Fatma Kilinc-Karzan

Fatma Kilinc-Karzan is a Professor of Operations Research at the Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University, and holds the Frank A. and Helen E. Risch Faculty Development Chair. She is also an Associate Professor of Computer Science (by courtesy) and affiliated with the Algorithms, Combinatorics, and Optimization (ACO) PhD Program. Her career includes visiting roles at institutions like the Simons Institute at UC Berkeley and extensive professional service on editorial boards and conference committees.

• PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering (minor in Mathematics) from Georgia Institute of Technology
• B.S. and M.S. in Industrial Engineering (minor in Information Systems) from Middle East Technical University

Research Interests: Her work focuses on convex optimization, structured nonconvex optimization, and their applications in optimization under uncertainty (robust optimization, chance constraints), machine learning (preference learning from limited data), and business analytics. She explores theoretical aspects like semidefinite programming (SDP) relaxations, convex hull characterizations, and algorithmic efficiency for large-scale problems.

Article Trends: Her recent publications emphasize semidefinite programs, rank-one function optimization, and chance-constrained programming with applications in portfolio optimization, healthcare, and recommender systems. Key methodologies include perspective reformulation, submodularity, and first-order algorithms.

• Scientific Awards:
  • 2015 INFORMS Optimization Society Prize for Young Researchers
  • 2014 INFORMS JFIG Best Paper Award

Advising and Grants: She has advised over a dozen PhD students, many of whom won awards like the INFORMS Optimization Society Best Student Paper Prize. Her research is supported by grants including an NSF CAREER Award, ONR grant, and AFOSR grant. She collaborates with institutions like IBM and the Simons Institute.