Monique Laurent

Monique Laurent is a senior researcher at CWI Amsterdam in the Networks and Optimization Group and holds a part-time appointment as a full professor at the Department of Econometrics and Operations Research of Tilburg University. Her academic career spans institutions in France (CNRS, CNET), Germany (Humboldt Fellow at the University of Bonn), and the USA (visiting scientist at Yale). She is a SIAM Fellow (2017) and recipient of the Khachiyan Prize (2023).

• PhD in Mathematics, University of Paris Diderot (1986)
• Research interests: discrete optimization, semidefinite programming, polynomial optimization, quantum information, and algebraic methods.

Her work focuses on bridging continuous and discrete optimization, with applications to quantum information. She has organized major workshops such as the Learning Enhanced Optimization research semester at CWI and contributed to the TENORS EU project (2024-2027). Recent publications highlight her contributions to semidefinite programming hierarchies, polynomial optimization, and their applications to graph theory and quantum computing.

Key article trends include:

• Analysis of sum-of-squares and moment matrix hierarchies for polynomial optimization
• Applications to quantum information, graph stability, and matrix factorization
• Convergence rates and error bounds for semidefinite relaxations

Scientific awards:

• Khachiyan Prize (2023)
• SIAM Fellow (2017)
• Humboldt Fellowship (1991-1992)

She has supervised numerous academic initiatives and students, including a master project on polynomial equation solutions at CWI. Her editorial roles include associate editorships for journals like SIAM Journal on Optimization and Numerical Algebra, Control and Optimization.