Cristina Butucea is a Professor of Statistics and Machine Learning at ENSAE-CREST, Institut Polytechnique de Paris . She was nominated an IMS Fellow (2019) for her contributions to nonparametric and high-dimensional statistics. She has co-organized major conferences like Fréjus 2018 , Luminy 2019-2020 , and Oberwolfach 2021 , and serves as Associate Editor for ALEA . Fields of interest: Nonparametric statistics, quantum statistics, differential privacy, inverse problems, machine learning. Awards: IMS Fellowship, conference organization leadership. Research trends: Focuses on optimal estimation under privacy constraints, quantum state reconstruction, high-dimensional inference, and adaptive nonparametric methods. Email: Cristina.Butucea@ensea.fr | Cristina.Butucea@ip-paris.fr
Dr. Iñaki Esnaola is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering, University of Sheffield, and a Visiting Research Collaborator at Princeton University. He holds a MSc from the University of Navarra (2006) and a PhD from the University of Delaware (2011). His research focuses on information theory, machine learning, and cybersecurity, particularly in cyberphysical systems like smart grids. His work addresses data integrity, privacy, robust estimation, and optimal sensor placement. Research interests include: Information theory and data science, machine learning and high-dimensional statistics, cybersecurity (especially data injection attacks), privacy, robust estimation, and sensor placement optimization. Recent projects involve empirical risk minimization with regularization, stealth attacks on control systems, and compressive sensing for environmental monitoring. Key publications include studies on relative entropy in machine learning, sensor placement for sewer networks, and stealth attacks in smart grids. He leads a research group with ongoing projects in resilient cyberphysical systems and received a UKRI grant for advanced manufacturing. His work bridges theoretical foundations with real-world applications in energy systems and environmental monitoring.
Joe Geunes is a Professor and Associate Department Head for Graduate Affairs in the Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering at Texas A&M University, holding the Mike and Sugar Barnes Professorship. His research focuses on production planning, supply chain management, logistics, and operations optimization. He earned his Ph.D. in Business Administration (Management Science & Operations Research) and M.B.A. from The Pennsylvania State University in 1999 and 1993, respectively. Dr. Geunes has received notable accolades including Fellow of the Institute of Industrial Engineers (2015), Marilyn and L. David Black Faculty Fellow (2022), and Best Reviewer Award from Omega (2022). His work spans infrastructure network restoration, supply chain resilience, and optimization algorithms for logistics systems. Recent projects address railcar operations, distribution network fortification, and disaster response strategies. Education: Ph.D., Business Administration (Management Science & Operations Research), The Pennsylvania State University – 1999 M.B.A., The Pennsylvania State University – 1993 Awards: Fellow, Institute of Industrial Engineers – 2015 Marilyn and L. David Black Faculty Fellow – 2022 Best Reviewer Award, Omega – 2022 Best Application Paper, IISE – 2018 His research integrates mathematical modeling and computational methods to address real-world challenges in supply chain design, inventory management, and infrastructure resilience. Recent publications emphasize multi-modal logistics, robust optimization under uncertainty, and post-disaster network recovery strategies.
Anders C. Hansen is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge (Faculty of Mathematics, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics) and Professor II at the University of Oslo. He leads the Applied Functional and Harmonic Analysis group and holds a Royal Society University Research Fellowship. His research bridges pure mathematics and cutting-edge applications in AI, computational harmonic analysis, inverse problems, and compressed sensing. Education: PhD from the University of Cambridge, MA from UC Berkeley, and BA from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Research Interests: Hansen's work centers on foundational challenges in computational mathematics, including the Solvability Complexity Index hierarchy for classifying computational problems, instability phenomena in deep learning, and theoretical advances in compressed sensing. His group develops rigorous frameworks for high-dimensional data analysis, medical imaging, and AI safety, often exposing paradoxes in algorithmic reliability. Publication Trends: Recent articles focus on the limits of deep learning (e.g., Smale's 18th problem, instability in image reconstruction), mathematical foundations of AI (trustworthiness, feature selection, LLMs), and advanced compressed sensing (asymptotic incoherence, spectral computations). His work consistently intersects functional analysis with computational feasibility. Awards: PROSE Award Finalist (2022) Whitehead Prize (2019) IMA Prize in Mathematics and Applications (2018) Leverhulme Prize (2017) Royal Society University Research Fellow (2012) Advising & Leadership: Hansen has supervised 17 PhD students and 8 postdocs. He leads the Applied Functional and Harmonic Analysis group, coordinating interdisciplinary projects in mathematical data science. His editorial roles include SIAM Journal on Imaging Sciences and Proceedings of the Royal Society A .
