Giacomo Nannicini

Giacomo Nannicini is an Associate Professor in the Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering at the University of Southern California's School of Advanced Computing, with a courtesy appointment in the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering. His research focuses on optimization broadly defined, with particular interests in algorithms, software, models of computation, and quantum computing applications.

His research interests span optimization theory, quantum algorithms, computational methods, and mixed-integer programming. Nannicini has made significant contributions to both classical optimization techniques and emerging quantum computing approaches, developing algorithms that bridge theoretical foundations with practical applications in various domains.

Nannicini has received numerous prestigious awards including the 2021 Beale–Orchard-Hays prize, the best paper award at IEEE QCE 2021 (quantum algorithms track), the 2016 COIN-OR Cup, the 2015 Robert Faure prize, and the 2012 Glover-Klingman prize. His publication record demonstrates consistent high-impact contributions across top journals in operations research, computer science, and quantum computing.

He has successfully advised multiple PhD students who have gone on to prominent positions including research scientists at Saint-Gobain and SINTEF, as well as tenure-track faculty positions. Nannicini actively recruits PhD students interested in computational optimization, quantum optimization, GPU-enabled computational optimization, and mixed-integer derivative-free optimization.