Amarda Shehu, Ph.D.

Amarda Shehu's research advances foundational investigations in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). Her team is driven by a passion to push the barriers of their understanding of the physical and biological world. She says, "It is real-world, complex, wicked problems that prompt us to design novel AI and ML frameworks and algorithms. This is nowadays abbreviated as AI4Sience."

Shehu is an accomplished administrator, teacher, and scholar. She currently serves as George Mason’s Inaugural VP and Chief AI Officer in which capacity she also continues to provide leadership for the Institute of Digital InnovAtion (IDIA) for which she served as Associate Vice President for Research during 2022 and 2024. Shehu also serves as an Associate Dean for Research in the College of Engineering and Computing (CEC), where she is also a tenured Professor in the Department of Computer Science.

She is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and a member of the Virginia Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (VASEM). Shehu has received numerous awards, including the 2022 Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, the 2021 Beck Family Presidential Medal for Faculty Excellence in Research and Scholarship, the 2018 Mason University Teaching Excellence Award, the 2014 Mason Emerging Researcher/Scholar/Creator Award, the 2013 Mason OSCAR Undergraduate Mentor Excellence Award, and the 2012 National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award.

Her research is regularly supported by various NSF programs, the Department of Defense, as well as state and private research awards.