Ming Yuan is a Professor in the Department of Statistics at Columbia University and serves as Associate Director of the Data Science Institute. His research focuses on high-dimensional statistics, machine learning, and statistical methodology with applications in genomics, finance, and imaging. Yuan holds a Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2004) and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Science and Technology of China (1997). Education: 2004 Ph.D., Statistics, University of Wisconsin-Madison 2003 M.S., Computer Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison 2000 M.S., Probability and Statistics, University of Science and Technology of China 1997 B.S., Electrical Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China Research Interests: Dr. Yuan’s work bridges theoretical and applied statistics, emphasizing scalable methods for high-dimensional data. Key areas include tensor decomposition, covariance estimation, and statistical machine learning. His contributions to methods like sparse inverse covariance estimation and matrix/tensor completion have found applications in finance, genomics, and image analysis. Publications: His recent work explores tensor-based methods for high-dimensional analysis and develops optimal algorithms for compressed sensing. Articles often address statistical theory and computational challenges in modern data science, reflecting a balance between foundational and applied research. Awards: 2025 JASA Theory & Method Invited Discussion Paper 2024 William F. Sharpe Award (JFQA) 2018 Medallion Lecturer (Institute of Mathematical Statistics) 2014 Guy Medal in Bronze (Royal Statistical Society) 2007 Leo Breiman Junior Award Professional Activities: Yuan has served as Co-Editor of The Annals of Statistics (2019–2021) and Program Secretary for the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (2018–2021). His work integrates interdisciplinary collaborations, particularly in biomedical imaging and financial econometrics.
Elizaveta Rebrova is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Operations Research and Financial Engineering (ORFE) at Princeton University. She is also associated with the Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics (PACM) and the Center for Statistics and Machine Learning (CSML). Education: Specialist degree from Moscow State University (2012), PhD in Mathematics from University of Michigan (2018 under Roman Vershynin) Prior Appointments: Postdoctoral Scholar at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (2021), Assistant Adjunct Professor at UCLA Mathematics Department (2018-2021) Her research focuses on randomized numerical linear algebra , mathematics of data science , and high-dimensional probability . Key interests include developing algorithms for large-scale data with non-trivial structure, robust and interpretable learning, and stochastic optimization. Her recent work analyzes algorithmic convergence in structured settings, tensor-based data compression, and nonnegative matrix/tensor factorization under constraints. Recent publications span topics in randomized NLA , robust solvers , tensor methods , and nonnegative matrix factorization . Notable trends include improving convergence rates for iterative methods, handling adversarial noise in linear systems, and leveraging tensor structures for efficient data recovery. She supervises Ph.D. students including Jackie Lok, Shambhavi Suryanarayanan, and Sofiia Shvaiko. Her teaching at Princeton covers graduate probability theory (ORF526), convex optimization (ORF523), and network science (ORF387), with prior teaching roles at UCLA and University of Michigan.
