University of Edinburgh
Igor MordatchSenior Staff Research Scientist · Google DeepMindResearcher↗
Researcher
Nicolas Heess
Google DeepMindDirector of Robotics, Research Scientist
Heess helped teach AI-controlled bodies and robots to move, balance and handle objects by learning through trial and error. His research showed how machines can build reusable movement skills and adapt them to new tasks, helping lay groundwork for modern general-purpose robotics.
Career & education
Current roleGoogle DeepMind2014-presentDirector of Robotics, Research Scientist
Google DeepMind2014-presentPreviously
UCL2011-2013Postdoc, Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit
UCL2011-2013Education
Work and education history is primarily focused on AI-relevant roles and may not be comprehensive.
Citation Trend
Total citations to scholarly work, including research papers, technical reports, books and theses, as recorded by Google Scholar. Each point is a dated snapshot.
citations83,164As of Sep 5, '26
Selected contributions
A Generalist Agent
With Scott Reed, Konrad Żołna, Emilio Parisotto, Sergio Gomez Colmenarejo, Alexander Novikov, Gabriel Barth-Maron, Mai Gimenez and others ·Gato brought language, games, image descriptions and robot control into a single model.
Genie: Generative Interactive Environments
With Jake Bruce, Michael D Dennis, Ashley Edwards, Jack Parker-Holder, Yuge Shi, Edward Hughes, Matthew Lai and others ·Genie learns from videos to turn an image into a controllable virtual world.
Based on public sources. If accuracy is important, verify details using the links or references.
For corrections, updates, or requests to remove information, contact us.
Reviewed September 5, 2026 · Checked for accuracy and new information.
