About
Hi! My name is Annalena (she/her) and I am a PhD student in Machine Learning at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen supervised by Bernhard Schölkopf. I am part of the IMPRS-IS graduate program and the interdisciplinary ELLIS PhD program. Previously, I completed my physics Bachelor’s and Master’s degree at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). For my Master’s thesis, I was fortunate to be supervised by Lukas Heinrich, Michael Kagan, and Vincent Stimper.
Research Interests
- Deep Generative Modelling and Simulation-Based Inference
- Automatic Differentiation and Differentiable (Physics) Simulators
- Physics: Gravitational Waves, Particle Physics, Characterization of Exoplanets
If you are interested in my work and have questions or ideas, please reach out via email. I’m always motivated to chat!
Supervision
- (Since November 2025) Master’s student
- (September 2025) Supervised high school student intern (see this tutorial)
- (June - September 2024) Supervised IRIS-HEP fellow
Teaching
- (Summer 2025) Supervised students for the seminar Simulation-based Inference at the University of Tübingen
- (September 2024) Gave invited lecture and tutorial on normalizing flows at the genAI workshop in Munich
- (Summer 2024) Organized seminar Deep Learning for the Natural Sciences at TUM
- (Winter 2021/22) Organized and prepared tutorials and student projects for lecture Introduction to Neural Networks for Physics Students at TUM
Talk highlights
- (July 2026) Invited talk at the 2026 Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, speakers selected by vote among participants.
- (March 2026) Invited talk at Merantix, streamed at Mila
- (January 2026) Invited talk at RWTH Aachen
- (January 2025) Invited talk at UC Berkley (remote)
- (December 2024) Spotlight talk at the NeurIPS workshop “Machine Learning and the Physical Sciences”
You can find a complete overview of of my presentations, posters, and tutorials here.
Reviewing
- NeurIPS Workshop Machine Learning and the Physical Sciences 2025 (3 papers)
- NeurIPS Workshop Machine Learning and the Physical Sciences 2024 (4 papers)
Community Service
- (January 2024 - January 2026) Organizer of Athena group meetings and PhD student representative at Gender Equality Committee of MPI-IS Tübingen
- (August - December 2024) Organized diffusion model journal club
- (November 2023 - June 2024) Served as mentor for ApplicAid
- (March 2023 - October 2023) Organized seminar with external speakers for the Origins Data Science Lab
- (October 2021 - October 2023) Elected as scholarship representative and committee member for the selection of new scholars of the Heinrich Böll Foundation
Diversity
I actively work towards a welcoming and encouraging environment for people from marginalized groups in physics, ML, and academia in general. Since students from marginalized groups face specific challenges and lack support, I decided to exclusively offer mentoring for people from these groups. If you are interested, please contact me via email and explain why you reach out to me, specifically.