Allen School professor Noah A. Smith was recognized for his groundbreaking contributions across the entire NLP stack.
Allen School professor Noah A. Smith is steering AI to be a tool that benefits us all. From introducing new methods to predict linguistic structure to developing open and transparent AI models, Smith, who is also senior director of Natural Language Processing (NLP) Research at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2), has helped develop the groundwork for modern NLP research while also pushing the field into the future.
Smith currently serves as the University of Washington vice provost for artificial intelligence overseeing strategy around AI across the University’s mission. As part of the 2026 UW Awards of Excellence, Smith was recently honored with the University Faculty Lecture Award. Since 1976, the award has celebrated faculty, who are widely recognized by their peers, with influential contributions to both their field and society as whole. As part of the award, Smith will deliver the annual University faculty lecture to share his outstanding research and creativity with the greater UW community.
“In my research, I target algorithms that process data encoding language, music, and more, to augment human capabilities,” said Smith, who is also the inaugural Charles and Lisa Simonyi Endowed Chair for Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies in the Allen School.
