I am a researcher in Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Information Retrieval (IR). My research focus is text mining and information retrieval in specific domains.
I am a Full Professor at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS). I am group leader of Text Mining and Retrieval Leiden. I supervise projects that develop and evaluate NLP and IR methods in a diversity of domains. I am work package leader for two H2020 projects and project co-leader of an NWA project.
My group works on novel methods for representation learning, ranking, and information extraction. I have a particular interest in the interconnection between retrieval and large language models (LLMs) and how they can strengthen each other, specifically in conversational seach.
I am active in the NLP and IR communities, holding chairing positions in the large world-wide conferences. I was program co-chair for ECIR 2022 and track chair for TheWebConf 2023. I am senior associate editor for TOIS, program co-chair for SIGIR 2025, and Senior Area Chair for ARR.
I collaborate with public and private partners such as the LUMC, ING, Randstad, ASML, Medstone, Signify, ZetaAlpha, and The Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). I am also part of the ICAI lab AI4Oversight.
Vacancies: None at the moment.
Message to prospective PhD students: The Dutch PhD system is position-based. This means you have to apply to advertised positions. When I have positions open, they will be posted here.
Interview on the podcast “Computers don’t byte” about my work: Spotify link.
