Sven Polak

Sven Polak is an Assistant Professor of Operations Research at Tilburg University, specifically in the Department of Econometrics and Operations Research within the Tilburg School of Economics and Management. He joined Tilburg University in May 2023 after completing a postdoctoral position at Centrum Wiskunde en Informatica (CWI) where he worked with Monique Laurent in the Networks and Optimization research group.

His educational background includes a PhD in mathematics under Lex Schrijver at the University of Amsterdam (completed September 2019), a master's degree in Dutch Law from the same university (2017), and undergraduate studies culminating in a bachelor's thesis on quadratic forms under Gerard van der Geer (2012). Prior to his academic positions, he worked as an operations research engineer at ORTEC - Optimize Your World in Zoetermeer (October 2019 - August 2020).

Dr. Polak's research focuses on the intersection of discrete mathematics and optimization, with particular expertise in convex relaxations of hard optimization problems and using algebraic techniques to reduce complexity in combinatorial, polynomial and semidefinite optimization. His work spans coding theory, graph theory, and information theory, with recent publications demonstrating sophisticated applications of semidefinite programming to problems in graph theory, coding theory, and quantum information. His research consistently bridges theoretical mathematics with practical computational approaches.

His publication record shows a clear trajectory of increasingly sophisticated work in semidefinite programming applications, with recent papers focusing on Shannon capacity of graphs, crossing numbers of complete bipartite graphs, and mutually unbiased bases in quantum information theory. The consistent theme across his work is the application of algebraic and optimization techniques to solve fundamental problems in discrete mathematics.

Dr. Polak teaches courses including Linear Algebra, Operations Research Methods, Essential Mathematics for Data Science, and Networks and Semidefinite Programming (as part of an LNMB PhD course with Monique Laurent). He has also presented his research at numerous international conferences including EURO, SIAM conferences, and workshops on combinatorial optimization.