"Alone, we can do so little;
together, we can do so much."

- Helen Keller

Our mission is to develop a strong, supportive learning theory community and ensure its healthy growth by fostering inclusive community engagement and encouraging active contributions from researchers at all stages of their careers.

Towards this goal, we aim to

broaden the participation of a wider range of researchers from diverse backgrounds,
provide mentorship to new and existing members to excel in their careers,
create avenues for junior members to lead research- and community-oriented activities,
promote the achievements of the learning theory community, and
cultivate strong social and research connections.

Events

Upcoming/Recent Events

Mentorship

June 30, 2026

COLT 2025 Community Event

The theme of this event is to explore strategies for building impactful research agendas across all areas of learning theory, and effectively communicating theoretical insights – both within the diverse COLT community and to the broader machine learning world.

Mentorship

Office Hours

Chat with members of the learning theory community in a small group setting.

Team

Founding Committee

Surbhi Goel

Assistant Professor, UPenn CIS

Nika Haghtalab

Assistant Professor, UC Berkeley EECS

Ellen Vitercik

Assistant Professor, Stanford MS&E and CS

Team

Advisory Committee

Peter Bartlett

Professor, UC Berkeley CS and Statistics

Avrim Blum

Professor and Chief Academic Officer, TTIC

Stefanie Jegelka

Associate Professor, MIT EECS

Po-Ling Loh

Lecturer, Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics, University of Cambridge

Jenn Wortman Vaughan

Senior Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research NYC