Nima Akbarzadeh

Nima Akbarzadeh is a Research Fellow at HEC Montréal since May 2023, co-supervised by Erick Delage and Yossiri Adulyasak. He previously completed his Doctorate (2017–2022) in Electrical and Computer Engineering at McGill University under Aditya Mahajan's supervision.

• Current affiliation: HEC Montréal (Postdoctoral Research Fellow)
• PhD: McGill University (Electrical and Computer Engineering)
• Research focus areas: Game theory, Mathematical modeling, and Optimization without derivatives

Nima's work bridges algorithm development with risk-aware reinforcement learning (RL), particularly in restless multi-arm bandits and weakly coupled Markov decision processes (MDPs). His recent publications at AISTATS 2025 highlight advancements in sequential decision-making frameworks and fair resource allocation strategies.

Scientific awards include:

• 2024 GERAD Postdoctoral Fellowship
• 2020–2022 FRQNT Doctoral Scholarship
• 2017–2019 McGill Engineering Doctoral Award

He actively participates in academic workshops and seminars, including IVADO's Risk-Aware/Safe RL Workshop (2023) and McGill's Informal Systems Theory Seminar (2021).