25.09.2020New DSI Professorships

Dan Olteanu is DSI Professor and Full Professor at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Zurich since May 2020, where he heads the Data Systems and Theory group. Dan's research interests focus on understanding the computational challenges in data processing and designing simple and scalable solutions to these challenges. Over the last two decades he has published in the areas of database systems, database theory, and AI, and has contributed to XML query processing, incomplete information and probabilistic databases, factorized databases, in-database machine learning, incremental maintenance for analytics, and the commercial systems LogicBlox and relationalAI.

Marie-Luis Merten is Assistant Professor for Digitalized Communication Spaces at the German Department of the University of Zurich. As a DSI professor, she researches the forms, functions and developments of linguistic online communication. Marie-Luis Merten is currently working on two projects that focus on digital forms of communication: In cooperation with researchers from the Universities of Vienna and Augsburg, she is investigating these digital cultural artifacts in their complex meaning and social-discursive function, with particular interest in memes in political discourses. On the other hand, she focuses on digital commentary on the Internet, especially on linguistic activity in the commentary section of online news sites. It examines patterns of language use as routines of digital positioning.

With Kerstin Noelle Vockinger, Jürgen Bernard, Manuel Günther, Luis Aguiar, Anniko Hannak, Karsten Donnay and Viktor von Wyl a total of 9 DSI professors have now been appointed and have taken up their posts.