# Daniela Rus

Director, MIT CSAIL; Co-founder, Liquid AI. TIME100 AI 2026, Thinkers. The director of MIT's AI lab co-founded Liquid AI, a spinout from that lab, and has co-founded other robotics and AI companies. ([en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniela_Rus))

- Born: Cluj-Napoca, Romania ([en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniela_Rus))
- Education: PhD, Computer science, Cornell University, 1993; MS, Computer science, Cornell University, 1990; BS, Computer science and mathematics, University of Iowa, 1985 ([en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniela_Rus), [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniela-rus-220b3))
- Career: Liquid AI (Co-founder, 2023 to now); MIT (Director, CSAIL; Panasonic Professor, 2004 to now); Dartmouth College (Professor of Computer Science, 1994–2004) ([en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniela_Rus), [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniela-rus-220b3), [investor.gartner.com](https://investor.gartner.com/board-member/daniela-rus/))
- TIME profile: https://time.com/collection/time100-ai/2026/daniela-rus/
- Profile: https://www.autumn.ai/resources/most-influential-people-in-ai/daniela-rus

- Won a MacArthur 'genius' Fellowship in 2002, while still a professor at Dartmouth. ([en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniela_Rus))
- Has spun four companies out of her own MIT lab: Liquid AI, Themis AI, Venti Technologies and The Routing Company. ([en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniela_Rus))
- Her PhD advisor at Cornell was John Hopcroft, a Turing Award winner. ([en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniela_Rus))
- Elected to the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. ([en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniela_Rus))
- Was a founding member of the board of trustees of MBZUAI, the AI university in Abu Dhabi. ([en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniela_Rus))