she/herVerena Wolf
Professor for Computer Science
Director at DFKI
DFKI – Neuro-Mechanistic Modeling
Modeling and Simulation Group, Saarland University
Saarland Informatics Campus
Campus D3.2 (DFKI), Room 2.24
66123 Saarbrücken
Germany
About Me
I am Director at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), where I lead the research department Neuro-mechanistic Modeling. My work focuses on hybrid AI approaches that combine data-driven methods, in particular deep learning models, with explicit domain knowledge in the form of models grounded in physics, mechanistic reasoning, expert knowledge, or formal constraints. This integration enhances robustness, interpretability and generalization, especially in scientific and safety-critical domains where purely data-driven models often fail due to limited or noisy data.
In parallel, I hold a professorship in Computer Science at Saarland University, where I head the Modeling and Simulation group (MOSI). The research of the MOSI group centers on stochastic modeling, efficient simulation techniques, parameter estimation, mean-field analysis, and reinforcement learning. I am particularly passionate about developing methods that are not only theoretically rigorous but also practically applicable across a range of scientific domains.
Short CV
- since January 2023: Director at the DFKI (German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence)
- since April 2012: full professor at Saarland University (Modeling and Simulation group)
- Jan 2009 – Mar 2012: junior research group leader at the cluster of excellence Multimodal Computing and Interaction, Saarland University
- Jan 2008 – Feb 2009: postdoc research fellow at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), MTC group of Tom Henzinger
- April 2008: Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of Mannheim
Other Work / Research Activity
- Associate Editor of the ACM Transactions on Modeling and Computer Simulation Journal
- Member of the Center for Bioinformatics at Saarland University
- PC chair of QEST'19
- PC chair of CMSB'20
- Member of Schloss Dagstuhl’s Scientific Directorate
- Head of the students lab InfoLab Saar
- Led the expert panel for introducing computer science as a mandatory school subject in Saarland
Interests
- Hybrid AI
- Stochastic Modeling
- Efficient Simulation
- Mean-field Analysis
- Reinforcement Learning
- Parameter Estimation
- Graph Neural Networks
Education
Postdoctoral Research Fellow (MTC group of Tom Henzinger), 2008 – 2009
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Ph.D. in Computer Science, 2008
University of Mannheim
Publications (94)
2026
2026 — Artificial Intelligence in the Life Sciences (AILSCI)
B-cos GNNs: Faithful Explanations through Dynamic Linearity
2026 — arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.19778
PGTG: Procedurally Generated Grid-Based Traffic Gym
2026 — Reinforcement Learning Journal
2025
PyDSMC: Statistical Model Checking for Neural Agents Using the Gymnasium Interface
2025 — Quantitative Evaluation of Systems and Formal Modeling and Analysis of Timed Systems - Second International Joint Conference, Proceedings. International Joint Conference on Quantitative Evaluation of Systems and Formal Modeling and Analysis of Timed Systems (QEST+FORMATS-2025), August 26-28, Aarhus, Denmark
Per-Domain Generalizing Policies: On Validation Instances and Scaling Behavior
2025 — The 35th International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling. International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS-2025), November 9-14, Melbourne, Australia
2024
Acting for the Right Reasons: Creating Reason-Sensitive Artificial Moral Agents
2024 — ArXiv e-prints (arxiv)
Motion Primitives as the Action Space of Deep Q-Learning for Planning in Autonomous Driving
2024 — IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems
Guided docking as a data generation approach facilitates structure-based machine learning on kinases
2024 — Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling (JCIM)
Comparing State-of-the-art Graph Neural Networks and Transformers for General Policy Learning
2024 — ICAPS Workshop on Planning and Reinforcement Learning (PRL)
Enhancing GNNs with Architecture-Agnostic Graph Transformations: A Systematic Analysis
2024 — Hocine Cherifi; Murat Donduran; Luis M. Rocha; Chantal Cherifi; Onur Varol;: International Conference on Complex Networks and Their Applications
Safe Reinforcement Learning Through Regret and State Restorations in Evaluation Stages
2024 — Workshop on Reliable Data-Driven Planning and Scheduling. International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS-2024)
Structural activity prediction models recover known binding modes (Poster abstract)
