Cordelia Schmid

Cordelia Schmid is a pioneering computer vision researcher holding dual roles as Research Director at Inria and Research Scientist at Google. A PhD graduate from Grenoble INP, her work focuses on enabling AI to understand images and video, interpret human actions, and learn autonomously with minimal human supervision.

Inspired by a passion for mathematics and an early interest in research from her physicist father, she pursued computer science. She believes in tackling difficult, fundamental questions and advises aspiring researchers to seek out hard problems rather than incremental wins, a philosophy that has guided her distinguished career.

She is a highly decorated scientist, winning the 2024 European Inventor Award and the 2023 Körber European Science Prize for her foundational contributions to AI.