Thomas Bäck (Fellow, IEEE) received the Diploma degree in Computer Science in 1990 and the Ph.D. degree in Computer Science in 1994, both from the University of Dortmund, Germany. He is Professor of Computer Science with the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS), Leiden University, Netherlands. His research interests include evolutionary computation, machine learning, and their real-world applications, especially in sustainable smart industry and health. He is also a member of the interdisciplinary programme Society, Artificial Intelligence and Life Sciences (SAILS).

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Thomas Bäck (Fellow, IEEE) received the Diploma degree in Computer Science in 1990 and the Ph.D. degree in Computer Science in 1994, both from the University of Dortmund, Germany. He is Professor of Computer Science with the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS), Leiden University, Netherlands. His research interests include evolutionary computation, machine learning, and their real-world applications, especially in sustainable smart industry and health.

In 2021, Dr. Bäck has been elected as member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and as IEEE Fellow (class of 2022). He was a recipient of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (CIS) Evolutionary Computation Pioneer Award in 2015, was elected as Fellow of the International Society of Genetic and Evolutionary Computation in 2003, and received the best Ph.D. thesis award from the German society of Computer Science (GI) in 1995.

He currently serves as an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation and Artificial Intelligence Review journals and area editor for the ACM Transactions on Evolutionary Learning and Optimization. He is editorial board member of the Natural Computing Journal (Springer), Artificial Intelligence Journal, and Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing (Springer). He is also co-editor-in-chief of the Handbook of Evolutionary Computation (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis 1997), co-editor of the Handbook of Natural Computing (Springer, 2013), co-editor of the Natural Computing Book Series (Springer), author of Evolutionary Computation in Theory and Practice (OUP, New York, 1996) and co-author of Contemporary Evolution Strategies (Springer, 2013).

Thomas has a strong interest in real-world applications of his research. In his research projects, he collaborates with many companies, including e.g. ASML, BMW Group, C-Job Naval Engineers, Heerema, Honda Research Institute Europe GmbH, KLM, Mercedes-Benz, TataSteel Europe.