Archive · 31 Aug 2026
Anima Anandkumar Named Among TIME’s Most Influential AI Leaders
Anima Anandkumar is a scientist who teaches at Caltech.
She uses artificial intelligence to help computers understand the physical world.
Her work can help study weather, medicines, nuclear fusion and quantum computers.
She helped create Amazon SageMaker, a platform used for machine-learning projects.
Her research method, called Neural Operators, can make some scientific simulations much faster.
One application helped create a catheter that reduces bacterial contamination.
Anandkumar has also started a company called Accelerated Understanding.
TIME included her among the 100 most influential people in AI.
She also advises the United Nations on science and artificial intelligence.
Anima Anandkumar, a Caltech professor, was named to TIME’s list of the 100 most influential people in AI.
Her research uses Neural Operators to model physical processes, including weather, nuclear fusion and quantum systems.
She previously helped build Amazon SageMaker while serving as a Principal Scientist at Amazon Web Services.
Anandkumar founded Accelerated Understanding to advance the use of AI in scientific research.
She joined the United Nations Secretary-General’s Scientific Advisory Board in March and advises on artificial intelligence.
- Who
- Anima Anandkumar, a professor at the California Institute of Technology and Senior Director of AI Research at NVIDIA.
- What
- She was named to TIME’s list of the 100 most influential people in AI.
- When
- The recognition was reported on August 28, 2026; she joined the UN advisory board in March of the same year.
- Where
- Anandkumar was born in Mysore, India, studied at IIT Madras and Cornell University, and now works at Caltech and NVIDIA.
- Why
- TIME recognized her research applying AI to scientific problems and modeling physical processes.
- Current academic role
- Professor at the California Institute of Technology
- Education
- BTech in electrical engineering from IIT Madras in 2004; PhD from Cornell University in 2009
- Industry role
- Senior Director of AI Research at NVIDIA
- Major technology
- Neural Operators for modeling and simulating physical processes
- Previous employer
- Amazon Web Services, where she helped build and launch Amazon SageMaker
- New company
- Accelerated Understanding
- United Nations role
- Member of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Scientific Advisory Board since March 2026