Microsoft Research Podcast

Can we AI our way to a more sustainable world? 

April 20, 2026 | Doug Burger, Amy Luers, and Ishai Menache
Doug Burger, sustainability expert Amy Luers, and optimization researcher Ishai Menache examine the global emissions implications of datacenter operations, efficiency gains, and AI's potential across electrification, materials, and food systems.

Recent Podcasts

  1. Circle photo of Jacki O'Neill, director of the Microsoft Africa Research Institute (MARI), with a microphone in the corner on a blue and green gradient background

    What’s Your Story: Jacki O’Neill 

    May 16, 2024 | Johannes Gehrke and Jacki O'Neill

    Jacki O'Neill saw an opportunity to expand Microsoft research efforts to Africa. She now leads Microsoft Research Africa, Nairobi (formerly MARI). O'Neill talks about the choices that got her there, the lab’s impact, and how living abroad is good for innovation.

  2. Stylized microphone and sound waves illustration.

    Abstracts: May 6, 2024 

    May 6, 2024 | Michel Galley and Gretchen Huizinga

    Researcher Michel Galley explores how he and fellow researchers combined new and existing data to create MathVista, an open-source benchmark for measuring the mathematical reasoning capabilities of foundation models in scenarios that involve text and images.

  3. Stylized microphone and sound waves illustration.

    Abstracts: April 16, 2024 

    April 16, 2024 | Gretchen Huizinga and Tusher Chakraborty

    Tusher Chakraborty talks about the paper “Spectrumize: Spectrum-efficient Satellite Networks for the Internet of Things,” including a method for supporting communication between a large IoT-satellite constellation and devices on Earth within a limited spectrum.

  4. Microsoft Research Podcast - Abstracts hero with a microphone icon

    Abstracts: March 21, 2024 

    March 21, 2024 | Chang Liu and Gretchen Huizinga

    Senior Researcher Chang Liu discusses M-OFDFT, a variation of orbital-free density functional theory (OFDFT) that leverages deep learning to help identify molecular properties in a way that minimizes the tradeoff between accuracy and efficiency.

  5. Microsoft Research Podcast - Abstracts hero with a microphone icon

    Abstracts: February 29, 2024 

    February 29, 2024 | Lev Tankelevitch and Gretchen Huizinga

    Can how we think about our thinking help us better incorporate generative AI in our lives & work? Explore metacognition’s potential to improve the tech’s usability on “Abstracts,” then sign up for Microsoft Research Forum for more on this & other AI work.

  6. Circle photo of Nicole Forsgren with a microphone in the corner on a blue and green gradient background

    What’s Your Story: Nicole Forsgren 

    February 15, 2024 | Johannes Gehrke and Nicole Forsgren

    Partner Research Manager and developer experience expert Nicole Forsgren talks about the future of software engineering with AI, why she loves tech, and her reliance on a spreadsheet and her gut when making career-changing decisions.

  7. photo of Ivan Tashev with the Microsoft Research Podcast logo

    What’s Your Story: Ivan Tashev 

    February 1, 2024 | Johannes Gehrke and Ivan Tashev

    Partner Software Architect Ivan Tashev talks about applying his expertise in audio signal processing to the design and study of audio components for Microsoft products such as Kinect and shares how a focus on what he can control has fueled professional success.

  8. Microsoft Research Podcast - Abstracts hero with a microphone icon

    Abstracts: January 25, 2024 

    January 25, 2024 | Gretchen Huizinga, Jordan Ash, and Dipendra Misra

    On “Abstracts,” Jordan Ash & Dipendra Misra discuss the parameter reduction method LASER. Tune in to learn how selective removal of stored data alone can boost LLM performance, then sign up for Microsoft Research Forum for more on LASER & related topics.