Biography

I lead the FAIR Data & Distributed Analytics Group at Fraunhofer FIT and serve as senior researcher at the University Hospital of Cologne. My research advances web-based systems and distributed data infrastructures through scalable architectures, semantic interoperability, and intelligent web services, combining fundamental innovation with practical deployment in healthcare, digital libraries, and industrial data spaces.

As Co-Spokesperson of NFDI4DataScience, I contribute to Germany's largest data science research infrastructure initiative across 17 institutions. I lead multiple major projects including FAIR Data Spaces and the EU Horizon project ARGUS, managing several research projects focused on AI-enhanced data management and sovereign data exchange.

My work bridges academic excellence with industrial impact, evidenced by dual best paper awards (TPDL 2022, CORES 2015), 58 peer-reviewed publications, and successful technology transfer through Fraunhofer's industry partnerships. I am passionate about advancing open science through practical FAIR data solutions that enable reproducible, collaborative research across disciplines and sectors.

Research Interests

FAIR Data

Research data management, FAIR principles, data spaces, open science

Machine Learning & AI

Deep learning, neural networks, computer vision, pattern recognition

Natural Language Processing

Text mining, author disambiguation, metadata extraction, scholarly data analysis

Data Sovereignty

Data governance, privacy-preserving technologies, Gaia-X infrastructure

Education

2013 - 2017

Dr.-Ing. (PhD) in Computer Science

University of Siegen, Germany

Magna Cum Laude in Machine Learning, Data Science and Computer Vision (Supervisor: Prof. Marcin Grzegorzek)

2008 - 2011

Master of Science in Pattern Recognition and AI

University of Science and Technology of Oran, Algeria

2005 - 2008

Bachelor of Science in Computer Science

University of Science and Technology of Oran, Algeria

Professional Experience

2025 (offered)

Associate Professor

Southern University of Denmark

Position offered at SDU Software Engineering

August 2022 - Present

Lead of FAIR Data & Distributed Analytics Group

Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology (FIT)

Leading a research group of 4-6 FTE focused on FAIR data infrastructure, data spaces, and distributed analytics solutions.

January 2023 - Present

Senior Researcher & Project Manager (20%)

Institute for Medical Informatics, University Hospital of Cologne

Research and teaching in medical informatics with focus on AI applications in healthcare.

October 2017 - December 2022

Lead of Machine Learning & Data Science Focus Group

Institute for Web Science and Technology, University of Koblenz-Landau

Postdoc with independent research and teaching responsibilities. Leading focus group for ML & Data Science.

October 2013 - September 2017

Research Assistant & PhD Candidate

Pattern Recognition Research Group, University of Siegen

Research in computer vision and pattern recognition with DAAD PhD scholarship. Teaching assistant for multiple courses.

September 2010 - March 2013

Development Manager & Lecturer

IT&B, Oran, Algeria & University of Oran

Development manager in industry and lecturer at University of Oran.

Awards & Honors

  • Best Paper Award, TPDL 2022 (September 2022)

    "Whois? Deep Author Name Disambiguation using Bibliographic Data" (First Author)

  • Best Paper Award, CORES 2015 (May 2015)

    International Conference on Computer Recognition Systems (First Author)

  • DAAD Research Grant, 2013-2017

    Doctoral candidates and young academics scholarship program

  • Research Fellowship, Kobe University, Japan (January-March 2016)

    CS24 group under supervision of Prof. Kuniaki Uehara

Professional Memberships

  • NFDI4DataScience Consortium Member
  • Gaia-X Hub Germany