Regina Barzilay

Regina Barzilay, born in 1970 in Chișinău, Moldova, currently serves as the School of Engineering Distinguished Professor for AI and Health at MIT and the AI faculty lead at the MIT Jameel Clinic. After emigrating to Israel at age 20, she completed her education at Ben-Gurion University before earning her Ph.D. from Columbia University in 2003. Her groundbreaking research spans machine learning, drug discovery, and clinical AI, with particular focus on developing AI models for healthcare applications. Her personal experience with breast cancer in 2014 motivated her to direct her expertise toward oncology research, leading to significant breakthroughs in early cancer detection and drug development. Her notable achievements include developing machine learning models for early breast cancer diagnosis and the discovery of novel antibiotics. Her exceptional contributions have earned her numerous prestigious honors, including the 2017 MacArthur "Genius Grant," the 2020 AAAI Squirrel AI Award for Artificial Intelligence for the Benefit of Humanity (with a $1 million prize), and election to both the National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Medicine in 2023. Most recently, she was awarded the 2025 IEEE Frances E. Allen Medal for her innovative machine learning algorithms that have advanced human language technology and impacted medicine.