Adji Bousso Dieng, expert in artificial intelligence, has been recognized with a Prix Galien Africa Special Prize from the Galien Forum Africa.
The Galien Forum Africa and the Prix Galien Africa recognize innovation and excellence in medical technologies and pharmaceutical research in Africa.
Dieng, an assistant professor of computer science, has been awarded the Prix Special in recognition of her career achievements. She will receive the award in Dakar, Senegal on October 31. The Prix Galien Africa Special Prize was last awarded in 2023 to Jean Jacques Muyembe, a virologist and co-discoverer of the Ebola virus.
Dieng’s research focuses on the intersections between artificial intelligence and the natural sciences. Her lab, Vertaix, has developed a tool called the “Vendi Score” to evaluate the diversity of data sets and model outputs, which is critical for developing robust machine learning tools and for accelerating scientific discovery. Her lab has recently done research that uses the Vendi Score to detect emerging variants of viral diseases like COVID-19 before they are formally identified.
Dieng joined the Princeton faculty in September 2021. She is also a research scientist at Google AI. Earlier this year, she was named by The African Report as one of 10 African Scholars to Watch. She was named an Outstanding Recent Alumni by Columbia’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 2023.
Her work has also been recognized with a 2022 Schmidt Sciences AI2050 Early Career Fellowship and the 2022 Annie T. Randall Innovator Award from the American Statistical Association. Her doctoral thesis won the Savage Award from the International Society for Bayesian Analysis and she received a Google Ph.D. Fellowship.
She holds a Diplôme d’Ingénieur from Télécom Paris, a master’s degree from Cornell University and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. At Princeton she is affiliated with the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, the Princeton Materials Institute, Princeton Precision Health, the Princeton Quantum Initiative, the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, and the High Meadows Environmental Institute.
Dieng is the founder of The Africa I Know, a nonprofit which seeks to change narratives about African history, knowledge and innovation to inspire and empower young Africans to pursue education and careers in science and technology.