Let Art Be Your Superpower!
A journey into the future of artistry, and the artist already waiting inside each of us.

Assistant Professor of Information Systems & Operations Management
University of Washington · Foster School of Business
Bonjour! I am Léonard, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Information Systems and Operations Management at the University of Washington, Foster School of Business, with an adjunct position at the Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering and an affiliation with Harvard's Laboratory for Innovation Science. I earned my Ph.D. in Operations Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
My research combines operations research with artificial intelligence. With my research group, the Human-AI Operations Lab, I work to accelerate problem solving and innovation with Generative AI, and to understand how such technology is reshaping the future of work. I emphasize multimodal frameworks and data-driven, explainable decision tools, especially in healthcare, climate, and sustainability.
I deliver AI education to over 800 students annually and have created new generative AI courses built on novel teaching methodologies. I am fortunate to have been recognized by Poets & Quants' 40 Under 40 Best Business Professors, by eight teaching awards at the Foster School of Business, and three at MIT, including the Goodwin Medal, the institute's highest teaching honor for a graduate instructor. I was also named to the Puget Sound Business Journal's “40 Under 40” for my impact on Seattle's ecosystem. I have contributed to the MIT Universal Artificial Intelligence initiative, which brings state-of-the-art technological insights to wide audiences, and I currently serve on the AI task force at Foster.
Earlier, I was a PhD resident at Google X, the Moonshot Factory, visited Mila with Prof. Yoshua Bengio, and studied at the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology at UC Berkeley. I also conducted research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and earned my Master of Science in Applied Mathematics from Centrale Paris (now CentraleSupélec).
Beyond publications, my research has been applied and deployed in the field. I helped MIT Solve evaluate thousands of social-good startup solutions, built automatic segmentation algorithms for rare tumors with Massachusetts General Hospital, worked with OCP to optimize factory operations and reduce air pollution, and partnered with the Insectarium de Montréal to enable crowd-sourced, citizen-science labeling of butterfly data, and explore nature's intelligence through AI with Oxman.
Operations research, ML/AI, computer science, applied maths, engineering, and entrepreneurship at MIT, UC Berkeley, and Centrale Paris.

PhD, Operations Research — Sloan & Schwarzman College of Computing2023
Advised by Prof. Dimitris Bertsimas.
Visiting Scholar — Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology2018
MSc, Applied Mathematics2019
Bachelor of Engineering — Maths/Physics/CS2017
For research on multimodality for sustainability and health
The world's best graduate business-school professors — tied youngest on the 2026 list · Poets & Quants
Seattle's most influential young business leaders
MIT's highest teaching honor — to one graduate instructor a year
Including the Charles E. Summer Memorial, Lex N. Gamble Family, and Dean's Excellence awards — across MIT and UW
Building multimodal intelligence
for wildlife, climate, and the world we share.

On day one, I encourage every student to define a project they want to build, and the rest of the course is reverse-engineered to get them there. They learn how to vibe code, leverage agentic systems, and ship products, tools, and websites at every step. I teach annually to over 800 students and industry professionals, through two flagship graduate courses at UW Foster and numerous tailored workshops and seminars elsewhere. You can find the approach and open-source materials on my GenAI page.

I am a passionate naturalist, birdwatcher, and wildlife photographer.
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