Office of Engineering Communications
Adji Bousso Dieng, expert in artificial intelligence, has been recognized by The Africa Report magazine as one of 10 African Scholars to Watch in 2025.
The list highlights 10 scholars from Africa whose work, both at home and abroad, has had significant impact.
Dieng, an assistant professor of computer science, has been recognized for her research at the intersection of artificial intelligence and the natural sciences. Her lab, Vertaix, has developed a tool called the “Vendi Score” to evaluate the diversity of data sets and model outputs, which is critical for developing robust machine learning tools and for accelerating scientific discovery.
Dieng joined the Princeton faculty in September 2021. She is also a research scientist at Google AI. Her work has been recognized by a 2022 Schmidt Sciences AI2050 Early Career Fellowship and the 2022 Annie T. Randall Innovator Award from the American Statistical Association. Columbia’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences recognized her in 2023 as an Outstanding Recent Alumni. Her doctoral thesis won the Savage Award from the International Society for Bayesian Analysis and she received a Google Ph.D. Fellowship.
She holds a Diplôme d’Ingénieur from Télécom Paris, a master’s degree from Cornell University and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. At Princeton she is affiliated with the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, the Princeton Materials Institute, the Princeton Quantum Initiative, the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, and the High Meadows Environmental Institute.
Dieng is the founder of The Africa I Know, a nonprofit which seeks to change narratives about African history, knowledge and innovation to inspire and empower young Africans to pursue education and careers in science and technology.