Alberto Del Pia

Alberto Del Pia is an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with dual appointments in the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery and the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. He holds courtesy appointments in the Departments of Mathematics and Computer Sciences and is a core member of both the Optimization group and the Data Science Hub.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Padova (2009), supervised by Giacomo Zambelli
• Postdoctoral research with Robert Weismantel at Otto-von-Guericke University and ETH Zürich
• Herman Goldstine Memorial Postdoctoral Fellow at IBM Research (2013)

Research Focus: Dr. Del Pia's work centers on theoretical and algorithmic aspects of Mathematical Optimization and Discrete Mathematics, with particular emphasis on Mixed Integer Optimization problems (Linear, Quadratic, and Binary Polynomial). His research addresses fundamental questions about structural restrictions that enable efficient solutions to complex optimization problems. He also investigates applications in Data Science and Machine Learning, including Sparse PCA, Subset Selection, and Clustering problems.

Awards and Recognition:

• 2023 Egon Balas Prize
• 2023 INFORMS Computing Society Prize
• 2017 Young Researchers Prize from INFORMS Optimization Society
• 2013 Herman Goldstine Memorial Postdoctoral Fellowship
• INdAM scholarship (2000-2004)

Professional Service: Dr. Del Pia serves as an Associate Editor for Mathematical Programming and Discrete Optimization. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Office of Naval Research (ONR), and Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR). As a core member of UW-Madison's Optimization group and Data Science Hub, he collaborates with interdisciplinary teams working at the intersection of optimization theory, data science, and practical applications.