Dorit S. Hochbaum is a distinguished professor in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research (IEOR) at UC Berkeley. Professor Hochbaum holds a Ph.D from the Wharton school of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research interests are in areas of discrete optimization, network flow techniques, data mining, image segmentation, supply chain management and efficient utilization of resources. Her work contributed to the analysis of heuristics and approximation algorithms in the worst case, and on average, to the complexity analysis of algorithms in general, and nonlinear optimization algorithms in particular. Her theoretical work focuses on particularly efficient techniques using network flow for data mining and image segmentation including parametric flow for the convex Markov Random Fields problem establishing it as polynomial; the PseudoFlow algorithm for the maximum flow problem and the parametric flow and cut algorithms. Her recent research is on problems relating to machine learning on recognizing bias in labeled data; reducing dependence in training data; using pairwise relationships to enhance clustering methods. Applications include improved yield prediction in semi-conductor manufacturing; devising balanced covariates for experimental design; the maximum diversity and dispersion problem and group rankings and aggregate decision problems.Professor Hochbaum is the author of over 190 papers that appeared in the Operations Research, Management Science and Theoretical Computer Science literature. She served as department editor for Management Science department of Optimization and Modeling, and on a number of editorial boardsProfessor Hochbaum was named in 2004 as honorary doctorate of Sciences of the University of Copenhagen, for her work on approximation algorithms. She was appointed the Pinhas Naor lecturer of the Technion for 2013, and a Research Excellence professor at the University of Vienna in 2007. She is the winner of the 2011 INFORMS Computing Society prize for her work on algorithms for image segmentation. Professor Hochbaum is a fellow of INFORMS and a fellow of SIAM (Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics). In 2024, she was awarded the Khachiyan Prize by the INFORMS Optimization Society, recognizing her for her extensive contributions to optimization, including her work on the design and analysis of algorithms and their applications across various domains.
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Subject to: Kenneth Sörensen
Kenneth Sörensen obtained his PhD entitled "A framework for robust and flexible optimization using metaheuristics" from the University of Antwerp in 2003 and continued as a post-doctoral researcher at the UAntwerp. From 2006 to 2009, he worked as a postdoc researcher of the Flemish Fund for Scientific Research (FWO) at the Faculty of Engineering of the KULeuven. In 2009, Kenneth Sörensen was appointed as a Research Professor of the Faculty of Business and Economics of the University of Antwerp, a position he holds to date.Within this Faculty, he founded the ANT/OR research group, which focuses on applications of operations research and currently consists of three professors and about ten PhD students. Under his supervision, over twenty PhD's were obtained. Kenneth Sörensen has published a large number of articles in international refereed journals and has presented his work at numerous scientific conferences. He is considered one of the world’s leading experts in the field of metaheuristics. Hismain research interest lies in the application of advanced (metaheuristic) optimization methods and in the development and study of optimization methods. Kenneth Sörensen is the founder and current coordinator of EU/ME – the EURO working group on metaheuristics, the largest online platform for researchers in metaheuristics worldwide.
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Subject to: Yoshiko Wakabayashi
Yoshiko Wakabayashi is a retired professor at Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Brazil. She holds a degree in Mathematics Education and a master’s degree in Applied Mathematics from USP, as well as a PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Augsburg. Her research interests include combinatorial optimization, graph theory, algorithms, packing problems, and polyhedral combinatorics. She has published more than 50 papers in journals such as Mathematical Programming, Theoretical Computer Science, Journal of Combinatorial Theory: Series B, Discrete Mathematics, SIAM Journal on Computing, European Journal of Operational Research, Journal of Combinatorial Optimization, Computers & Operations Research, and Discrete Applied Mathematics. Yoshiko supervised 16 doctoral and 20 master’s students, as well as 7 postdocs. In 2010, she was named a commander of the National Order of Scientific Merit. She was later elected to the Academy of Sciences of the State of São Paulo in 2012 and to the Brazilian Academy of Sciences in 2019. In 2020, she was awarded the prize for scientific merit by the Brazilian Computer Society.
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Subject to: Erling D. Andersen
Erling D. Andersen is co-founder and CEO of the Danish company MOSEK ApS which is the vendor of the Mosek optimization software package. In 1993 Erling received a PhD in Economics from Odense University (Denmark). The main research interests of Erling are computational linear and convex optimization. In particular, he has focused on conic optimization and is one of the leading developers of software for that class of optimization problems. Erling has co-authored several articles published in major optimization journals such as Mathematical Programming, Informs Journal on Computing, and SIAM Journal on Optimization. Since 2024, Erling has been an honorary member of the Danish OR society.
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Subject to: Louis-Martin Rousseau
Louis-Martin Rousseau is a Full Professor in the Department of Mathematical and Industrial Engineering at Polytechnique Montréal, where he has been a faculty member since 2003. He holds the Canada Research Chair in Healthcare Analytics and Logistics, and is known for his applied research at the intersection of operations research, artificial intelligence, and healthcare systems. His early work focused on logistics and workforce scheduling, both in industrial and healthcare settings. Over the years, his research has evolved toward developing decision-support tools with real-world impact, particularly in the planning and optimization of health services. Outside academia, Louis-Martin has co-founded and advised several mission-driven organizations, including Gray Oncology Solutions, IVADO Labs, Kaster, and PemPem. He serves on multiple boards and is an active member of Anges Québec and Creative-Destructive Labs, where he supports science-based ventures focused on societal impact.
"Subject to" offers a series of informal conversations with relevant figures in the fields of Operations Research, Combinatorial Optimization and Logistics, and they are hosted by Anand Subramanian, an Associate Professor at Universidade Federal da Paraíba, Brazil.
About the host:
Anand was born and raised in João Pessoa, Brazil. His parents are Indian immigrants who moved to Brazil in the early 1970s. He is an author of more 60 articles published in prestigious international journals.
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Ireland