Kommy Weldemariam

Dr. Kommy Weldemariam is a Master Inventor and the Chief Scientist of IBM Research – Africa with responsibilities for overseeing scientific and technical direction.

Dr. Weldemariam has been at the forefront of advancing the frontiers of AI and blockchain, while also ensuring these technologies are applied towards solving Africa’s grand challenges. He has utilized these advances in technology towards transformational impact in solving Africa’s grand challenges, such as trade logistics, supply chain management especially in food ecosystems, financial inclusion platforms, climate resiliency for small scale farming, water management platforms, AI for policy making, and AI for global health. Dr. Weldemariam has published over 75 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals and top conference proceedings in these areas and holds more than 150 patents and applications.

Beyond his leadership role and technical contributions, Dr. Weldemariam has made significant investments in mentoring and growing young talented scientists and engineers, not only at IBM Research but across numerous African and international universities. Currently, he is deeply exploring breakthrough scientific discoveries that will reimagine resilience and sustainability and push the frontiers of computing, by developing novel cognitive systems for sustainable development of Africa and beyond at the nexus of Food, Health, and Environment.
 
Dr. Weldemariam received a B.S. from Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia), a M.Tech from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (India) and a Ph.D. from the University of Trento (Italy), all in Computer Science. He is also a Fellow of the Next Einstein Forum and was honored as an Emerging Young Scientist.