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Dr. Kevin Leyton-Brown receives ACM-AAAI Allen Newell Award

UBC Professor Kevin Leyton-Brown honoured with major international computer science award for contributions to AI and machine learning 

This story was originally published in the Computer Science Department news, written by Sonja Soo.

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) names UBC Professor Kevin Leyton-Brown as the recipient of the 2025 ACM-AAAI Allen Newell Award for “fundamental contributions to artificial intelligence and machine learning, focusing on applications to multiagent systems, heuristic algorithms, social impact, and market design.” The prestigious award, which comes with a prize of $10,000, is given each year to an individual with remarkable career contributions that have breadth within computer science or that bridge computer science and other disciplines. Dr. Leyton-Brown will be recognized at the ACM’s Award Banquet on June 13, 2026 in San Francisco. 

"I’m extremely honoured to receive this award,” says Dr. Leyton-Brown. “AI can bring incredible benefits, and I believe we have both an unprecedented opportunity and a moral obligation to leverage AI to benefit all communities, particularly in the developing world.”  

For over 20 years, Dr. Leyton-Brown has been a computer science faculty member at UBC studying artificial intelligence. His research intersects machine learning and game theory and electronic markets as well as the design of heuristic algorithms. He has co-authored over 185 peer-reviewed articles and has received over 33,000 citations. In addition, he has co-authored 10 book chapters and two popular textbooks: Multiagent Systems and Essentials of Game Theory. 

Dr. Leyton-Brown's research work has made significant contributions to the AI field. He is known for his highly-cited work on the design of learning methods and automated techniques for algorithm selection and tuning. His research on developing specialized algorithms for combinatorial auctions, in which participants can bid on a combination of goods, has led to increased economic efficiency. Dr. Leyton-Brown's research has taken him to Uganda, where he partnered with locals to develop an electronic market app that helped farmers sell surplus crops. His work on peer grading software, Mechanical TA, is used in universities around the world. 

At UBC, Dr. Leyton-Brown is the Director of the Center for AI Decision-making and Action (CAIDA), UBC’s main AI organization that includes more than 100 researchers from different departments across campus. He also serves as Director of the UBC Science Research Cluster on AI Methods for Scientific Impact (AIM-SI), an interdisciplinary cluster that seeks to foster interdisciplinary connections between AI researchers and other academic domain experts. Dr. Leyton-Brown holds a Canada CIFAR AI Chair at the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute and is an Associate Member of the Vancouver School of Economics. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (RSC), a Fellow of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) and a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI). As a UBC Distinguished University Scholar, he is amongst 98 faculty members at the university recognized for their remarkable research and teaching, out of over 6500.