Machine learning professor missing after avalanche disaster in the Himalayas

Indian authorities have launched a search and rescue mission after a University of Toronto professor went missing during an expedition trip to the Himalayas.

Peter Wittek / Photo credit: Peter Wittek’s website

Peter Wittek, a Hungarian national and one-time Singapore resident, was part of a six-person team attempting to climb Mount Trishul, located in the Garhwal Himalayas in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, India.

On September 29, an avalanche hit their campsite, which was situated at an altitude of about 5,700 meters above sea level.

All but Wittek were able to make it safely down to the base camp.

The other five expedition team members included Singaporeans Nicholas Chee, Kong Xieheng, and Ong Siong Hwai, Vietnamese Vu Giang Thanh, and Mauritian Teshil Prashin Gangaram.

According to a statement, Chee activated an SOS distress beacon when the avalanche hit, alerting emergency services and giving them the last known location of the missing professor.

“My brother, Peter, is not just a brilliant mind and a skilled mountaineer but he is, in essence, an adventurer. He has scaled many peaks, done groundbreaking research and explored the world,” said Gergo Oberfrank. “I believe that Peter is waiting for us to find him and he has the skills and the spirit to survive.”

A faculty member of the Canadian university’s Rotman School of Management, Wittek is best known for his work on quantum-enhanced machine learning and is recognized as one of the leading researchers in the field.

After receiving his doctorate degree in computer science in 2010 from the National University of Singapore, he went on to pursue several postdoctoral research positions at The Institute of Photonic Sciences in Spain and the University of Boras in Sweden.

He has advised numerous startups and has been serving as the academic director of the Creative Destruction Lab’s Quantum Program, a Toronto-based initiative aimed at supporting commercialization opportunities for quantum computing and machine learning.