Juan M. Lavista Ferres

About

Juan M. Lavista Ferres is Microsoft’s Chief Data Scientist and Corporate Vice President. He serves as the Lab Director of the Microsoft AI for Good Lab and the Director of the Microsoft AI Economy Institute. He leads a team of data scientists and researchers who specialize in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and statistical modeling, contributing to Microsoft’s AI for Good initiatives. These projects cover areas such as sustainability, humanitarian action, accessibility, and health.

Juan cofounded the lab in 2018. Since its inception, he and his team have undertaken over 350 projects worldwide, ranging from enhancing the detection of pancreatic cancer to assisting organizations after natural disasters. Collaborating with prominent organizations such as the United Nations, the American Red Cross, The Nature Conservancy, Seattle Children’s Hospital, the Clooney Foundation for Justice, the Vatican, Harvard University, Stanford University, and Johns Hopkins University, they have consistently been at the forefront of using AI for the betterment of humanity.

In just seven years, the AI for Good Lab has gained global renown, with branches in Abu Dhabi, Nairobi, New York, Redmond, Strasbourg, and Uruguay. The Lab’s contributions have been published in top academic journals and conference literature, including Nature Communications, Lancet, Blood, and JAMA Ophthalmology and in 2024 a book with Wiley, AI for Good: Applications in Sustainability, HumanitarianAction, and Health. The Lab’s work has also been featured in prominent media outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, The Economist, The Financial Times, and over 100 other news platforms worldwide.

Juan joined Microsoft in 2009 to work on the Microsoft Experimentation Platform (ExP). There, he designed and executed randomized controlled experiments for various Microsoft groups. He was also a pivotal member of the Bing Data Mining team, leading a unit that applied machine learning, statistical modeling, and online experimentation on a vast scale while also providing data services for Bing. He played a significant role in shaping the data science discipline within Microsoft and serves as the editor of the Microsoft Journal of Applied Research (MSJAR). Before joining Microsoft, Juan held the position of CTO and was a cofounder of alerts. com. He also spent six years in Washington, D.C., with the Inter-American Development Bank, using data science to assess the efficacy of programs aimed at reducing poverty and inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Juan holds two computer science degrees from the Catholic University of Uruguay, a graduate degree in data mining and machine learning from Johns Hopkins University, and a PhD with a focus on AI in healthcare from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He lives in Kirkland, WA, with his wife and three children. Passionate about education, Juan teaches computer science at the Global Idea Elementary School. He has lectured at prestigious institutions such as Harvard, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Berkeley, and Cornell, and has spoken in numerous countries, including Canada, Switzerland, Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Uruguay. Additionally, Juan has been a featured TED speaker.