Jean F. Honorio Carrillo is an Adjunct Professor at Purdue University's Department of Computer Science and a Senior Lecturer at the University of Melbourne's School of Computing and Information Systems. He specializes in machine learning theory, optimization, and their applications to combinatorial and non-convex problems. His research focuses on developing algorithms with theoretical guarantees for structured prediction, robustness, fairness, and federated learning. He has advised numerous students across multiple institutions and holds adjunct roles at Purdue's Statistics Department and MIT CSAIL. Roles: Senior Lecturer (Melbourne), Adjunct Professor (Purdue), Adjunct at MIT CSAIL Research Areas: ML Theory, Non-Convex Optimization, Fairness, Federated Learning Key contributions include breakthroughs in exact inference for structured prediction, optimization frameworks for NP-hard problems, and theoretical foundations for modern ML challenges. His work has been published in top venues like NeurIPS, ICML, and JMLR. He has secured grants from NSF and industry partners, including a 2021 NSF DMS grant for deep learning research. His students have gone on to postdoctoral roles at NUS and UChicago/CMU.
Jilles Vreeken is a Professor of Computer Science at Saarland University and tenured faculty at the CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security, where he leads the Exploratory Data Analysis research group. He is also an ELLIS Fellow and Faculty of the Saarbrücken Unit on AI and ML. His work bridges theoretical foundations with practical applications in causal inference, unsupervised learning, and exploratory data analysis. Dr. Vreeken's research focuses on developing theory and algorithms for answering fundamentally exploratory questions about data: "what is going on in my data?", "what causes what and how?", and "what can we learn from this model?" without making unnecessary or unjustified assumptions. He takes a principled approach based on information theory to identify what is worth knowing, then develops efficient algorithms for extracting useful interpretable results. His work spans causal inference under realistic conditions (including hidden confounding, selection bias, and non-i.i.d. data), summarizing complex data and models in understandable terms, and combining these threads to create more robust and useful models across diverse data types. His recent publications demonstrate a strong trend toward causal discovery in increasingly realistic settings, including non-stationary time series, event sequences, and scenarios with hidden confounders. He has made significant contributions to federated learning, interpretable machine learning, and pattern mining. His work consistently applies information-theoretic principles to develop methods that are both theoretically sound and practically useful for extracting insights from complex data. Dr. Vreeken has received numerous prestigious awards including: IEEE ICDM'18 Tao Li Award for Excellence in Research IEEE ICDM'18 Best Paper Award UdS-CS'15 Busy Beaver Teaching Award ACM SIGKDD'11 Best Student Paper Award ACM SIGKDD'10 Doctoral Dissertation Runner-Up Award ECML PKDD'09 Best Student Paper Award As an advisor, Dr. Vreeken has mentored numerous doctoral researchers to completion, including Dr. Osman Ali Mian, Dr. David Kaltenpoth, Dr. Boris Wiegand, Dr. Sebastian Dalleiger, Dr. Janis Kalofolias, Dr. Jonas Fischer, Dr. Alexander Marx, Dr. Panagiotis Mandros, Dr. Kailash Budhathoki, Dr. Roel Bertens, Dr. Koen Smets, and Dr. Michael Mampaey. He has secured significant research funding as PI for multiple projects including "AI for Prediction and Therapy Guidance in Acute Stroke" (HAICU, 2025-2028), "Neuro-Explicit Models of Language, Vision and Action" (RTG, DFG, 2023-2028), and "Crushing Antimicrobial Resistance using Explainable AI" (HAICU, 2021-2024). Dr. Vreeken leads the Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) research group at CISPA, which focuses on developing theory and algorithms for discovering novel insights from data, learning inherently interpretable models, and drawing reliable causal conclusions. The group has produced numerous influential algorithms and frameworks in causal inference, pattern mining, and exploratory data analysis, with applications spanning healthcare, materials science, and cybersecurity.
