Xi Chen

Xi Chen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Columbia University. Prior to this, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton University) and the University of Southern California. He holds a B.S. in Physics/Maths from Tsinghua University (2003) and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Tsinghua University (2007), advised by Professor Bo Zhang under the guidance of the Institute for Theoretical Computer Science led by Andrew Chi-Chih Yao.

His research focuses on Algorithmic Game Theory, Economics, and Complexity Theory. His work is supported by an NSF CAREER award, a Sloan Research Fellowship, and Columbia University startup funds. He has received the EATCS Presburger Award and multiple best paper awards, including at FOCS 2006, ISAAC 2009, and CCC 2017.

Xi Chen has taught courses such as Analysis of Algorithms, Lower Bounds in Theoretical Computer Science, and Introduction to Computational Complexity. He co-advises current PhD students Tim Randolph and Erik Waingarten, and has graduated students like Timothy Sun (Emory University) and Xiaorui Sun (University of Illinois at Chicago).

He has served on program committees for conferences like WINE, SODA, and STOC. His research spans theoretical computer science, including property testing, graph isomorphism, and fixed-point computation. He is affiliated with Columbia's Theory Group and actively participates in the Theory Seminar organized by Alex Andoni.

Xi Chen's research also extends to algorithmic economics, exploring mechanisms, pricing strategies, and market equilibria. His work on complexity theory includes contributions to counting problems and circuit complexity. He maintains a lab and collaborates with researchers in theoretical computer science and algorithmic game theory.