# Hanna Wallach

Hanna Wallach (born 1979) is a computational social scientist and partner research manager at Microsoft Research, specializing in machine learning models for social processes and AI fairness, accountability, transparency, and ethics.

Hanna Megan Wallach (born 1979) is a computational social scientist and partner research manager at Microsoft Research. Her work applies [machine-learning](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/machine-learning) models to study the dynamics of social processes, with a current focus on fairness, accountability, transparency, and ethics in [artificial-intelligence](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/artificial-intelligence) and machine learning. She has contributed to topic modeling and natural language processing, and has been a prominent advocate for women in computer science.

## Early life and education
Wallach graduated with a BA in Computer Science from Newnham College, Cambridge in 2001. She then moved to the University of Edinburgh for graduate studies, focusing on cognitive science and machine learning. She completed her doctoral research at the University of Cambridge, where her work considered language models. Her academic trajectory reflects a deep engagement with both the technical and social dimensions of computing.

## Career
Wallach's early research centered on developing natural language processing techniques to analyze the structure and content of social processes. She identified that social interactions share common elements: structure (who is involved), content (information shared or arising), and dynamics (how these change over time). She collaborated with journalists and computer scientists to understand organizational functioning. In 2007, she joined the University of Massachusetts Amherst, becoming an Assistant Professor in 2010.

At Microsoft Research, Wallach investigates fairness and transparency in machine learning. In 2020, she worked with practitioners across the tech sector to create an artificial intelligence ethics checklist, providing guidelines for ethical AI development. Her work bridges technical innovation and societal impact, addressing how [generative-ai](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/generative-ai) and other systems can be designed responsibly.

## Contributions to topic modeling
Wallach made significant contributions to topic modeling, a technique for discovering abstract topics in document collections. Her 2006 paper on topic modeling, presented at the International Conference on Machine Learning, explored methods for improving model performance. In 2009, she co-authored work on evaluation methods for topic models, addressing how to assess model quality. A 2011 paper with collaborators optimized semantic coherence in topic models, enhancing their interpretability. These contributions have influenced subsequent research in [large language models](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/large-language-model) and [neural networks](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/neural-network).

## Advocacy and community building
Wallach is a co-founder of the Women in Machine Learning workshop, an annual event supporting women in the field. She also co-founded the Debian Women Project and the GNOME Outreach Program for Women, now known as Outreachy, which provides internships in open source. She is an advocate for improved representation of women in computer science, working to create more inclusive technical communities. Her efforts have helped shape initiatives at institutions like [MIT CSAIL](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/mit-csail) and [Stanford AI Lab](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/stanford-ai-lab).

## Awards and honours
Wallach has received numerous accolades. In 2001, she was named Science, Engineering & Technology Student of the Year. She earned the Best MSc Student in Cognitive Science at the University of Edinburgh in 2002. Her research was recognized with a Best Paper Award at the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics in 2010. In 2014, Glamour magazine listed her among 35 Women Under 35 Who Are Changing the Tech Industry. She was elected to the International Machine Learning Society's Board of Trustees in 2015 and received the AnitaB.org Early Career Award in 2016. She served as Program Chair for the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems in 2018 and General Chair in 2019.

## Personal life
Wallach is a competitive roller derby player. She balances her professional career with athletic pursuits and continues to advocate for diversity in technology. Her personal interests reflect a commitment to community and resilience, qualities that also inform her professional work on fairness and ethics in AI.

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Source: https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/hanna-wallach
License: CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)
Last updated: 2026-09-07T21:28:28.181378+00:00