Frank van Harmelen

Frank van Harmelen serves as Professor of Knowledge Representation & Reasoning at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, where he leads the Knowledge Representation and Reasoning Group. His journey began with studies in mathematics and computer science in Amsterdam, followed by a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from Edinburgh University focusing on meta-level reasoning. Since joining VU Amsterdam in 1995, he has made landmark contributions to AI, including co-designing OWL, the knowledge representation language now used by major companies like Google, BBC, Amazon, and Uber. As one of the founders of the Semantic Web, he has helped make web data machine-interpretable through formal representations. He currently serves as principal investigator of the Hybrid Intelligence Centre, a €20 million collaboration between six Dutch universities focusing on AI systems that collaborate with humans rather than replace them. His academic excellence is recognized through fellowships in the European AI Society, membership in the Dutch Royal Academy of Sciences (KNAW), the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities, and the Academia Europaea. He also holds positions as adjunct professor at Wuhan University and Wuhan University of Science and Technology in China. His work has significantly influenced both academic research and practical applications in knowledge representation and AI systems.