{"id":5567,"date":"2026-05-31T15:34:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T15:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/conferences.sigappfr.org\/medes2026\/?post_type=speaker&p=5567"},"modified":"2026-05-31T15:35:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T15:35:13","slug":"maria-esther-vidal","status":"publish","type":"speaker","link":"https:\/\/conferences.sigappfr.org\/medes2026\/speaker\/maria-esther-vidal\/","title":{"rendered":"Maria-Esther Vidal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Maria-Esther Vidal<\/strong><\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Full Professor at Leibniz University of Hannover, Germany<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Prof. Dr. Maria-Esther Vidal<\/strong>\u00a0is a Professor at\u00a0Leibniz University Hannover<\/a>\u00a0and Head of the\u00a0Scientific Data Management (SDM) group at TIB\u2013Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology<\/a>. She is also affiliated with the\u00a0L3S Research Centre\u00a0<\/a>and holds the title of Full Professor (retired) at Universidad Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar (USB), Venezuela. Her research focuses on\u00a0semantic data management, data integration, federated query processing, and machine learning over knowledge graphs<\/strong>, with a strong emphasis on\u00a0neuro-symbolic AI<\/strong>. She has pioneered methods that integrate symbolic reasoning with machine learning to achieve interpretable and trustworthy AI systems. This work has had a profound impact in domains such as\u00a0medicine<\/strong>\u00a0(e.g., supporting diagnosis and personalized treatment),\u00a0bias detection and documentation<\/strong>\u00a0(ensuring fairness and transparency in AI pipelines), and\u00a0scientific data ecosystems<\/strong>\u00a0(enabling interoperability and reproducibility across heterogeneous data sources). Prof. Vidal is the co-author of more than\u00a0240 peer-reviewed publications<\/strong>\u00a0in Semantic Web, Databases, and Artificial Intelligence, and her contributions have been recognized with the\u00a0Science Award on Responsible Research<\/strong>\u00a0by Stifterverband and the\u00a0Leibniz Best Minds Programme for Women Professors<\/strong>. She actively shapes her research communities, serving on the editorial boards of leading journals (e.g.,\u00a0Journal of Web Semantics<\/em>,\u00a0ACM Journal of Data and Information Quality<\/em>) and taking on key leadership roles at major scientific venues (e.g.,\u00a0ESWC<\/em>,\u00a0WWW<\/em>,\u00a0ISWC<\/em>,\u00a0AAAI<\/em>). Under her leadership, her team has developed widely recognized\u00a0technologies that span the entire knowledge graph lifecycle<\/strong>: from semantic integration of heterogeneous data and\u00a0federated query processing<\/strong>, to bias-aware machine learning and\u00a0hybrid neuro-symbolic reasoning<\/strong>. These technologies not only advance the state of the art but also address pressing societal challenges by fostering\u00a0explainability, accountability, and trust<\/strong>\u00a0in AI. She serves as an expert on several advisory boards, summer schools, and doctoral consortia, and has an extensive record in mentoring the next generation of researchers:\u00a0over 28 doctoral students and more than 120 Master\u2019s and Bachelor\u2019s students in Computer Science<\/strong>. She has also served on doctoral committees across Europe and Latin America (France, Italy, Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, Argentina, Uruguay, and Venezuela).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Maria-Esther Vidal Full Professor at Leibniz University of Hannover, Germany Prof. Dr. Maria-Esther Vidal\u00a0is a Professor at\u00a0Leibniz University Hannover\u00a0and Head of the\u00a0Scientific Data Management (SDM) group at TIB\u2013Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology. She is also affiliated with the\u00a0L3S…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"speaker-category":[141],"speaker-tags":[148,109],"location":[69],"class_list":["post-5567","speaker","type-speaker","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","speaker-category-keynote-speaker","speaker-tags-keynotes","speaker-tags-speaker","location-germany"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/conferences.sigappfr.org\/medes2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speaker\/5567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/conferences.sigappfr.org\/medes2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speaker"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/conferences.sigappfr.org\/medes2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/speaker"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conferences.sigappfr.org\/medes2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conferences.sigappfr.org\/medes2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5567"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/conferences.sigappfr.org\/medes2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speaker\/5567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5569,"href":"https:\/\/conferences.sigappfr.org\/medes2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speaker\/5567\/revisions\/5569"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conferences.sigappfr.org\/medes2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/conferences.sigappfr.org\/medes2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"speaker-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conferences.sigappfr.org\/medes2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speaker-category?post=5567"},{"taxonomy":"speaker-tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conferences.sigappfr.org\/medes2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speaker-tags?post=5567"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conferences.sigappfr.org\/medes2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=5567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}