Prof. Nisarg Shah is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto, Canada.
After his B. Tech. from IIT Bombay, he received his PhD from Carnegie Mellon University, USA, in 2016, and his Postdoctoral Fellowship from Harvard University, USA, in 2017.
Prof. Shah’s research, funded by over CA$600,000 in grants and published in over 90 research papers, has advanced the mathematical understanding of fairness when algorithms make decisions that affect humans. He has used multidisciplinary insights from economics, philosophy, political science, mathematics, and computer science to design state of-the-art voting rules, resource allocation algorithms, and machine learning models that satisfy provable fairness guarantees. Some of his work has been deployed for societal benefit, including the not-for-profit website Spliddit.org, which he has co-developed. He has also delivered many public interviews, seminars, debates, and lectures to spread awareness regarding issues related to AI among public and private sector employees as well as the general public.
The many diverse positions he holds include:
– Research Lead at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society.
– Faculty Affiliate at the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence.
– Advisor to the nonprofit AIGS Canada.
– Co-developer of Spliddit.org, the not-for-profit website that has helped more than 250,000 people make provably fair algorithmic decisions.
– Associate Editor at the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research (JAIR) and Artificial Intelligence Journal (AIJ).
– Board Member of IFAAMAS and Advisory Committee Member for IJCAI 2025.
He has won several awards and accolades over the years. These include:
– 2024 Computers and Thought Award by IJCAI (Awarded once every year to an outstanding young scientist in artificial intelligence worldwide).
– 2024 Kalai Prize by the Game Theory Society (Awarded once every four years to an outstanding paper at the interface of game theory and computer science).
– 2023 Early Career Spotlight at IJCAI (Part of 11 prominent early career AI scientists invited to give a presentation).
– 2022 Innovators Under 35 by MIT Technology Review Asia Pacific (Awarded annually to 35 young innovators whose work has the greatest potential to transform the world).
– 2020 AI’s 10 to Watch by IEEE Intelligent Systems (Awarded biennially to 10 young AI scientists with outstanding achievements).
– 2016 Victor Lesser Distinguished Dissertation Award (Awarded to the Best Dissertation worldwide in the area of Autonomous Agents or Multiagent Systems).
– 2014 Facebook Graduate Fellowship (Awarded to 10 PhD students worldwide conducting promising and innovative research).
– 2011 President’s Gold Medal (For being 1st in all of IITB by CPI upon graduation).
Hobbies: In my spare time, I enjoy hiking and swimming, and playing table tennis and board games.