Prof. Dr. Barbara Kraus is the Chair of Quantum Algorithms and Applications at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), affiliated with the TUM School of Natural Sciences. She previously held academic positions at the University of Innsbruck, where she founded her research group in 2010. Education : Physics and Mathematics at the University of Innsbruck; Post-doctoral work at MPI for Quantum Optics and University of Geneva. Her research focuses on foundational problems in quantum information theory, particularly entanglement in multipartite systems, quantum simulation, and verification of quantum processors. She develops theoretical tools for quantum many-body systems and explores applications in quantum computing, emphasizing error characterization and experimental validation. Recent publications highlight advancements in Hamiltonian learning, symmetry-resolved entanglement detection, and multipartite state transformations. Her work bridges theoretical quantum physics with practical implementations, including Rydberg platforms and quantum metrology. Key Awards : START Prize (2010), Ignaz L. Lieben Award (2013), Boltzmann Prize (2011), Südtiroler Sparkasse Research Prize (2019). She supervises doctoral students and postdocs in quantum information theory, with a focus on stabilizer states, quantum networks, and entanglement measures. Her courses at TUM include Quantum Information , Quantum Algorithms , and workshops on entanglement manipulation.
Prof. Igors Gorbovickis is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at the Department of Mathematics, School of Computer Science and Engineering, Constructor University (formerly Jacobs University Bremen). His research focuses on complex dynamical systems, including topics such as renormalization theory, bifurcation analysis, Julia sets, and applications to mathematical physics. He also contributes to discrete geometry, particularly exploring conjectures like the Kneser-Poulsen problem. His work bridges pure mathematics with interdisciplinary applications, emphasizing rigorous analysis of nonlinear systems and geometric configurations. Key areas of investigation include critical point accumulations, Hausdorff dimension estimates, and equidistribution phenomena in parameter spaces. Recent publications highlight advancements in understanding chaotic systems, circle maps, and the interplay between algebraic structures and dynamical behavior. Prof. Gorbovickis collaborates internationally, with co-authored papers appearing in journals like Advances in Mathematics , Ergodic Theory and Dynamical Systems , and Nonlinearity . His office is located at Research I, Room 128 on the Constructor University campus in Bremen, Germany.
Peter Benner is a Professor and Director at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems in Magdeburg, where he leads the Computational Methods in Systems and Control Theory group. He also holds an Honorarprofessor position for Mathematics at Otto-von-Guericke Universität Magdeburg since 2011. Benner has previously served as Managing Director of the Max Planck Institute during multiple periods (2013-2014, 2021-2022, and 2025-2026), demonstrating his leadership in the field. Benner's research focuses on Scientific Machine Learning, Numerical Linear and Multilinear Algebra, Model Order Reduction and Reduced-order Modeling, Numerical Methods in Systems and Control Theory, PDE Constrained Optimization, High-performance and Power-aware Computing, and Mathematical Software development. His work bridges theoretical mathematics with practical engineering applications, particularly addressing challenges in large-scale dynamical systems. Analysis of his recent publications reveals a strong emphasis on developing efficient computational methods for complex systems. Benner has pioneered approaches combining model order reduction with tensor methods to tackle high-dimensional problems in uncertainty quantification and PDE-constrained optimization. His work shows a consistent trend toward integrating data-driven techniques with traditional model-based approaches, particularly for nonlinear and parametric systems. Throughout his career, Benner has actively mentored students and collaborated with researchers worldwide, delivering numerous invited talks at prestigious institutions and conferences across Europe, North America, and Asia. His research has received significant funding, supporting the development of mathematical software and computational methods for industrial applications. Benner leads the Computational Methods in Systems and Control Theory department at the Max Planck Institute, which focuses on developing and implementing advanced numerical methods for large-scale dynamical systems. The group maintains strong connections with both theoretical mathematics and practical engineering applications, particularly in fluid dynamics, energy systems, and control theory.
