Biography
I am a Principal Research Scientist at IBM T.J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York. My research interests are in the area of Artificial Intelligence (AI), focusing on automated planning and autonomous systems, as well as integration of planning and reinforcement learning techniques. Recently, I am focusing on reliable and efficient methods for planning with language models.
Current Roles
- AAAI Senior Member and recently elected to AAAI Executive Council (3 years term, 2026-2029)
- Member of ICAPS Executive Council (6 years term), having served as Program Co-Chair of ICAPS 2021
- Co-creator of the LM4Plan workshop series on Planning in the Era of LLMs
- Co-creator of the PRL workshop series bridging Planning and Reinforcement Learning
- Tutorial and Lab Forum Co-Chair for AAAI 2026
Career Journey
2017 - Present
Principal Research Scientist
IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY
Leading research in AI planning with language models, top-quality planning, and planning-RL integration.
2013 - 2017
Research Staff Member
IBM Watson Health & IBM Research Haifa, Israel
Developed planning-based solutions for healthcare and enterprise applications.
2011 - 2013
Postdoctoral Researcher
INRIA Nancy, France & Saarland University, Germany
Hosted by Prof. Jörg Hoffmann, working on red-black planning and heuristic search.
2010 - 2011
Postdoctoral Researcher
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
Continued research on abstraction heuristics and cost-optimal planning.
2005 - 2010
PhD in Industrial Engineering & Management
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
🏆 ICAPS Best Dissertation Award 2011
Thesis: "Implicit Abstraction Heuristics for Cost-Optimal Planning"
Awards & Honors
For ICAPS 2008 paper on abstraction heuristics
Cost-optimal track (Delfi planner)
Satisficing track (Mercury planner)
Mercury planner innovation award
PhD thesis on abstraction heuristics
7 gold, 5 silver, 1 bronze medals
4 gold, 3 silver, 3 bronze medals
Winner
Runner-up
Runner-up
Professional Service
🎯 Leadership Roles
- AAAI Executive Council (2026-2029)
- ICAPS Executive Council (6 years)
- ICAPS 2021 Program Co-Chair
- AAAI 2026 Tutorial & Lab Forum Co-Chair
- ICAPS 2015 Publicity & Video Chair
🎓 Teaching & Mentoring
- ICAPS 2026 Summer School Lecturer
- NeurIPS 2025 Tutorial on Planning with LLMs
- ICAPS 2024 Tutorial on Finding Multiple Plans for Classical Planning Problems
- IJCAI 2021 & AAAI 2022 Tutorial on AI Planning
- ICAPS 2013 Summer School Lecturer
🔬 Workshop Organization
- LM4Plan (AAAI'25, ICAPS'25,'26, ICML'26) - Co-creator
- PRL (ICAPS'20,'22,'23, IJCAI'22,'23) - Co-creator
- HSDIP (ICAPS'11,'13,'14,'15,'16,'18,'22) - Co-organizer
📝 Program Committees
- Senior PC/AC: ICAPS, IJCAI, AAAI, NeurIPS (multiple years)
- Regular PC: ICAPS, IJCAI, AAAI (2011-present)
- Reviewer: AIJ, JAIR, AI Communications
Research Interests
🤖 Current Focus
- Planning with Language Models
- Reliable AI Planning Methods
- Efficient LLM-based Planning
- Planning and World Models
🎯 Core Areas
- Automated Planning
- Heuristic Search
- Abstraction Techniques
- Top-Quality Planning
🔄 Integration
- Planning & Reinforcement Learning
- Autonomous Systems
- Hybrid AI Approaches
- Multi-Agent Planning
Education
🎓 PhD
Industrial Engineering & Management
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
2005 - 2010
Thesis: Implicit Abstraction Heuristics for Cost-Optimal Planning
🏆 ICAPS Best Dissertation Award 2011
🎓 BA
Mathematics & Computer Science
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
2002