Sara van de Geer is a Full Professor at the Seminar for Statistics within the Department of Mathematics at ETH Zürich since 2005. She previously held academic positions at the University of Leiden, Université Paul Sabatier (Toulouse), and others. She earned a Master's (1982) and Ph.D. (1987) in Mathematics from Leiden University. Her research focuses on high-dimensional statistics, empirical processes, and mathematical foundations of machine learning. Van de Geer has received prestigious recognitions including the Van Wijngaarden Award (2016), Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau (2015), and membership in Leopoldina (2013). She served as President of the Bernoulli Society (2015–2017) and Chair of the Seminar for Statistics at ETH Zürich. Her contributions include landmark works on statistical learning theory and high-dimensional inference, with key publications in top journals like Annals of Statistics and SIAM/ASA Journal on Uncertainty Quantification. Her academic leadership includes organizing Saint Flour Lectures, Wald Lectures (2016), and delivering plenary lectures globally. Her research bridges theoretical statistics with applied methodologies, emphasizing rigorous mathematical frameworks for modern data analysis challenges.
Ming Gu is a Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley . He specializes in Numerical Linear Algebra and Scientific Computing , with a focus on developing efficient algorithms for structured matrices and large-scale data analysis. Organized Matrix Computations and Scientific Computing Seminars (2009-2017) Published 15+ papers on QR algorithms , Toeplitz matrices , randomized algorithms , and low-rank approximations His research addresses rank-revealing factorizations , randomized subspace iteration , and preconditioning techniques , often bridging numerical analysis with applications in machine learning and optimization . Students advised by him (e.g., Jiaming Wang, Onyebuchi Ekenta) have explored spectrum-revealing CUR decomposition and truncated SVD . Contact: mgu@math.berkeley.edu Office: 861 Evans Hall, UC Berkeley
Alexander Bastounis is a Lecturer in Applied Mathematics at King's College London, affiliated with the Department of Mathematics and the King’s Institute for Artificial Intelligence. His research focuses on computational mathematics, optimization, and the trustworthiness of AI systems. He holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge and has held academic roles at institutions including Leicester University, City University of Hong Kong, and TU Berlin. Education: PhD in Applied Mathematics from DAMTP, University of Cambridge (2018). Earlier academic qualifications not specified. Research interests include foundational aspects of computational mathematics, AI limits and robustness, adversarial attacks, and inverse problems. His work explores computational barriers in estimation and learning, with recent attention on stealth attacks in AI models and feature selection reliability. Received the Leslie Fox Prize (2019) for work on inverse problems Contributed to SIAM News articles on compressed sensing and AI challenges Advising and grants: Currently supervises the EPSRC-funded project '50:50 Haleon/EPSRC DLA Studentship' (2025–2029). No listed students. Labs/teams: Active in King’s Institute for Artificial Intelligence and collaborates on interdisciplinary projects across computational mathematics and AI security.
Dr. HanQin Cai is the Paul N. Somerville Endowed Assistant Professor in the Department of Statistics and Data Science at the University of Central Florida (UCF), also serving as Director of the Data Science Lab. He holds a joint appointment with the Department of Computer Science. His research focuses on theoretical and algorithmic foundations of mathematical optimization, data science, and machine learning, with emphasis on non-convex algorithms, adversarial attacks, signal/image processing, and deep learning integration. He has secured NSF grants totaling over $2.6M, including a $121K single-PI grant and a $2.49M co-PI grant. His work has been recognized with the UCF OSCaR Award (2025) and IEEE Senior Member status (2024). Education: PhD in Applied Mathematical and Computational Sciences from University of Iowa (2018), with M.S. in Mathematics (2014) and M.C.S. in Computer Science (2017). Previously served as a Postdoc at UCLA Mathematics Department under Dr. Wotao Yin. Research highlights include: query-efficient zeroth-order optimization, robust signal processing with corrupted data, adversarial attacks on neural networks, and tensor-based methods for high-dimensional data analysis. His recent publications explore advanced techniques in matrix recovery, tensor decompositions, and explainable AI. Grants & Awards: NSF DMS-2304489 (2022–2025), NSF DUE-2321986 (2024–2029), UCF OSCaR Award, IEEE Senior Membership. Labs & Teams: Directs UCF's Data Science Lab, collaborates across disciplines in statistics, computer science, and engineering.
