about us

Meet Our Team

The institute leverages the strong ties we’ve built among world-class research groups in core areas of data science (CS, EE, probability, statistics) and exceptional researchers outside the traditional center of data science (econ, law, logic, operations research).

Additionally, the involvement of Google Research adds to our technical strengths and allows us to have more real-world impact with a direct connection to industry.

60+ Researchers

IDEAL comprises 66 faculty and 9 industry team members from the University of Illinois Chicago, Northwestern University, Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago, the University of Chicago, Illinois Institute of Technology, and the Learning Theory team at Google.

Avrim Blum

Avrim Blum

TTIC, PAST INSTITUTE DIRECTOR 2022-2023

Aravindan Vijayaraghavan

Aravindan Vijayaraghavan

Northwestern, CURRENT INSTITUTE DIRECTOR 2023-2024

Lev Reyzin

Lev Reyzin

UIC, INSTITUTE DIRECTOR 2024-2025 (EXPECTED)

Chao Gao

Chao Gao

University of Chicago

Chun Liu

Chun Liu

IIT

Antonio (Tuca) Auffinger

Antonio (Tuca) Auffinger

Northwestern, Math; Research Committee

Pranjal Awasthi

Pranjal Awasthi

Google; Industry Coordinator

Randall Berry

Randall Berry

Northwestern, EE; Evaluation Director

Ivan Canay

Ivan Canay

Northwestern, Economics; Research Committee

Natasha Devroye

Natasha Devroye

UIC, ee; Research Committee

Varun Gupta

Varun Gupta

UChicago, Operations Management, Booth; Education Committee

Jason Hartline

Jason Hartline

Northwestern, CS; Research Committee

Ian Kash

Ian Kash

UIC, CS; Workshops and Special Programs Director

Konstantin Makarychev

Konstantin Makarychev

Northwestern, CS; Education Committee

Samir Khuller

Samir Khuller

Northwestern, CS; Director of Participation and Outreach

Lek-Heng Lim

Lek-Heng Lim

University of Chicago, math; Research Committee

Yury Makarychev

Yury Makarychev

TTI Chicago, CS; Director of Postdoctoral Program

Mehryar Mohri

Mehryar Mohri

Google Team Head; Industry Coordinator

Jorge Nocedal

Jorge Nocedal

Northwestern; Research Committee

Will Perkins

Will Perkins

Georgia Tech, Math/CS; Director of Participation and Outreach

Mesrob Ohannessian

Mesrob Ohannessian

UIC, ee; