Associate Professor andrew cropper In October 2025, he joined the ELLIS Institute in Finland and the Department of Computer Science at the University of Helsinki.
What are you researching?
I'm building artificial intelligence (AI) to reason like a scientist. Just as scientists formulate hypotheses, test them, and refine theories, my AI does the same. Rather than simply memorizing patterns by giving examples of successful and unsuccessful drugs, you will, like a scientist, propose a hypothesis to explain why a particular drug works, test your hypothesis, learn from the results, and deepen your understanding.
What makes this AI unique is that it uses logical reasoning to generate explanations that humans can read, question, and build upon. Make your predictions and explain the reasoning behind them.
We want to use this AI to accelerate discoveries in genomics, ecology, pharmacology, and any other field where the scientific method is applied. My ultimate goal is to help scientists make Nobel Prize-worthy discoveries.
What are you most looking forward to?
The research itself. Building AI that closely follows the scientific method is an extremely difficult challenge. I am excited to grow the team tackling this challenge and establish Helsinki and Ellis Institute Finland as world leaders in this field. I want to create a place where the brightest minds come together to work on problems that change the way science is done.
Why University of Helsinki?
Helsinki provides an ideal environment for my research. My research combines logical reasoning (where computers solve problems step-by-step) and machine learning (where computers detect patterns in data). Helsinki has world-class researchers in both fields. We're excited to bring these communities together to tackle problems that we can't solve alone. I've seen this possibility firsthand. I spent three months here as a visiting researcher in 2023, and the visit was very productive. Besides research, my wife is half Finnish and loves living here. I can't imagine a better place for my studies and family.
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Associate Professor Andrew Klopper is one of nine new Principal Investigators (PIs) at Ellis Institute Finland. As principal investigators, these researchers also hold professorships at partner universities across Finland.
Established in 2025, ELLIS Institute Finland is the second institute of ELLIS (