2024 — ICML'24 Workshop ML for Life and Material Science: From Theory to Industry Applications. International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML-2024)
2023
2023 — ACM Transactions on Modeling and Computer Simulation (TOMACS)
Computer Science Methods for Effective and Sustainable Simulation Studies
2023 — Dagstuhl Reports
Unsupervised relational inference using masked reconstruction
2023 — Applied Network Science
Intelligent Modeling and Simulation Lifecycle
2023 — Dagstuhl-Seminar Report 22401. Dagstuhl Seminare/Workshops, Computer Science Methods for Effective and Sustainable Simulation Studies, October 3-7, Schloß Dagstuhl, Germany
XAI Requirements in Smart Production Processes: A Case Study
2023 — Explainable Artificial Intelligence, First World Conference, Proceedings, Part I. xAI: World Conference on Explainable Artificial Intelligence (xAI-2023), July 26-28, Lissabon, Portugal
2022
A comprehensive approach for genome-wide efficiency profiling of DNA modifying enzymes
2022 — Cell Reports Methods
MoGym: Using Formal Models for Training and Verifying Decision-making Agents
2022 — International Conference on Computer Aided Verification. International Conference on Computer Aided Verification (CAV)
2021
Epidemic overdispersion strengthens the effectiveness of mobility restrictions
2021 — HSCC ‘21: Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Hybrid Systems: Computation and Control. ACM International Conference on Hybrid Systems: Computation and Control (HSCC-2021), May 19-21, Nashville,, Tennesse, USA
Analysis of Markov jump processes under terminal constraints
2021 — Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems. International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems (TACAS-2021), 27th International Conference, TACAS 2021, Held as Part of the European Joint Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software, ETAPS 2021, March 27 - April 1, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
Abstraction-Guided Truncations for Stationary Distributions of Markov Population Models
2021 — Quantitative Evaluation of Systems
Analytic solutions for stochastic hybrid models of gene regulatory networks
2021 — Journal of Mathematical Biology
InfoLab Saar - Schülerlabor Informatik der Universität des Saarlandes
2021 — INFORMATIK 2021 - Computer Science & Sustainability. Workshop: Für Informatik begeistern - vom Kindesalter bis zum Abitur (Informatik-Begeisterung-2), located at INFORMATIK 2021, September 27 - October 1, Berlin, Germany
2020
Learning Vaccine Allocation from Simulations
2020 — Complex Networks & Their Applications IX. International Conference on Complex Networks and their Applications (COMPLEX NETWORKS-2020), Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Complex Networks and Their Applications, December 1-3, Madrid, Spain
Importance of Interaction Structure and Stochasticity for Epidemic Spreading: A COVID-19 Case Study
2020 — Quantitative Evaluation of Systems. International Conference on Quantitative Evaluation of Systems (QEST-2020), 17th International Conference, QEST 2020, October 31 - September 1, Vienna, Austria
Tracking the Race Between Deep Reinforcement Learning and Imitation Learning - Extended Version
2020 — ArXiv e-prints (arxiv)
Bounding Mean First Passage Times in Population Continuous-Time Markov Chains
2020 — Quantitative Evaluation of Systems. International Conference on Quantitative Evaluation of Systems (QEST), Cham
Real-Time Decision Making for a Car Manufacturing Process Using Deep Reinforcement Learning
2020 — 2020 Winter Simulation Conference (WSC). Winter Simulation Conference (WSC-2020), December 14-18, Orlando,, FL, USA
Rejection-Based Simulation of Non-Markovian Agents on Complex Networks
2020 — Complex Networks and Their Applications VIII
2019
2019 — Springer Nature, Switzerland
Rejection-Based Simulation of Stochastic Spreading Processes on Complex
2019 — Hybrid Systems Biology - 6th International Workshop, Revised Selected Papers. International Workshop on Hybrid Systems Biology (HSB-2019), April 6-7, Prague, Czech Republic
Hidden Markov Modelling Reveals Neighborhood Dependence of Dnmt3a and 3b Activity
2019 — IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (TCBB)
A Hybrid HMM Approach for the Dynamics of DNA Methylation
2019 — Hybrid Systems Biology
Bounding First Passage Times in Chemical Reaction Networks
2019 — Computational Methods in Systems Biology - 17th International Conference - Proceedings. International Conference on Computational Methods in Systems Biology (CMSB-2019), September 18-20, Trieste, Italy
Control Variates for Stochastic Simulation of Chemical Reaction Networks
2019 — Computational Methods in Systems Biology
