Louis Victor Allis (also known as L. Victor Allis, born May 19, 1965 in Gemert, Netherlands) is a Dutch computer scientist working in the field of artificial intelligence and co-founder of the election information technology firm Activote.^[7] Associated with Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Maastricht University, and Quintiq, he completed his 1994 doctoral dissertation, "Searching for Solutions in Games and Artificial Intelligence", under Jaap van den Herik.

In his graduate work, he published and revealed artificial intelligence solutions for the strategy games Connect Four, Qubic, and Gomoku (Five in a Row).^[1,10,8] In the course of solving Connect Four and Qubic, his dissertation introduced two new game search techniques: proof-number search and dependency-based search.^[2,11] Proof-number search has since seen further successful application in computer Go tactical search and many other games.^[12]

As early as high school, Victor Allis participated in international mathematics competitions out of a love for mathematical puzzles.^[3] From 1983 to 1988, he studied computer science at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, graduating cum laude with a Master of Science. During this time, he programmed automated game routines and found a strategy for a one hundred percent win rate for the game Connect Four.^[3] He began his career in 1987 as a freelance teacher, course developer, and mentor of various AMBI courses for NOVI. After completing his studies, he spent a year in New Zealand, where he worked at a software company. From 1990 to 1993, Allis completed doctoral studies at Maastricht University, earning a Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence. Subsequently, he was employed until 1995 at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam as a postdoctoral researcher and assistant professor, lecturing in artificial intelligence.^[2] Allis has more than 30 publications to his name, with the majority of his published work reporting on research in search technologies.^[13] In 1992, his program Victoria won the 4th Computer Olympiad in the game of Gomoku without losing a single game.^[14] His programs also won first places at the Computer Olympiad in games of Connect Four in 1989, Awari in 1990, 1991, and 1992, and Qubic in 1991, making him the winner of all four early Computer Olympiads. He also co-authored a solution to the 4×4×4 Qubic game using his proof-number search technique.^[15]

In 1995, he joined Bolesian, a knowledge technology firm in Utrecht and subsidiary of Capgemini specializing in advanced systems based on artificial intelligence, as a senior consultant and manager responsible for industry-related business development.^[4] In 1997, he co-founded the company Quintiq and was appointed its CEO.^[5] After a few years, Quintiq grew into one of the leading providers of software for supply chain planning and optimization. In 2008, Allis was named Entrepreneur of the Year in the Netherlands.^[6] He relocated to Quintiq's Philadelphia office in 2010 while remaining CEO and a co-owner.^[16] He served as CEO until Quintiq was acquired by Dassault Systèmes in July 2014, after which he worked for Dassault.^[5,17] Since 2017, he has worked for various private equity and software companies.^[6] In 2019, Allis and Sara Gifford co-founded Activote, a Boston-based election information technology company.^[7,18]