Mauricio Velasco

Mauricio Velasco serves as an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Universidad de los Andes, Colombia, and is an active member of the Nonlinear Algebra research group at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences (MPI-MIS) in Leipzig, Germany.

His academic background includes undergraduate studies in pure mathematics at Universidad de los Andes, followed by a PhD in Mathematics from Cornell University in 2007 under Mike Stillman. Postdoctoral work included a Morrey Assistant Professorship at UC Berkeley supervised by David Eisenbud and Bernd Sturmfels, preceded by a brief industry stint at Goldman Sachs International in London.

Velasco's research centers on applied algebraic geometry, exploring critical intersections with combinatorics, commutative algebra, symbolic computation, optimization, control theory, complexity theory, and machine learning. Introduced to nonlinear algebra by Bernd Sturmfels, his work bridges classical algebraic geometry with contemporary computational and theoretical challenges across multiple disciplines.

At Universidad de los Andes, Velasco mentors a talented cohort of students while maintaining active research collaborations through the MPI-MIS Nonlinear Algebra group, focusing on advancing interdisciplinary applications of geometric methods in optimization and machine learning systems.