Prof. Dr. Peter Strasser is a faculty member at the Technische Universität Berlin , affiliated with the Institute of Chemistry and leading the Electrochemical Catalysis, Energy and Materials Sciences Group within the Faculty II - Mathematics and Natural Sciences . His research spans electrocatalysis , fuel cell technology , and high-throughput materials testing , with a focus on nanostructured catalysts for clean energy systems. Research Interests : High Throughput Testing Fuel Cells Electrocatalysis Electrochemical Materials Water Splitting CO2 Conversion Scientific Contributions highlight trends in oxygen evolution reactions , dealloyed catalysts , and non-noble metal electrocatalysts . His work bridges materials science and energy storage , particularly for hydrogen fuel cells and magnesium batteries . Awards : Otto Roelen Medal 2016 Advising notable researchers like former PhD student Mehtap Özaslan , who established a junior research group at the University of Oldenburg and won the Umicore Scientific Award. Prof. Strasser's team collaborates with UniSysCat and has secured funding from the Federal Ministry of Research for catalyst innovation.
Sebastian U. Stich is a tenured faculty member at the CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security , where he has been since December 2021. He is also a member of the European Lab for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS) since June 2020. His research focuses on optimization methods for machine learning, collaborative learning algorithms, privacy and security in distributed systems, and theoretical foundations of deep learning. Stich received his PhD in Theoretical Computer Science from ETH Zurich (2014), following a Master's in Mathematics at the same institution (2010-2014). Prior to CISPA, he worked as a research scientist at EPFL (2016-2021) and held positions at ETH Zurich and ICTEAM/CORE. He has been awarded the ERC Consolidator Grant 2024 , Google Research Scholar Award (2023), and Meta Privacy-Enhancing Technologies Research Award (2022). His team includes Dr. Anton Rodomanov (since 2023), Dr. Rotem Mulayoff (since 2024), Xiaowen Jiang (2023), Yuan Gao (2023), and notable alumni like Anastasia Koloskova (defended 2023). Stich actively organizes workshops (e.g., NeurIPS OPT 2024) and serves on editorial boards ( Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications , Transactions on Machine Learning Research ). He teaches advanced courses in optimization at Saarland University and has held visiting positions at MIT. Key scientific contributions include: Developing ProgFed for progressive federated learning (2021) Creating ProxSkip to accelerate communication in federated settings (2022) Formalizing SCAFFOLD with control variates for FL (2020) Introducing RelaySum mechanism for decentralized learning (2021) Proposing Lookahead-Minmax for GAN training (2021) His work addresses fundamental challenges in: Decentralized optimization theory Communication-efficient algorithms Privacy-preserving model training Handling heterogeneous data distributions Stochastic gradient dynamics Second-order optimization methods
Prof. Dr. Michael Ulbrich is a full professor and Chair of Mathematical Optimization at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), within the School of Computation, Information and Technology. He has held this position since 2006 and previously served as Dean of Studies (2007–2010) and Vice Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics (2012–2015). His research focuses on nonlinear optimization, optimal control, and numerical analysis, with applications in fluid dynamics, shape optimization, and PDE-constrained systems. He leads projects in the DFG SPP 1962 and IGDK 1754, and has received prestigious awards including the Howard Rosenbrock Prize (2015) and the Doctoral Award from the TUM Association of Friends (1996). Ulbrich is Editor-in-Chief of Optimization and Engineering and contributes to multiple journals. His work bridges theoretical foundations and practical applications, including CO2 sequestration, fluid-structure interaction, and distributed optimization algorithms. Education: PhD (1996), Habilitation (2002) in Mathematics at TUM. Research stays at Rice University (USA) under DFG funding. Research Areas: Semismooth Newton methods, PDE-constrained optimization, optimal control of Navier-Stokes equations, and distributed parameter systems. Awards: Rosenbrock Prize, Teaching Excellence Awards, and recognition for doctoral work. Leadership Roles: Department Head of Mathematics (2022–), Member of TUM Senate (2019–2022), and Co-Chair of GAMM 2018. Ulbrich has authored influential textbooks like Semismooth Newton Methods for Variational Inequalities and Nichtlineare Optimierung . His recent projects include OptiGeoS (2024–2026) and collaborations on nonsmooth optimization and stochastic algorithms. His academic contributions span over 100 publications, emphasizing both algorithmic innovation and rigorous mathematical analysis.
