Computer Vision, Spatial Intelligence, Generative AI, Foundation Models, Multimodal AI, AI for Healthcare

Ph.D., University of Oxford

M.Sc. (by research), University of Oxford

B.Eng., University of Science and Technology of China (USTC)

Ling Shao is known for founding the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) - the world's first university dedicated entirely to AI, and the Inception Institute of Artificial Intelligence (IIAI) in Abu Dhabi, UAE. IIAI and MBZUAI have been pivotal in advancing AI research in the UAE since 2018. Moreover, he was a key founding member (employee #1) and the Chief Scientist of G42, a leading AI and advanced technology group headquartered in Abu Dhabi. In recognition of his scientific contributions, he was awarded the Mohammed bin Rashid Medal for Scientific Distinguishment, the highest scientific honor in the UAE, by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Prime-Minister and Vice-President of the UAE, and the Ruler of Dubai. 

    He is currently a distinguished professor at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences. His research interests include Computer Vision, Generative AI, Multimodal AI, Vision and Language, and AI for Healthcare. He is an elected Fellow of the IEEE, the IAPR, the British Computer Society, and the IET. He was elected as a Member of the Mohammed bin Rashid Academy of Scientists (The National Academy of the UAE) in 2021.

CTO & Chief Scientist, Saudi Data and AI Authority, 2021-2022

Founder & CEO, Inception Institute of Artificial Intelligence (IIAI), Abu Dhabi, UAE, Jan. 2018-Dec. 2021 (IIAI has been renamed as Inception, a G42 company)

Founding Member & Chief Scientist, Group 42 (G42), UAE, 2018-2021

Founder, Provost & Executive Vice-President, Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI), UAE, 2018-2021

Chief Scientist, JD.com, China, 2017-2018

Chair Professor, University of East Anglia, UK, 2016-2018

Chair Professor, Northumbria University, UK, 2014-2016

Senior Lecturer, University of Sheffield, UK, 2009-2014

Senior Scientist, Philips Research, the Netherlands, 2005-2009

Senior Engineer, Queen's University of Belfast, UK, 2005-2005

500+ publications at AI-related conferences/journals including CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, ICML, NeurIPS, ICLR, TPAMI and IJCV. 

​Google Scholar profile: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=z84rLjoAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

IEEE Fellow

IAPR Fellow

IET Fellow

BCS Fellow

Mohammed bin Rashid Medal for Scientific Distinguishment, UAE

Member of Mohammed bin Rashid Academy of Scientists (the National Academy of the UAE)