2019 — 18. GI-Fachtagung Informatik und Schule. Informatik für alle. GI-Fachtagung Informatik und Schule (INFOS-2019), September 16-18, Dortmund, Germany
2018
Stochastic hybrid models of gene regulatory networks – A PDE approach
2018 — Mathematical Biosciences
Simulating the Large-Scale Erosion of Genomic Privacy Over Time
2018 — IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (TCBB)
Two are better than one: HPoxBS - hairpin oxidative bisulfite sequencing
2018 — Nucleic Acids Research
Approximate adaptive uniformization of continuous-time Markov chains
2018 — Applied Mathematical Modelling
Data-Driven Approach Towards a Personalized Curriculum
2018 — Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Educational Data Mining. International Conference on Educational Data Mining (EDM-2018), July 15-18, Buffalo,, NY, USA
Lumping the Approximate Master Equation for Multistate Processes on Complex Networks
2018 — Quantitative Evaluation of Systems
Student Performance Prediction and Optimal Course Selection: An MDP Approach
2018 — Software Engineering and Formal Methods. International Conference on Software Engineering and Formal Methods (SEFM), Cham
2017
Moment-Based Parameter Estimation for Stochastic Reaction Networks in Equilibrium
2017 — IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (TCBB)
A Stochastic Model for the Formation of Spatial Methylation Patterns
2017 — Computational Methods in Systems Biology
2016
Generalized method of moments for estimating parameters of stochastic reaction networks
2016 — BMC Systems Biology
Generalized Method of Moments for Stochastic Reaction Networks in Equilibrium
2016 — Computational Methods in Systems Biology. International Conference on Computational Methods in Systems Biology (CMSB-2016), 14th International Conference, CMSB 2016, September 21-23, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Hybrid Stochastic Simulation of Rule-Based Polymerization Models
2016 — Hybrid Systems Biology - 5th International Workshop, Proceedings. International Conference on Hybrid Systems Biology (HSB-2016), October 20-21, Grenoble, France
2016 — PLOS Computational Biology
2015
Model-Based Whole-Genome Analysis of DNA Methylation Fidelity
2015 — Hybrid Systems Biology - Fourth International Workshop. Revised Selected Papers. International Conference on Hybrid Systems Biology (HSB-2015), September 4-5, Madrid, Spain
Rule-based modelling and simulation of drug-administration policies
2015 — MSM ‘15: Proceedings of the Symposium on Modeling and Simulation in Medicine
Model Reconstruction for Moment-Based Stochastic Chemical Kinetics
2015 — ACM Transactions on Modeling and Computer Simulation (TOMACS)
2014
Method of conditional moments (MCM) for the Chemical Master Equation
2014 — Journal of Mathematical Biology (JOMB)
2013
On-the-fly verification and optimization of DTA-properties for large Markov chains
2013 — Formal Methods in System Design
Numerical Approximation of Rare Event Probabilities in Biochemically Reacting Systems
2013 — Computational Methods in Systems Biology. International Conference on Computational Methods in Systems Biology (CMSB-2013), 11th International Conference, CMSB 2013, September 22-24, Klosterneuburg, Austria
Efficient Steady State Analysis of Multimodal Markov Chains
2013 — Analytical and Stochastic Modeling Techniques and Applications. International Conference on Analytical and Stochastic Modeling Techniques and Applications (ASMTA-2013), 20th International Conference, ASMTA 2013, July 8-10, Gent, Belgium
Approximate Transient Analysis of Queuing Networks by Quasi Product Forms
2013 — Analytical and Stochastic Modeling Techniques and Applications - 20th International Conference, Proceedings. International Conference on Analytical and Stochastic Modeling Techniques and Applications (ASMTA-2013), July 8-10, Ghent, Belgium
2012
In Vivo Control of CpG and Non-CpG DNA Methylation by DNA Methyltransferases
2012 — PLOS Genetics
Three-valued abstraction for probabilistic systems
2012 — The Journal of Logic and Algebraic Programming (JLAP)
Parameter estimation for stochastic hybrid models of biochemical reaction networks
2012 — HSCC ‘12: Proceedings of the 15th ACM international conference on Hybrid Systems: Computation and Control. ACM International Conference on Hybrid Systems: Computation and Control (HSCC-2012), April 17-19, Beijing, China
Approximate maximum likelihood estimation for stochastic chemical kinetics
2012 — EURASIP Journal on Bioinformatics and Systems Biology
Quasi Product Form Approximation for Markov Models of Reaction Networks
2012 — Transactions on Computational Systems Biology XIV - Special Issue on Computational Models for Cell Processes. International Workshop on Computational Models for Cell Processes (CompMod-2011), 3rd Workshop, September 10, Aachen, Germany
