Ryen White

Ryen White is a highly accomplished research scientist and leader at Microsoft Research in Redmond. He currently serves as the Deputy Lab Director and General Manager at Microsoft Research.15 His career at Microsoft spans nearly two decades, during which he has held various leadership positions.5

Career at Microsoft

• Deputy Lab Director (January 2023 - Present): Member of the Office of Directors, focusing on lab culture, strategy, and impact.5
• General Manager (April 2022 - Present): Leads the LEAP (Language, Learning, Audio, Privacy) research area, overseeing six research groups, the Data Science team, and engineering organizations.5
• Partner Research Director (October 2020 - April 2022): Led the Language, Learning, and Privacy research area.5
• Director of Applied Science for Microsoft Cortana (March 2017 - May 2018).5
• Chief Scientist at Microsoft Health (October 2015 - March 2017).5

Research and Contributions

Ryen's research focuses on user- and task-centric views of AI, particularly in search and assistance.3 He has published over 300 articles and received more than 60 patents in search-related areas.1 His work has significantly impacted various Microsoft products, including Bing, Xbox, Internet Explorer, and Office.1

Awards and Recognition

• Fellow of the ACM and British Computer Society.15
• Received the Karen Spärck Jones Award (2014) and the Tony Kent Strix Award (2022).1
• Named "Center of the SIGIR Universe" for being the most central author in the co-authorship graph of ACM SIGIR.14
• Received multiple best paper awards, including three at SIGIR.14

Education

• Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Glasgow, which received the British Computer Society's Distinguished Dissertation Award.15

Ryen White is also an Affiliate Professor at the University of Washington and serves as Editor-in-Chief of ACM Transactions on the Web.24