2021 Science Envoy

Stephen Bates is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California at Berkeley in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) and Statistics departments. He recently earned his PhD in statistics from Stanford University, where he worked on statistical methods for the analysis of genomic data as well as fundamental statistical theory. Currently, Stephen develops mathematical and computational tools for quantifying the uncertainty in complex machine learning algorithms. He believes that in order to achieve useful “artificial intelligence,” computer systems will need to know what they don’t know. When not working on research projects, Stephen enjoys hiking, sailing, triathlons, and reading speculative fiction.