Thore Gerlach
Internal Research Fellow (Postdoc) in the Advanced Concepts Team at ESA working on fast, efficient, interpretable and robust machine learning models for spacecraft.
I completed my PhD at the University of Bonn in the Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence Lab under supervision of Christian Bauckhage and Stefan Wrobel. Meanwhile I was also working at Fraunhofer IAIS and part of the LAMARR institute.
My research lies at the intersection of machine learning, combinatorial optimization, and hardware-aware computing. I develop algorithms tailored to their underlying hardware, ranging from quantum computers to efficient logic-based neural networks. My work combines practical algorithm design with rigorous theoretical analysis.
Latest News
| Jul 2026 | 🎉 Our paper Hardware-Aware QUBO Reformulation of Constrained Binary Optimization via the Walsh–Fourier Transform is accepted at QCE 2026. |
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| May 2026 | 🎉 We got our Workshop on Large Language and Foundation Models accepted at BigData 2026. |
| Apr 2026 | 🛰️ We are hosting the fourth Space Optimization Competition (SpOC) at GECCO 2026. |
| Feb 2026 | 🚀 Co-organizer of the third Conferene on AI in and for Space (SPAICE 2026). |
| Nov 2025 | 🚀 I have joined the Advanced Concepts Team as an Internal Research Fellow (Postdoc) at ESA. |
| Oct 2025 | 🎉 Our paper Quantum Boltzmann Machines for Sample-Efficient Reinforcement Learning is accepted for the ML4PS Workshop at NeurIPS 2025. |
| Sep 2025 | 🎓 I have succsefully defended my dissertation at the University of Bonn. |
| Sep 2025 | 🎉 We got two papers accepted at QAI 2025. |
Selected Publications
Selected publications are shown below. For a complete and up-to-date list, see Google Scholar.-
Beyond Reinforcement Learning: Fast and Scalable Quantum Circuit SynthesisarXiv preprint arXiv:2602.15146, 2026 -
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Policy Rollout Action Selection with Knowledge Gradient for Sensor Path PlanningIn Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Information Fusion (FUSION), 2021
Awards, Scholarships & Funding
2025
IEEE Computational Intelligence Society Travel Grant
Travel grant for DSAA 2025.
2025
Argelander Travel Grant for Early-Career Researchers
Travel grant for ICML 2025.
2025
Heinrich Hertz Scholarship for International Research Exchange
Scholarship supporting a research visit at CERN.
2025
INQA Exchange Visit Funding
Research funding for a research visit at CERN.
2025
D-Wave Leap Quantum LaunchPad
Competitive access to D-Wave quantum processors and hybrid solvers.
2023
Winner — Thales International Quantum Hackathon
FPGA chip design with quantum optimization.
2021
Best Paper Award — FUSION 2021
Knowledge Gradient for Policy Rollout Algorithms.
Academic Service
Workshop Organization
Workshop Organizer for the Fourth Workshop on Large Language and Foundation Models.
Conference Organization
Conference Organizer for the third edition of the European Space Agency's SPAICE Conference.
Challenge Organization
Challenge Organizer for the Space Logistics competition at GECCO 2026.
Conference & Journal Reviewing
Top Tier Venues in Machine Learning & Quantum Computing
ICML, NeurIPS, AAAI, ICLR, IDA, SPAICE, Mach. Learn., QAI, QMI, and more.
Standardization
Consortium Member for the development of requirements and reference architectures for benchmarking quantum computers.
Outreach & Science Communication
Lamarr Blog · 2024
Article introducing the open-source qubolite toolbox for quadratic unconstrained binary optimization.
Lamarr Blog · 2022
Article on FPGA-based quantum-inspired optimization with the IAIS Evo Annealer.
Outreach
Exhibitor at LASER World of PHOTONICS 2022, presenting FPGA-based Evo Annealer / Digital Annealer technology.
Teaching
Foundations of Quantum Computing
Principal Teaching Assistant
Quantum Computing Algorithms
Principal Teaching Assistant
Foundations of Machine Learning
Principal Teaching Assistant
Reinforcement Learning
Principal Teaching Assistant
Development and delivery of certified professional training
Supervision
Master's Thesis
Reinforcement Learning for Quantum Circuit Transpilation
Reinforcement Learning for Quantum Circuit Transpilation
Student Research Assistants
Supervision of research projects in quantum optimization, reinforcement learning, and quantum computing education.
Supervision of research projects in quantum optimization, reinforcement learning, and quantum computing education.