Federico Adolfi

Federico Adolfi

Research Scientist — AI & Computational Cognitive Science

Max Planck Institute ESI, Frankfurt, Germany

University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

About me

I did my PhD at the intersection of Theoretical Computer Science, AI and Computational Cognitive Science at the University of Bristol. I am now a research scientist at the Max Planck Institute ESI.

My research takes an interdisciplinary approach to interpretability in AI and the Cognitive & Brain Sciences.

I integrate conceptual, empirical, and formal methods (e.g., parameterized complexity theory) to develop and evaluate mathematical and computational models that (1) explain natural and artificial cognition, and (2) characterize the scope and limits (e.g., formal guarantees) of the scientific procedures used to discover such explanations.

Interests

  • Computational & mathematical modeling
  • Computational complexity
  • Artificial/Natural Complex Systems Interpretability
  • Meta-theory and philosophy of science

News

Lorentz Workshop: Neuroscience Beyond Computation

I was invited to participate in a week-long interdisciplinary meeting on conceptual and formal notions of explanation in the cognitve and brain sciences.

Science - News | Technology

I was interviewed and quoted in a news article in Science, about a paper in Nature.

ICLR 2025 — Spotlight

Our paper on the complexity of circuit discovery for interpretability was selected as a spotlight!

University of Bristol — PhD Thesis award nomination

My PhD thesis was nominated for a University of Bristol award for Outstanding Excellence in a Doctoral Dissertation!

COGSCI 2022 — Awards for Best Computational Modeling and Disciplinary Diversity & Integration

Our paper on the complexity of segmentation received 2 awards from the Cognitive Science Society!