Juan M. Lavista Ferres

Juan M. Lavista Ferres is a data scientist, AI researcher, and technology leader serving as Microsoft's chief data scientist and corporate vice president, as well as lab director of the Microsoft AI for Good Lab and director of the Microsoft AI Economy Institute. Lavista Ferres leads a team of data scientists and researchers specializing in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and statistical modeling, contributing to Microsoft's AI for Good initiatives in areas such as sustainability, humanitarian action, accessibility, and health.

Lavista Ferres holds two computer science degrees from the Catholic University of Uruguay, a graduate degree in data mining and machine learning from Johns Hopkins University, and a PhD with a focus on AI in healthcare from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

Before founding the AI for Good Lab, Lavista Ferres built a career at the intersection of technology and social impact. Prior to joining Microsoft, he was the CTO and co-founder of alerts.com and spent six years in Washington working at the InterAmerican Development Bank, applying data science to assess the impact of programs aimed at reducing poverty and inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean. At Microsoft, Lavista Ferres began his career with the Microsoft Experimentation Platform, where he designed and executed randomized controlled experiments for various groups, and was a member of the Bing Data Mining team, leading a unit that applied machine learning, statistical modeling, and online experimentation at scale. He also initiated Microsoft's efforts related to sudden infant death syndrome, with work published in academic journals such as Pediatrics, which led to broader research on global challenges including digital literacy, equity, climate change, disaster response, conservation, health, and cybersecurity.

Lavista Ferres co-founded the AI for Good Lab, where he and his team have undertaken more than 350 projects worldwide, ranging from enhancing pancreatic cancer detection to assisting organizations after natural disasters. The lab has collaborated with organizations such as the United Nations, the American Red Cross, The Nature Conservancy, Seattle Children's Hospital, the Clooney Foundation for Justice, the Vatican, Harvard University, Stanford University, and Johns Hopkins University. The AI for Good Lab operates branches in Abu Dhabi, Nairobi, New York, Redmond, Strasbourg, and Uruguay. Its research has been published in leading academic journals, and Lavista Ferres co-authored the book "AI for Good: Applications in Sustainability, Humanitarian Action, and Health."

Lavista Ferres' work has been published in journals like Pediatrics and covered by media outlets such as The New York Times, CNN, and other global news organizations. He has been featured as a speaker at Strata, IEEE, TedX, Cornell University, and UC Berkeley, and has presented in the US, Canada, Switzerland, Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, New Zealand, Africa, and Uruguay. Lavista Ferres also teaches computer science at Global Idea Elementary School and has lectured at institutions including Harvard, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Berkeley, and Cornell. His work focuses on translating complex AI concepts into real-world applications, from protecting the Amazon rainforest to improving cancer detection, highlighting the transformative potential of artificial intelligence for society.