Anders Rantzer is a Professor of Automatic Control at the Department of Control Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Lund University, Sweden. He has held visiting positions at Caltech (2004–2005) and the University of Minnesota (2015–2016) as the Taylor Family Distinguished Visiting Professor. His academic journey began with a PhD from KTH Stockholm in 1991, followed by a postdoc at the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), University of Minnesota. His research interests center on modeling, analysis, and synthesis of control systems , with a strong focus on scalability, adaptation, and applications in energy networks . He is particularly known for foundational work in positive systems and integral quadratic constraints (IQCs) . These theoretical frameworks are critical in analyzing stability and robustness of large-scale interconnected systems. His work bridges mathematical rigor with practical engineering applications, especially in sustainable energy and networked systems. The recent publications and lecture materials reflect a consistent trajectory in scalable and robust control, optimization, and distributed systems. Themes such as large-scale convex optimization , nonlinear and stochastic control , and network dynamics dominate his scholarly output, indicating a sustained commitment to advancing control theory for complex, real-world systems. Scientific honors include: Fellow of IEEE Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) Chairman of the Swedish Scientific Council for Natural and Engineering Sciences Chairman of the Royal Physiographic Society of Lund Rantzer has supervised numerous students and contributed extensively to academic leadership and education. He has been involved in major national and international research initiatives such as WASP (Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program) and ELLIIT. His work includes developing educational tools and courses in control, optimization, and machine learning. He leads and contributes to research projects on autonomous systems, cloud control, and smart energy networks. He is affiliated with the Control Lab at LTH and participates in collaborative efforts such as the Nordic University Hub on Industrial Internet of Things (HI2OT). His work integrates theoretical advances with practical implementations in robotics, biomedical systems, and industrial automation.
Vladimir Spokoiny is a Professor at the Departments of Mathematics and Economics of the Humboldt University of Berlin and Head of the Research Group "Stochastic Algorithms and Nonparametric Statistics" at the Weierstrass Institute for Applied Analysis and Stochastics (WIAS) in Berlin, Germany. His research spans multiple areas of statistics, machine learning, and financial mathematics, with significant contributions to nonparametric statistics, high-dimensional data analysis, and statistical methods in finance. Spokoiny received his M.Sc. in applied mathematics from the Moscow Institute of Railway Engineering in 1981 and his Ph.D. in mathematics from Lomonosov Moscow State University in 1988. He completed his Habilitation at Humboldt University in 1996. His academic career includes positions at the All-Union Institute of Railway Transport in Moscow, the Institute for Information Transmission Problems in Moscow, and the Institute for Applied Analysis and Statistics in Berlin before joining the Weierstrass Institute and Humboldt University where he has been a professor since 2002. Spokoiny's research focuses on adaptive nonparametric smoothing and hypothesis testing, high dimensional data analysis, statistical methods in finance, image analysis with applications to medicine, classification, and nonlinear time series. His work often addresses the challenges of nonstationarity in time series data and develops innovative methods for volatility estimation and risk management. He has made significant contributions to the development of adaptive weights smoothing procedures, which have applications in image processing, community detection, and manifold learning. His recent work has expanded into high-dimensional statistics, Bayesian inference, and optimization methods for machine learning, with publications demonstrating novel approaches to Gaussian approximation, Laplace methods, and statistical inference in non-Euclidean spaces. Spokoiny has supervised numerous PhD students including Oliver Reiss, Danilo Mercurio, Ying Chen, Elmar Diederichs, and Mstislav Elagin, whose research has focused on mathematical finance, time series analysis, and statistical methods. He serves as an Associate Editor for The Annals of Statistics (since 2004) and Statistics and Decisions (since 2002), and has previously served on the editorial board of the Journal of Statistical Planning and Inference. His professional activities include reviewing for major statistical journals including Annals of Statistics, Bernoulli, Econometrica, and Journal of American Statistical Association, as well as reviewing grant proposals for the National Science Foundation (USA), German Research Foundation, and Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research. Spokoiny is a member of several professional societies including the International Statistical Institute, American Statistical Association, Institute of Mathematical Statistics, and Bernoulli Society. He is fluent in Russian (mother tongue), English, and German, and has good knowledge of French. His research group at WIAS focuses on developing novel statistical methodologies with applications across various scientific domains, particularly emphasizing adaptivity and robustness in complex data environments. The group's work has significant implications for financial risk management, medical imaging, and machine learning applications, with recent publications addressing fundamental questions in high-dimensional statistics and nonparametric inference.
