2010, he was awarded the Koenderink Prize at the European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV) for his pioneering work applying probabilistic models to computer vision problems, including the development of efficient inference techniques for complex visual data representations.^[49] Welling's advancements in scalable Bayesian methods earned him the Best Paper Award at the 29th International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML) in 2012 for the paper "Bayesian Posterior Sampling via Stochastic Gradient Fisher Scoring," co-authored with Sungjin Ahn and Anoop Korattikara, which introduced an efficient algorithm for posterior sampling in high-dimensional spaces using stochastic gradients.^[50] This work built on his earlier innovations in Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) techniques, highlighting his impact on variational and sampling-based inference. In 2018, he received the Best Paper Award at the International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR) for "Spherical CNNs," co-authored with Taco Cohen, which extended convolutional neural networks to operate on spherical data, enabling rotationally invariant processing for applications like climate modeling and molecular analysis.^[51] His long-term influence on generative modeling was honored with Test of Time Awards from both ICML and ICLR. The ICML 2021 Test of Time Award recognized the 2011 paper "Bayesian Learning via Stochastic Gradient Langevin Dynamics," co-authored with Yee Whye Teh, for introducing stochastic gradient MCMC methods that facilitate scalable Bayesian inference in deep learning, demonstrating its enduring impact.^[52] Similarly, the inaugural ICLR 2024 Test of Time Award was given to the 2013 paper "Auto-Encoding Variational Bayes," co-authored with Diederik P. Kingma, for establishing the variational autoencoder (VAE) framework, a cornerstone of generative models that integrates probabilistic inference with neural networks and has inspired extensions like semi-supervised learning approaches.^[53] In 2025, he received an Honorable Mention in the AI 2000 Most Influential Scholar Award in Machine Learning from AMiner.^[54] These awards underscore Welling's role in bridging probabilistic methods with deep learning, including invited keynotes at conferences such as NeurIPS and ICML where he discussed synergies between physics-inspired models and AI.^[8]

Fellowships and memberships

Max Welling has been a Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) since 2016 and is affiliated with the Learning in Machines & Brains program, which focuses on advancing understanding of intelligence through interdisciplinary research in machine learning and neuroscience.^[55] In 2025, Welling was elected as a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), recognizing his outstanding contributions to science, particularly in machine learning and artificial intelligence.^[6] Welling serves on the Advisory Board of the NeurIPS Foundation since 2015, contributing to the governance and strategic direction of one of the premier conferences in machine learning.^[21] He also held the position of Associate Editor-in-Chief for IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (TPAMI) from 2011 to 2015, overseeing editorial processes for high-impact research in computer vision and pattern recognition.^[56] Additionally, Welling is a Fellow of the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS), where he serves on the founding board, playing a key role in fostering collaborative AI research across Europe as part of broader initiatives to strengthen the continent's AI ecosystem.^[9]

References

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Max Welling - Amsterdam Machine Learning Lab
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Dr. Max Welling is a research chair in Machine Learning at the University of Amsterdam and a Distinguished Scientist at MSR. He is a fellow at the Canadian ...
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CAIO CuspAI & Professor Machine Learning, University of Amsterdam - ‪‪Cited by 190340‬‬ - ‪Machine Learning‬ - ‪Artificial Intelligence‬ - ‪Statistics‬
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Max Welling | IEEE Xplore Author Details
He directs the Amsterdam Machine Learning Lab (AMLAB), and co-directs the Qualcomm-UvA deep learning lab (QUVA) and the Bosch-UvA Deep Learning lab (DELTA).