Thomas Kipf

Wildcard
DISC Type : cis

Senior Staff Research Scientist at Google DeepMind

San Francisco, California, United States

Overview

Thomas Kipf is a Senior Staff Research Scientist at Google DeepMind, where he is a tech lead manager on the Veo team, focusing on video generation and motion control. He earned his PhD with highest honors from the University of Amsterdam and is a key figure in foundational generative model research.

He recently relocated from Amsterdam to the San Francisco Bay Area to foster closer collaboration with his US-based colleagues. Thomas is an active member of the AI research community, having previously been part of the vibrant ML/AI scene in Amsterdam and now engaging with new and old friends in the Bay Area.

He is a co-inventor of Graph Convolutional Networks (GCNs), a highly influential and foundational deep learning method for graph-structured data.

Personality Overview

Friendly But Slow

Curious But Skeptical

Requires Proof

They are unlikely to ever become strong champions even when the conversations are going well; you should focus on cultivating other champions  They typically tend to be late adopters even when they seem friendly and excited about what you have to sell They are often friendly and nice, but can sometimes suprise you with their piercing questions

Topics They Care About

Video Generation
As a tech lead manager for Google's Veo team, his work on capabilities like reference-based generation and motion control was featured at Google I/O 2025.
Graph Neural Networks
He co-authored the foundational paper on Graph Convolutional Networks during his PhD, a work that is now highly cited in the machine learning field.
Controllable Generative Models
Throughout his career at Google, he has led teams focused on foundational research into controllable generative models for images, video, and 3D.

Media Appearances

Thomas has no verified media appearances

Work History

11-2025
Senior Staff Research Scientist at Google DeepMind
5-2024 - 11-2025
Staff Research Scientist at Google DeepMind
6-2023 - 5-2024
Senior Research Scientist at Google DeepMind
5-2022 - 6-2023
Senior Research Scientist at Google
1-2020 - 5-2022
Research Scientist at Google

Education

2016 - 2020
Doctor of Philosophy - PhD from University of Amsterdam
2014 - 2016
Master of Science (M.Sc. hon.) from FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg

More Information

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Exp : 7 Location : San Francisco, California, United States Job Level : N/A Designation : Senior Staff Research Scientist at Google DeepMind
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Insights For Selling To Thomas

During A Call Or A Meeting

DO's

  • Help them understand the risk aspect fully while inspiring confidence
  • Help them realize that there is no personal risk in making this decision
  • Share testimonials from known people and give multiple examples of product value

DONT's

  • Avoid winging it with them particularly, answer a question only if you know the answer well
  • Don't ask them to move fast, let them take their time and digest all the information
  • Avoid phrases like ‘trust me’, ‘you will just love it’ etc.

When Cold Calling

When Writing An Email

While Negotiating & Closing

    The secret to closing fast with Thomas is

  • Clear proof of product value matters to them, followed by others' testimonials and rapport.
  • Will you ever get a clear answer from Thomas

  • They are likely to give you a clear answer without taking you around in circles. However, if you share a good relationship, they might not be so forthcoming.

Insights For Deal Planning

    How fast (or slow) will Thomas move?

  • They like to perform full analysis and can take time to make any decision.
  • Can Thomas take some risk or not?

  • They weigh all decisions systematically and are unlikely to take many risks.

You And Thomas

Personality Compatibility


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