Faculty Highlight: David McAllester

Faculty Highlight: David McAllester

Professor David McAllester retired in September 2025 and became Professor Emeritus after more than two decades of service as a professor, researcher, mentor, and institutional leader at TTIC. As one of the first faculty members hired at the Institute in 2002, Professor McAllester joined as a Professor and later became Chief Academic Officer, helping lay the foundation for TTIC’s future.

During those formative years, Professor McAllester played a pivotal role in shaping TTIC’s governance and academic identity. For example, as the Institute’s first Chief Academic Officer, he helped establish the External Academic Committee (EAC), a team of world-renowned faculty from top universities who provide the Institute with an external perspective and valuable advice on academic matters. He also personally designed TTIC’s first website and photographed the Press Building, which housed the Institute then.

“In the early days, the main thing I was focused on was recruiting faculty,” Professor McAllester said. “We wanted to hire faculty that got people to notice us, as a new institution.”

As one of only three faculty members in 2002, Professor McAllester worked to bring growth and recognition to the Institute. The arrival of John Langford and Adam Kalai in 2003 helped raise TTIC’s profile in the machine learning community. In 2004, Professor McAllester helped launch the Research Assistant Professor (RAP) program, based on an idea from Stuart Kurtz, to attract exceptional early-career talent.

“The Research Assistant Professor program really took off in the first ten years,” Professor McAllester said. “We wanted a position that was separate from postdoc positions that allowed researchers to have their own research funds.” The program remains an important part of TTIC today, bringing junior faculty and fresh new ideas to the Institute.

One of the most significant early challenges was the accreditation process and securing a legally independent endowment, Professor McAllester recalls. “It took about 10 years before we were formally accredited. The Higher Learning Commission (which grants accreditation) insisted that we be financially independent of the initial founding donor, Toyota Motor Corporation. It took time to establish legal control of an adequate endowment.”

A lasting legacy of Professor McAllester’s tenure at the Institute is the Ph.D. program. He worked with faculty partners at the University of Chicago and newly hired faculty of TTIC to create a Ph.D. program and rigorous curriculum, successfully recruiting the first class of students. As of 2025, TTIC has celebrated fifty-three doctoral graduates, honoring the “education” piece of the Institute mission, which of course, was written in part by Professor McAllester.

Professor McAllester’s research career spans artificial intelligence, machine learning, computer vision, AI planning, programming languages, and constraint programming. He is an AAAI Fellow and has received three Test of Time Awards in computer vision, AI planning, and interval reasoning. These Test of Time awards recognize research papers based on their influence a decade after publication. Around 2010, his group developed one of the world’s leading computer vision systems, widely adopted as a research benchmark. His most significant paper, in his view, is on PAC-Bayesian generalization bounds, a theoretical contribution to machine learning that continues to be cited extensively.

Beyond his research, his mentorship has shaped the careers of various students and junior researchers. He recalls Ross Girshick, who he co-supervised during his doctoral studies at the University of Chicago.

“Ross Girshick has become prominent in computer vision,” Professor McAllester said. “He’s had a really stellar career, with positions at Microsoft and FAIR.”

When asked about his favorite aspects of being part of TTIC’s faculty, Professor McAllester stated it was the research freedom.

“The freedom to do the research you want has been really great,” Professor McAllester said. “The ability to limit teaching to just one course per year allows faculty to pursue more research and long-term projects.”

Professor McAllester notes that the Institute has grown into a strong and mature academic community, attracting distinguished faculty and producing influential research. He feels that TTIC is well positioned among academic institutions to make significant contributions to AI and the theory of computation.

“Although [the field of computer science may] face a very uncertain future (along many dimensions), academia is well poised to make progress in our fundamental understanding of AI, computation, and other issues facing the future of humanity,” Professor McAllester said.

The TTIC community held a farewell ceremony for Professor McAllester on October 3, 2025, to honor his achievements in computer science and contributions to the Institute. Community members were invited to share their parting words.

“David has imbued TTIC with a real spirit of pure intellectual curiosity that I think is very special,” Chief Academic Officer and Interim President Avrim Blum shared at the ceremony. “I think it is very special, and you don’t really find that in many places, and it lasts to this day. I’d like to thank David for everything he’s done for TTIC and for science.”

Professor Nati Srebro reflected on his years working with Professor McAllester. “David really shaped the Institute very well, brought amazing people here, and created a legacy.”

“I found here at TTIC an atmosphere where people were much more interested to talk to people who weren’t necessarily in their own research group or in their own areas,” Professor Karen Livescu shared. “I think David really set the tone for that atmosphere by being first, knowledgeable about all these areas, and second, curious and interested to talk to people about whatever they were working on.”

Though retiring from full-time academic duties, Professor McAllester will remain connected to TTIC as Professor Emeritus. He is also channeling his energy into a new AI software startup, Platonics, which will construct a competitor to the LEAN theorem-proving system.

“TTIC has been the focus of my life for 23 years,” Professor McAllester reflects. “I’m proud of what we’ve built together, and I look forward to seeing the Institute continue to grow and innovate.”

Professor McAllester’s foundational work in governance, recruitment, research leadership, and academic culture will continue to influence TTIC’s trajectory for years to come.