Sometimes, people ask me for a biography. This is an unavoidable fact of life for an academic. Here, then, are some biographies for you to pick from.

Professional (but boring)

Bastian Rieck, M.Sc., Ph.D., is a Full Professor of Machine Learning at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland and the Principal Investigator of the AIDOS Lab, which focuses on developing novel machine learning methods driven by geometry and topology. Dr. Rieck is also a member of ELLIS, the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems. Moreover, Dr. Rieck serves as the director of AATRN, the Applied Algebraic Topology Research Network. He received his M.Sc. degree in mathematics, as well as his Ph.D. in computer science, from Heidelberg University in Germany, graduating both times with distinction.

Professional (but slightly more personal)

Bastian Rieck, M.Sc., Ph.D., is a Full Professor of Machine Learning at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland and the Principal Investigator of the AIDOS Lab, which focuses on developing novel machine learning methods driven by geometry and topology. Bastian is also a member of ELLIS, the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems. Wearing yet another hat, he serves as the co-director of the Applied Algebraic Topology Research Network. Bastian received his M.Sc. degree in mathematics, as well as his Ph.D. in computer science, from Heidelberg University in Germany, graduating both times with distinction. He is a big proponent of scientific outreach and enjoys blogging about his research, academia in general, and software development.

Epic (but highly unprofessional)

(You might entitle this ‘Bastian Rieck: The Tireless Tonsured Topological Troubadour’)

Living in a small town where entertainment essentially consisted of staring at the walls for prolonged periods of time, Bastian was always destined for weird things. From an early age, little Bastian exhibited an uncanny ability to see patterns in everything, including his cabbage soup (a local delicacy), a skill that would later serve him well in science.

Soon, Bastian followed his own monomyth and studied the dark arts of topology at Heidelberg University. One day, sipping his coffee—just filtered, nothing fancy—an idea hit him: ‘Why not combine my love for shapes with my knack for making computers do my bidding?’ Thus, his research agenda was born, or at least got a substantial boost.

The fates proved kindly for once and led Bastian to create his own lab, the AIDOS Lab, a place ‘where data goes to find its true shape.’ Soon, word of his deeds reached others and the legend was born. They say he once debugged code so complex, it caused a minor earthquake in the lab due to the sheer force of his correctness proofs.

Again, fortune smiled upon Bastian and took him to a new role of Full Professor of Machine Learning at the University of Fribourg. Here, he’s rumoured to teach his classes while trying to juggle toruses (he mostly fails and eats them instead). His students adore him, not just for his knowledge, but for his ability to make the most abstract concepts seem as tangible—and tasty—as a Swiss cheese.

In his downtime, Bastian is fond of pondering deep mysteries of the universe, often while hiking through the Swiss Alps with his family, where he mutters something about Morse functions, curvature, and operators that probably might make sense if anyone would listen.

Back in the lab, he continues to push the boundaries of what is possible in machine learning, one topological twist at a time. Bastian is particularly known for his great looks, excellent haircut, incisive intellect, overall humility, and his disdain for flowery biographies written in the third person.