2011
2011 — Advances in Applied Probability
Bounding the equilibrium distribution of Markov population models
2011 — Numerical Linear Algebra with Applications
Formalisms For Specifying Markovian Population Models
2011 — International Journal of Foundations of Computer Science
Approximation of event probabilities in noisy cellular processes
2011 — Theoretical Computer Science (TCS)
Efficient Calculation of Rare Event Probabilities in Markovian Queueing Networks
2011 — VALUETOOLS ‘11: Proceedings of the 5th International ICST Conference on Performance Evaluation Methodologies and Tools. International ICST Conference on Performance Evaluation Methodologies and Tools (VALUETOOLS-2011), May 16-20, Paris, France
SHAVE: stochastic hybrid analysis of markov population models
2011 — HSCC ‘11: Proceedings of the 14th international conference on Hybrid systems: computation and control. ACM International Conference on Hybrid Systems: Computation and Control (HSCC-2011), April 12-14, Chicago,, IL, USA
2010
Fast adaptive uniformisation of the chemical master equation
2010 — IET Systems Biology
On the numerical analysis of stochastic Lotka-Volterra models
2010 — Proceedings of the International Multiconference on Computer Science and Information Technology. Computer Aspects of Numerical Algorithms (CANA-2010), located at IMCSIT 2010, October 18-20, Wisla, Poland
Hybrid numerical solution of the chemical master equation
2010 — Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Computational Methods in Systems Biology. International Conference on Computational Methods in Systems Biology (CMSB-2010), Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Computational Methods in Systems Biology, September 29 - October 1, Trento, Italy
Solving the chemical master equation using sliding windows
2010 — BMC Systems Biology
2009
Sliding Window Abstraction for Infinite Markov Chains
2009 — Ahmed Bouajjani; Oded Maler;: International Conference on Computer Aided Verification
2008
Abstraction for Stochastic Systems by Erlang's Method of Stages
2008 — CONCUR 2008 - Concurrency Theory. International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR-2008), 19th International Conference, CONCUR 2008, August 19-22, Toronto, Canada
Computational Probability for Systems Biology
2008 — Formal Methods in Systems Biology - First International Workshop, Proceedings. International Workshop on Formal Methods in Systems Biology (FMSB-2008), June 4-5, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Equivalences on Phase Type Processes
2008 — Universität Mannheim
2007
Modelling of Biochemical Reactions by Stochastic Automata Networks
2007 — Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science
Interaction Models for Biochemical Reactions
2007 — Proceedings of the 2007 International Conference on Bioinformatics & Computational Biology, BIOCOMP 2007. International Conference on Bioinformatics & Computational Biology (BioComp-07), June 25-28, Las Vegas,, NV, USA
2006
A Numerical Aggregation Algorithm for the Enzyme-Catalyzed Substrate Conversion
2006 — Computational Methods in Systems Biology - International Conference, Proceedings. International Conference on Computational Methods in Systems Biology (CMSB-2006), October 18-19, Trento, Italy
Trace Semantics for Stochastic Systems with Nondeterminism
2006 — Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science
Bisimulation and Simulation Relations for Markov Chains
2006 — Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science
Stochastic Reasoning About Channel-Based Component Connectors
2006 — Coordination Models and Languages - 8th International Conference, Proceedings. International Conference on Coordination Languages and Models (Coordination-06), June 14-16, Bologna, Italy
Trace Machines for Observing Continuous-Time Markov Chains
2006 — Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science
Don't Know in Probabilistic Systems
2006 — Model Checking Software. International Symposium on Model Checking Software (SPIN-2006), 13th International SPIN Workshop, March 30 - April 1, Vienna, Austria
A computational stochastic modeling formalism for biological networks
2006 — Enformatika Transactions on Engineering, Computing and Technology
2005
Comparative branching-time semantics for Markov chains
2005 — Information and Computation (Inform. Comput.)
Testing Theory for Probabilistic Systems
2005 — Model-Based Testing of Reactive Systems
2004
Comparative Linear-Time Semantics on Action-Labelled Continuous-Time Markov Chains
2004 — Proceedings of the 16th Nordic Workshop on Programming Theory. Nordic Workshop on Programming Theory, October 6-8, Uppsala, Sweden