Ferdinando (Nando) Fioretto is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Virginia. His research addresses foundational challenges for the use of AI in scientific and engineering applications as well as the responsible use of AI in society.
He leads the Responsible AI for Science and Engineering (RAISE) group, which develops discriminative and generative models that respect constraints, embed physical and engineering principles, and meet safety and privacy standards. Although primarily foundational in AI, the work at RAISE is highly interdisciplinary and is driven by making advances in various domains, including, materials science, power systems, bioinformatics, chemistry, mathematical reasoning, and policy optimization.
His work has been recognized with the 2022 Caspar Bowden PET Award, the IJCAI-22 Early Career Spotlight, the 2017 AI*IA Best AI Dissertation Award, the 2025 DARPA disruptive ideas award, and several best paper awards. He is also a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, the Google Research Scholar Award, the Amazon Research Award, the NVIDIA Academic Grant Program Award, the ISSNAF Mario Gerla Young Investigator Award, and the ACP Early Career Researcher Award. He serves on the editorial board for the two flagship AI journals: the Artificial Intelligence Journal (AIJ) and the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research (JAIR).
He holds a dual Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Udine and New Mexico State University. Before joining the University of Virginia, he was an Assistant Professor at Syracuse University, a postdoctoral research associate at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a research fellow at the University of Michigan.