Algorithms for Optimization

Mathematics professor Michel Goemans PhD ’90 is a leading expert in the design and analysis of algorithms for hard combinatorial optimization problems. These have applications in a variety of industries, from telecommunications to transportation. His work on approximation algorithms has introduced many of the key mathematical tools in the field, such as semidefinite programming, and has narrowed the gap between what can and cannot be solved provably in an efficient way. Goemans is supported in his research by the Leighton Family Professorship. “I am immensely grateful to the Leighton family,” he says. “They have been part of the MIT firmament for three generations and it’s an honor to hold a professorship in their name.”