Dr. rer. nat. Oliver Karras
Head of Creation & Community Building for Program Area D - Open Research Knowledge Graph (ORKG)
Researcher, Data Scientist, and Lecturer
I am the Head of Curation & Community Building for Program Area D - Open Research Knowledge Graph (ORKG) at TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology. In this role, I work as a researcher and data scientist at TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology, as well as a lecturer at Leibniz Universität Hannover. I hold a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Leibniz Universität Hannover. Furthermore, I am involved in the research projects Open Research Knowledge Graph (ORKG), National Research Data Infrastructure for Engineering Sciences (NFDI4ING) consortium, National Research Data Infrastructure for Interdisciplinary Energy System Research (NFDI4Energy) consortium, both of which are part of the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI), find.software: Foundations for INterdisciplinary Discovery of (Research) Software, CRC/TRR 298 SIIRI – Safety-Integrated and Infection-Reactive Implants, and SciD-QuESt - From Scientific Documents to Knowledge – Questionnaire-Based Extraction and Structuring.
As part of this work, my research focuses on the development of the ORKG and its application in diverse disciplines, such as computer science, engineering sciences, energy system research, and medicine. I focus on the human-centered, neuro-symbolic knowledge organization to improve the availability, discoverability, and accessibility of FAIR scientific data, information, and knowledge for humans and machines.
I am a member of the Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), and a regular reviewer and member of various program committees and organizing committees of workshops, conferences, and journals.
Before joining TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology, I was a research associate and Ph.D. student at the Software Engineering Group at Leibniz Universität Hannover. I worked as project leader of the DFG research project ViViReq and researched the integration of videos as a complementary communication medium in requirements engineering. My research focused on supporting requirements communication between stakeholders and the development team to foster the development of a shared understanding of the project vision of the system under development among all project partners involved.
I have published my research in over 85 national and international publications on diverse topics, including requirements engineering, empirical software engineering, social software engineering, machine learning, natural language processing, research knowledge graphs, neuro-symbolic AI, and FAIR scientific data, information, and knowledge.
Academic Education
Doctor of Science in Computer Science
Leibniz Universität Hannover | 01/2016 – 03/2021
- Degree: Doktor rerum naturalium (Dr. rer. nat.)
- Thesis title: Supporting Requirements Communication for Shared Understanding by Applying Vision Videos in Requirements Engineering
- Course of studies: Computer Science
- Main research topics: Requirements engineering, empirical software engineering, human-computer interaction, user experience
Master of Science in Computer Science
Leibniz Universität Hannover | 10/2013 – 12/2015
- Thesis title: Tool-Supported Analysis of Requirements Workshop Videos
- Course of studies: Computer Science
- Areas of expertise: Human-computer interaction, software engineering, theoretical computer science
- Minor subject: Business Administration
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
Leibniz Universität Hannover | 04/2010 – 09/2013
- Thesis title: Supporting User Story Management with a Mobile Application
- Course of studies: Computer Science
- Areas of expertise: Basics of computer science, mathematical basics, electrotechnical basics, selected areas of computer science
- Minor subject: Business Administration
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel | 04/2008 – 03/2010
- Beginning of bachelor's degree program, continued after transfer to Leibniz Universität Hannover
- Course of studies: Computer Science
- Areas of expertise: Basics of computer science, mathematical basics, electrotechnical basics, selected areas of computer science
- Minor subject: Business Administration
Current and Previous Positions
Head of Curation & Community Building
TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology, Data Science & Digital Libraries Research Group | 01/2026 – present
As Head of Curation & Community Building for Program Area D – Open Research Knowledge Graph, I lead a team that designs and implements strategies to identify and engage diverse scholarly communities and to integrate their research contributions into the Open Research Knowledge Graph (ORKG). The team advances the compatibility of human‑ and machine‑actionable knowledge, develops human-centered, neuro-symbolic curation approaches for FAIR and high‑quality content across heterogeneous data sources and disciplines, and maintains active dialogue with scientific stakeholders to improve the ORKG continuously.