Associate Professor Leow Wee Kheng is affiliated with the Department of Computer Science at the School of Computing, National University of Singapore . His career spans over three decades with expertise in medical image analysis , computer vision , and surgical simulation . Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of Texas at Austin (1994) M.Sc. in Computer Science, National University of Singapore (1989) B.Sc. in Computer Science, National University of Singapore (1985) His research focuses on medical image analysis for craniofacial surgery and stroke diagnosis, 3D modeling of anatomical structures, and computer vision techniques like robust PCA and texture analysis . Recent work includes knee joint motion modeling and forearm rotation simulation for clinical applications. Key trends in his 2017-2025 publications involve skull reconstruction algorithms , multi-objective optimization for digital media, subject-specific biomechanical modeling , and low-rank decomposition techniques in visual computing. Collaborations include institutions like Singapore General Hospital and National Taiwan University Hospital . Scientific Awards : CAIP 2017 Best Paper Award 2007 Andrew P. Sage Best Transactions Paper Award Faculty Teaching Excellence Award (AY2015/16) Annual Teaching Excellence Award (AY2015/16) He has mentored numerous students in medical imaging , computer vision , and biomedical modeling . Current and former advisees include Chen Ying , Vineta Lum Lai Fun , and Long Huizhong (Ph.D.).
Dr. Wei Dai is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Imperial College London, part of the Faculty of Engineering. He holds affiliations with the EPSRC Centre for Maths of Precision Healthcare and the Communications and Signal Processing group. His research focuses on sparse signal processing, machine learning applications in signal processing, linear and bilinear inverse problems, wireless communications, and random matrix theory. Notably, he contributed to the first compressive sensing DNA microarray prototype and has a highly cited 2009 paper on compressive sensing reconstruction. Dr. Dai's educational background includes a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder (2007) and postdoctoral research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2007-2010). His work bridges theoretical signal processing with practical applications in sensing, communication systems, and biomedical signal analysis. He leads research initiatives in gridless DOA estimation, robust beamforming, and cortico-muscular coupling analysis using advanced optimization techniques. His research outputs span topics like spectral compressed sensing, Bayesian methods for integrated sensing-communication systems, and dictionary learning for causal discovery. Ongoing work emphasizes low-rank matrix recovery, distributed compressed sensing, and mathematical frameworks for super-resolution localization. Dr. Dai collaborates across disciplines, leveraging signal processing innovations for healthcare technology and next-generation wireless systems.
Sjoerd Dirksen is a Professor of Mathematics for Data Sciences at Utrecht University since May 2025, having previously served as an Associate Professor for Applied Mathematics (2019-2025) and Junior Professor at RWTH Aachen University (2014-2019). He is affiliated with the Mathematical Institute within the Faculty of Science at Utrecht University, where his office is located in the Hans Freudenthal Building. His research interests focus on high-dimensional probability theory and its applications in data science, machine learning, and signal processing. Specifically, he investigates randomized data dimension reduction methods using structured random matrices, theory for deep learning including random neural networks, high-dimensional covariance estimation for wireless communication systems, and statistical postprocessing of weather forecasts in collaboration with the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI). Previously, he worked on compressed sensing, sharp estimates for stochastic processes in Banach spaces, and noncommutative analysis. Analysis of his recent publications (2018-2024) reveals a strong focus on quantization effects in high-dimensional data processing, particularly one-bit compressed sensing and covariance estimation under coarse quantization. His work bridges theoretical mathematics with practical applications in signal processing, wireless communications, and meteorological forecasting, demonstrating a consistent trajectory from foundational mathematical research to applied data science problems. Dirksen's academic career shows progression from postdoctoral work at the Hausdorff Center for Mathematics in Bonn to independent research positions. His publication record demonstrates significant contributions to the mathematics of data science, with papers appearing in top journals across mathematics, statistics, and signal processing. His research combines deep theoretical insights with practical applications, particularly in the areas of dimensionality reduction and high-dimensional statistics.
