Andrés Muñoz Medina was born in the oil town of Coatzacoalcos, México. Growing up he showed a predisposition for mathematics. He participated in several math olympiads, achieving second place nationally in high school. Andrés graduated with honors as a mathematician from UNAM in Mexico city and pursued a doctorate in applied mathematics at New York University under the supervision of one of the best theoretical computer scientists in the world, Mehryar Mohri.
After graduation and three successful internships at Google, he took a full-time position there as a research scientist. After eight years at Google he is one of only a couple Latinx senior staff research scientists at the company. Andrés’ research focuses on improving users’ privacy through initiatives such as the privacy sandbox in Chrome and the development of new state-of-the-art algorithms for private data manipulation.
Throughout his career, Andrés has constantly pushed to increase the representation of Latinx researchers at Google and other technology companies. He has done so by sponsoring outreach programs for Latin American students and partnering with institutions such as the Computing Alliance of Hispanic Serving Institutions to guide institutions in applying for Google grants. Andres also has served as chair and mentor for multiple workshops sponsored by Latinx in AI. As a general chair, he is bringing the Web Search and Data Mining conference to Latin America in 2024 for the first time in its 17-year history.
When Andrés is not doing research, he loves to travel, ski, and attend Broadway plays where he is an investor in shows such as “& Juliet”.
Words of Wisdom: “Everyone can have an opinion or even a brilliant idea. The key to success is doing the work to turn that idea into reality.”