- Principal investigator in the DFG project CRC/TRR 298 SIIRI – Safety-Integrated and Infection-Reactive Implants
- Principal investigator in the NFDIxCS Flexfund project SciD-QuESt: From Scientific Documents to Knowledge – Questionnaire-Based Extraction and Structuring of Knowledge
- Principal investigator in the DFG project find.software: Foundations for INterdisciplinary Discovery of (Research) Software
- Project member in the project Open Research Knowledge Graph (ORKG)
- Project member in the DFG project National Research Data Infrastructure for Engineering Science (NFDI4ING)
- Project member in the DFG project National Research Data Infrastructure for Energy System Research (NFDI4Energy)
- Co-supervision of PhD theses
- Supervisor and examiner of theses in the bachelor and master programs in computer science
- Lecturer at Leibniz University Hannover
Researcher, Data Scientist, and Lecturer
TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology, Data Science & Digital Libraries Research Group | 04/2021 – 12/2025
- Project member in the project Open Research Knowledge Graph (ORKG)
- Project member in the DFG project National Research Data Infrastructure for Engineering Science (NFDI4ING)
- Project member in the DFG project National Research Data Infrastructure for Energy System Research (NFDI4Energy)
- Project manager on the part of TIB in the BMBF project FAIR Data Spaces (FAIR-DS)
- Co-supervision of PhD theses
- Supervisor and examiner of theses in the bachelor and master programs in computer science
- Lecturer at Leibniz University Hannover
Research Associate
Leibniz Universität Hannover, Software Engineering Group | 01/2016 – 03/2021
- Project manager in the DFG project Assessing the Potential of Interactive Vision Videos for Requirements Engineering (ViViReq)
- Supervision of theses in the bachelor and master programs in computer science
- Research and teaching
(Under-) Graduate Assistant
Leibniz Universität Hannover, Software Engineering Group | 10/2011 – 12/2015
- Tutor for software engineering, software quality, and software project
- Research assistant
Staff Service Soldier
Bundeswehr, Deutsches Heer, Aufklärungslehrkompanie 90 | 07/2007 – 03/2008
Awards and Certificates
Distinguished Reviewer Award
19th International Conference on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering | 13/04/2026 – 14/04/2026 | Award
Best Poster & Tool Award
32nd International Working Conference on Requirement Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality | 23/03/2026 – 26/03/2026 | Award
Best Reviewer Award
32nd International Working Conference on Requirement Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality | 23/03/2026 – 26/03/2026 | Award
ACM Certified Reviewer
ACM Peer Reviewer Training Course | 20/02/2026 | Certificate
Best Application Award
7th Knowledge Graph and Semantic Web Conference | 26/11/2025 – 28/11/2025 | Award
Best Reviewer Award
33rd IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference | 01/09/2025 – 05/09/2025 | Award
Best Resource Paper Award
22nd European Semantic Web Conference | 01/06/2025 – 05/06/2025 | Award
Distinguished Reviewer Award
18th International Conference on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering | 27/04/2025 – 28/04/2025 | Award
Best Reviewer Award
31st International Working Conference on Requirement Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality | 07/04/2025 – 10/04/2025 | Award
Distinguished Reviewer Award
33rd ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management | 21/10/2024 – 25/10/2024 | Award
Best Student Paper Award – Honorable Mention
28th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries | 24/09/2024 – 27/09/2024 | Award
Distinguished Reviewer Award
32nd IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference | 24/06/2024 – 28/06/2024 | Award
Best Artifact Award
32nd IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference | 24/06/2024 – 28/06/2024 | Award
Distinguished Reviewer Award
17th International Conference on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering | 14/04/2024 – 15/04/2024 | Award
Best Paper Award
17th ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement | 26/10/2023 – 27/10/2023 | Award
Distinguished Reviewer Award
32nd ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management | 21/10/2023 – 25/10/2023 | Award
Vannevar Bush Best Paper Award (endowed with $1000)
ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries 2023 | 26/06/2023 – 30/06/2023 | Award
Best Program Committee Member Award
31st ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management | 17/10/2022 – 21/10/2022 | Award
Professional Data Analyst
DataCamp Career Track | 09/10/2022 | Certificate
Professional Data Scientist
DataCamp Career Track | 19/08/2022 | Certificate
Best Reviewer Award
IEEE 22nd International Conference on Information Reuse and Integration for Data Science | 10/08/2021 – 12/08/2021 | Award
IEEE Software Best Industry Experience Paper Award
ICSSP & ICGSE Joint Conference | 18/05/2021 – 19/05/2021 | Award
Associations & Memberships
Gesellschaft für Informatik (GI)
Member | 10/2019 – present
Fachgruppe Requirements Engineering (RE)
Member | 10/2019 – present
Spokesperson: 07/2022 – 11/2025
Deputy Spokesperson: 10/2019 – 07/2022
ESF College of Expert Reviewers
Member | 01/2026 – present
NFDI4Energy – Base Service Committee
Member | 04/2025 – present
CrowdRE Steering Committee
Member | 12/2022 – present
Journal of Systems and Software – Open Science Board
Member | 06/2022 – present
BorgNetzWerk – Gesellschaft zur Vernetzung Freien Wissens e.V.
Member | 08/2023 – present
Arbeitskreis Requirements Engineering and User Experience (AK REUX)
Member | 10/2017 – 11/2025
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Member | 01/2023 – 01/2024