CV
Jean-Michel Loubes — Senior Researcher, Statistician, AI Expert Research Director at Inria, on leave from Professor of Mathematics (Exceptional Class), University of Toulouse. Contact: jean-michel.loubes@inria.fr
Senior researcher and professor of mathematics specializing in machine learning, optimal transport, and the fairness, explainability and robustness of AI. Extensive experience leading interdisciplinary research programs and laboratories, advising European and national regulatory bodies, and building industrial partnerships.
Current positions
- Scientific Director, French AI Safety Institute (INESIA) and Director of the national AI Evaluation Program
- Research Director (Directeur de Recherche), Inria (2024–present)
- 2025: Creation of the research team Regulation of AI (Regalia)
- 2025–present: Scientific direction of the national research program on risk assessment of AI
- 2024–2025: Representative of Inria at the CEN-CENELEC committee on AI standards
- Principal Investigator, Chair TRIAL (Trustworthy AI & Machine Learning), ANITI — Artificial and Natural Intelligence Toulouse Institute (2019–2023, 2023–2027)
Academic career
- 2024–present: Research Director, Inria
- 2007–2024: Professor of Applied Mathematics, University of Toulouse (Institut de Mathématiques de Toulouse)
- Promoted to First Class (2013) and Exceptional Class (2019)
- Head of the Probability & Statistics research team (80 members)
- Director of the Master in Machine Learning (40 students/year)
- 2005–2007: CNRS Researcher in Mathematics, University Montpellier II
- 2002–2005: CNRS Researcher in Mathematics, University Paris XI Orsay (now Paris-Saclay)
Education
- Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches (HDR), University Montpellier II, 2006
- Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics (Statistics), University Toulouse III & Leiden University, 2001 — advisor: Sara van de Geer
- Agrégation in Mathematics, 1998
- École Normale Supérieure (ENS Cachan, now Paris-Saclay), 1995–1998; Master in Mathematics, University Paris VII
Honors & awards
- ANITI Research Chair — Principal Investigator (2019–2023, renewed 2023–2027)
- CNRS Innovation Award (2019) — development of explainable ML tools (GEMS-AI)
- Research Excellence Award (PEDR) — awarded every 4 years since 2008 (2008, 2012, 2016, 2020, 2024)
Research interests
- Mathematical statistics, machine learning and optimal transport
- Fairness, robustness and explainability of AI — audit of AI models, bias analysis, certification
- Evaluation and risk assessment of AI systems, including general-purpose AI
- Industrial applications of trustworthy AI
Industrial & applied projects
- Scientific Director, DEEL project (2018–2020) — certifiable and explainable AI for safety-critical systems; Franco-Canadian project leading 42 researchers (mathematics, computer science, law, economics)
- National AI programs (2021–present) — contributions to explainability and certification frameworks for AI in industrial and public applications; contributions to INESIA and the national program on AI evaluation
- Partnerships & industrial research — long-term collaborations on ML bias, GPAI alignment, anomaly detection, explainability and robustness (aerospace, automotive, heavy industry, defense, banking, finance, medical); more than 15 research contracts
- 5 industrial patents
- Trainer on ML, AI and certification (2018–present) for journalists, public administration, technical staff, military and industrial groups (SLB, BNP Paribas, Syngenta, Airbus, Continental)
Policy & governance
- Member of the AFNOR / CEN-CENELEC committee on AI standards (2024–present)
- Advisor and expert on algorithm regulation for CNIL, the European Union and economic supervision bodies (2020–present)
- Contributor to Confiance.AI and to the French national AI risk-assessment governance programs (2022–present)
- Head of the ANR project Regulation of AI
- Member of the CNRS Scientific Council (2020–2024)
- Deputy President, Université Toulouse III, in charge of innovation for industry (2019–2023)
- Co-founder and director, French Agency for Mathematics in Interaction with Industry and Society (AMIES)
- Member of the French National University Council (CNU) (2016–2020)
Selected publications
H-index 36, more than 100 publications in mathematics and machine learning. Full list on HAL and Google Scholar.
- Token-Efficient Change Detection in LLM APIs — ICML (2026), with T. Chauvin, C. Lalanne, E. Le Merrer, F. Taïani, G. Tredan
- When majority rules, minority loses — NeurIPS (2025)
- Improving learning theory with kernels — Annals of Statistics (2025)
- Counterfactuals with optimal transport — JMLR (2024)
- Diversity-preserving K-armed bandits — TMLR (2023)
- Obtaining fairness using optimal transport theory — ICML (2019)
Talks & invitations
- Invited keynote speaker at international scientific and European industry conferences (World AI Summit 2025, ENBIS 2024, …)
- Frequent invited visits to international universities (Columbia 2025, Montréal 2024, Dortmund 2024, Seattle 2023, …)
- Regular presenter at NeurIPS, ICML, AISTATS and interdisciplinary AI conferences
Teaching
- Fairness and Statistics — Institut Henri Poincaré (IHP), 2025
- Master 2 MAPI3 — Applied Mathematics for Engineering, Industry and Innovation, University of Toulouse
- AI regulation training through CNRS Formation
Supervision
Supervisor of 32 Ph.D. theses in probability, statistics, machine learning and trustworthy AI, in academia and industry.
Current Ph.D. students: Sena Ozgunay (CIFRE Continental), Mahdi Tavassoli (TUPLES European project), Valentin Lafargue (CIFRE TFC), Elena Marti de Diego (University of Navarra), Gayane Taturyan (Confiance.AI), Veronika Shilova (CIFRE L’Oréal & Artefact).
Selected former students: Alberto Gonzalez (Columbia University), Paula Gordaliza (University of Navarra; Best Spanish PhD Prize 2023), Clément Benesse (Université Paris Cité), Camille Champion (Université Paris Cité), Marouane Il Idrissi (UQAM), Lucas de Lara, Paul Rochet (ENAC), Thibault Espinasse (Lyon), Chloé Dimeglio (INSERM).
Languages
- French (native) · English (fluent) · Spanish (fluent) · German (intermediate)