Warut Suksompong is an Assistant Professor in the School of Computing at the National University of Singapore (NUS), where he holds the NUS Presidential Young Professorship. Previously, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford, hosted by Edith Elkind, and completed his PhD at Stanford University under Tim Roughgarden. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees from MIT. His research focuses on algorithmic game theory, computational social choice, mechanism design, and interdisciplinary problems at the intersection of computer science, economics, mathematics, and operations research. He is particularly known for contributions to fair division, including envy-freeness, proportionality, and maximin fairness in both divisible and indivisible resource allocation contexts. Key awards include the IJCAI 2021 Distinguished Paper Award for work on dividing land with geometric constraints and the WINE 2021 Best Student Paper Award for research on funding public projects via the Nash product rule. His work bridges theoretical foundations with practical applications, addressing challenges such as connectivity constraints, budget allocation, and social choice mechanisms. He has authored over 100 publications in top conferences and journals, including SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics, Artificial Intelligence, and Games and Economic Behavior. His research has been supported by grants from NUS and international collaborations.
Michael Muehlebach leads the independent Learning and Dynamical Systems research group at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tuebingen, Germany. His interdisciplinary work bridges machine learning, dynamical systems theory, and control engineering to develop algorithms for cyber-physical systems with theoretical guarantees and practical implementations. Dr. Muehlebach received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from ETH Zurich in 2010 and 2013, specializing in robotics and control systems. He completed his Ph.D. at ETH's Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control under Prof. R. D'Andrea in 2018, followed by postdoctoral research with Prof. Michael I. Jordan at UC Berkeley. His research focuses on constrained optimization, reinforcement learning, and control theory with applications in robotics. He pioneered approaches that express constraints in terms of velocities rather than positions, enabling more efficient optimization algorithms. His work spans theoretical foundations to physical implementations, including the One-Wheel Cubli balancing robot and electromagnetic navigation systems. Recent publications reveal a strong trend toward physics-informed machine learning, particularly for robotics applications requiring real-time performance and safety guarantees. Dr. Muehlebach has received numerous prestigious awards: Outstanding D-MAVT Bachelor Award Willi-Studer prize for best Master's degree ETH Medal and HILTI prize for doctoral thesis Branco Weiss Fellowship (2018) Emmy Noether Fellowship (2020) Amazon Fellowship (2024) He actively mentors doctoral researchers including Hao Ma, Melis Ilayda Bal, and Onno Eberhard, with research supported by multiple grants. His group maintains strong collaborations with Bernhard Schölkopf's Empirical Inference group at the Max Planck Institute. The Learning and Dynamical Systems group develops innovative hardware and software platforms, including Floaty (a wind-harnessing flying robot), advanced electromagnetic navigation systems, and data-efficient learning methods for robotic table tennis. Their approach combines rigorous theoretical analysis with practical validation on physical systems, emphasizing the integration of known physical structure into machine learning algorithms to improve sample efficiency and ensure generalization.
