Payel Das

Dr. Payel Das is a Principal Research Staff Member, an IBM Master Inventor, and a manager in the Trusted AI Department of IBM Thomas J Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY. She received her Ph.D. degree from Rice University, Houston in 2007, where her thesis focused on statistical physics and machine learning. Her research interest is at the interface of artificial intelligence (AI) and natural sciences (physics, biology, chemistry, and neuroscience).

In her current role, Das leads research on trustworthy generative AI systems and neuro-inspired novel AI architectures, which are efficient, safe and grounded. She also manages the partnership between IBM and U Montreal as an AI Horizon Network Principal Investigator. Das has served in the editorial advisory board of the ACS Central Science journal, in the editorial board of the Machine Learning: Science and Technology journal, and in the SUNY Stony Brook Advisory Board. She was also an adjunct associate professor at the department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics (APAM), Columbia University 2019-2021. She has co-authored over 50 publications and several patent disclosures, and has given dozens of invited talks.

Das is the recipient of over IBM Outstanding Technical Achievement Awards (the highest technical award at IBM) and IBM Research Division Awards, an IBM Special Division Award,an IBM Eminence and Excellence Award, ten IBM Invention Achievement Awards, and several US and EU-based government funding awards. Her work has received several recognitions, including the Technology and Public Purpose (TAPP) Recognition from Harvard Belfer Center in 2020, the Pat Goldberg Memorial Best Paper Award in 2022 and in 2023, and the IEEE Open Software Services Award in 2023. She has been listed as the Top Subject Matter Experts in AI & ML by Onalytica in 2020. In 2024, she has won the sixth Annual Women in AI Award from VentureBeat in the AI research category. She is a senior member of IEEE.