Dr. Jessica Burgner-Kahrs is Professor with the Departments of Mathematical & Computational Sciences, Computer Science, and Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, and the founding Director of the Continuum Robotics Laboratory at the University of Toronto, Canada. She received her Diplom and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany in 2006 and 2010 respectively. Prior to joining the University of Toronto, she held faculty positions at Leibniz University Hannover, Germany, and was a postdoctoral researcher at Vanderbilt University, USA.
Her research focuses on deformable and continuum robots, with particular emphasis on robot design, modeling, state estimation, planning, and control. She is interested in understanding how physical embodiment and computational intelligence can be combined to enable robots to operate safely and effectively in complex environments. Her work spans fundamental robotics research and application-driven challenges in areas including minimally invasive surgery and maintenance, repair, and operations.
Dr. Burgner-Kahrs has received numerous national and international awards for her contributions to robotics research, including the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize, Germany’s most prestigious award for early-career researchers. In recognition of her scientific leadership and societal impact, she was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. She is a Senior Member of the IEEE, a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, and serves as Senior Editor of IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters.