Iliya Nickelt

Iliya Nickelt is Chief Data Scientist at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). At the BMZ Data Lab, he is working with a dynamic team of data scientists to advance the use of data and AI within public administration. Previously, he was deputy head of IT operations at BMZ for eight years and headed the “Machine Learning and AI” community at NExT e. V., the exchange platform for digital transformation for employees from all levels of the German public sector. He studied physics and earned his doctorate in astrophysics in Potsdam. As a postdoctoral researcher, he worked on several research projects on internationally networked databases and computing in coupled large-scale data centers. In addition, he contributed to the Internet self-regulatory organization ICANN for several years.