Thomas S. Lontzek is Professor of Economics at RWTH Aachen University, holding the Chair of Computational Economics within the School of Business and Economics since October 2016. His research develops numerical methods for economic decision-making with focus on climate change and environmental risks. His educational background includes economics studies at Maastricht University and UC San Diego (1999-2003), followed by PhD from University of Kiel (2009). Prior positions include Assistant/Senior Assistant at University of Zurich (2010-2016) and visiting scholar at Stanford's Hoover Institution (2012). Lontzek's research spans Economic Growth, Quantitative Macroeconomics, Resource and Energy Economics, Computational Economics, Climate Risk Management, and Decision Making under Uncertainty. His work emphasizes unconventional methods for analyzing economic processes through multidimensional, nonlinear stochastic optimization while incorporating ethical principles into economic analysis for sustainability challenges. His publication record reveals a consistent focus on climate economics, particularly the social cost of carbon, climate tipping points, and integrated assessment modeling. These works demonstrate how accounting for economic and climate risks, especially potential tipping points, necessitates more aggressive climate policies than traditional models suggest, often requiring sophisticated computational techniques to handle high-dimensional uncertainty. 2021 Erik Kempe Award for work on calculating an optimal CO2 tax Lontzek actively mentors students through research seminars and teaching, emphasizing methodological diversity and interdisciplinary approaches. He leads the Global Challenges Research Seminar through the Global Challenges Lab, providing students with opportunities to conduct innovative research using quantitative decision-making techniques for sustainable development challenges. His teaching portfolio for Summer Semester 2025 includes Quantitative Macroeconomics, Sustainable Finance, and specialized research seminars. He heads the Chair of Computational Economics, which includes scientific staff members Dr. Marco Thalhammer, Dr. Yifan Zhao, and Philipp Olivier, M.Sc., working collaboratively on climate economics and computational methods. The chair's research bridges theoretical economic modeling with practical policy applications, developing dynamic stochastic integrated assessment models capable of handling complex climate-economy interactions under uncertainty.
Georg Martius is a Full Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Tübingen's Faculty of Science and a Max Planck Research Group Leader at the MPI for Intelligent Systems. Since April 2023, he has been a core member of the DFG-funded Cluster of Excellence 'Machine Learning: New Perspectives for Science,' which received extended funding through 2032 for its mission to integrate machine learning into fundamental scientific discovery processes. His academic foundation includes a PhD from the University of Göttingen and Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience (2005), a Diploma in Computer Science from the University of Leipzig (2003), and a visiting research period at the University of Edinburgh's Division of Informatics. Postdoctoral positions followed at the Max Planck Institutes for Dynamics and Self-Organization (Göttingen, 2009), Mathematics in the Sciences (Leipzig, 2010), and IST Austria (2015). Professor Martius's research pioneers the intersection of reinforcement learning, robotics, and tactile sensing, with emphasis on developing autonomous systems capable of natural locomotion, dexterous manipulation, and physical-world understanding. His work bridges theoretical machine learning with practical hardware applications, particularly in creating differentiable simulators, superresolution tactile sensors, and biologically plausible learning frameworks for robotic control. Analysis of his 2024-2025 publications reveals dominant trends in offline reinforcement learning (especially goal-conditioned and diversity-maximization techniques), object-centric representation learning for video understanding, and tactile sensing innovations. A strong thread connects foundation models to world model construction, while his work on differentiable physics engines enables precise collision handling and contact dynamics for real-world robotic control. His leadership roles include directing the Distributed Intelligence research team at Tübingen and contributing to major collaborative initiatives like the Real Robot Challenge and Myochallenge 2022. The Cluster of Excellence appointment represents recognition of his contributions to transforming scientific methodology through machine learning, particularly in automating hypothesis generation and experimental design. Current projects focus on integrating large-scale machine learning with embodied intelligence, advancing tactile perception systems like the Minsight vision-based sensor, and developing neuroplasticity-inspired approaches for robust out-of-distribution detection. His work directly impacts fields requiring physical interaction intelligence, from autonomous navigation to medical robotics, with emphasis on sample-efficient learning from limited real-world data.
Prof. Dr. Martin Kronbichler is a faculty member at the Faculty of Mathematics , Ruhr University Bochum , leading the Numerics group. His research focuses on higher-order finite element methods, multigrid techniques, and high-performance computing for complex fluid and solid mechanics problems. Key Research Areas: Higher-order finite element methods, iterative solvers, multigrid algorithms, exascale mathematical software, and computational fluid dynamics. Notable Projects: EU-funded dealii-X (exascale digital twins), BMBF PDExa (optimized PDE solvers for exascale), and DFG grants for cut-discontinuous Galerkin methods and geometric multigrid. Publications Trends: Recent works emphasize matrix-free operators for hyperelasticity, diffuse-interface models for additive manufacturing, and multigrid smoothers for higher-order elements. Scientific Awards: Recipient of the Humboldt Research Award for his contributions to numerical methods and HPC. Team: Collaborates with researchers like Dr. Shubham Kumar Goswami, Dr. Richard Schussnig, and Natalia Nebulishvili.
Cristian Cadar is a Professor in the Department of Computing at Imperial College London, leading the Software Reliability Group . His research focuses on improving software reliability and security through practical techniques in software engineering, computer systems, and program analysis. Education: Ph.D. in Computer Science, Stanford University M.Eng. in Computer Science, MIT B.S. in Computer Science and Mathematics, MIT His research interests center on software engineering and software security , particularly symbolic execution , dynamic symbolic execution (DSE) , and multi-version execution . Current work explores techniques for scalability, constraint solving, and runtime security in software systems. Key trends in his recent articles include optimizing symbolic execution for testing, addressing path explosion in constraint-based test generation, and advancing multi-version execution for dynamic software updates. His publications also cover program analysis , automated testing , and formal methods for software reliability. Awarded prestigious honors such as the Humboldt Research Award (2024) , ERC Consolidator Grant (2018) , and IEEE New Directions Award (2022) . Other accolades include the BCS Roger Needham Award (2019) and SIGOPS Hall of Fame (2018) . Cadar supervises PhD and postdoctoral researchers in software reliability and security. His group has secured grants from the ERC and EPSRC , including a Consolidator Grant (2018) and Early-Career Fellowship (2013) . He actively contributes to conference organizing committees and editorial boards. The Software Reliability Group at Imperial College, led by Cadar, specializes in techniques like KLEE and EXE for automated testing. Their work has been adopted by industry partners such as Fujitsu, IBM, and Microsoft, particularly in runtime security tools like WIT .
Michael Mühlebach is a Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen, Germany, leading the independent Learning and Dynamical Systems group. His academic journey began at ETH Zurich where he earned his B.Sc. (2010) and M.Sc. (2013) in mechanical engineering, specializing in robotics, systems, and control. He completed his Ph.D. at ETH Zurich in 2018 under Prof. R. D'Andrea, followed by postdoctoral research at UC Berkeley with Prof. Michael I. Jordan. Dr. Mühlebach's research spans machine learning, dynamical systems, control theory, and optimization . His work bridges theoretical foundations with practical applications in robotics, developing methods that incorporate physical constraints and system dynamics into learning frameworks. His group focuses on online learning, physics-informed machine learning, and large-scale optimization for cyber-physical systems, with applications in electromagnetic navigation, robotic table tennis, and energy-efficient flight systems like the shape-changing robot Floaty . His publication record shows a strong focus on constrained optimization, with recent work exploring decision-dependent stochastic optimization, nonlinear feedback, and the theoretical foundations of reinforcement learning. His research integrates perspectives from control theory, dynamical systems, and optimization to develop algorithms with strong theoretical guarantees and practical performance. Outstanding D-MAVT Bachelor Award Willi-Studer prize for best Master's degree ETH Medal and HILTI prize for doctoral thesis Branco Weiss Fellow (2018) Emmy Noether Fellowship (2020) Amazon Fellowship (2024) Dr. Mühlebach actively mentors doctoral researchers and is seeking talented students for PhD and Master's projects. His research group has received funding from multiple prestigious fellowships and maintains collaborations across institutions including ETH Zurich, UC Berkeley, and various Max Planck research units. The group's work spans theoretical developments to practical implementations on robotic systems, demonstrating strong connections between mathematical theory and physical realization.
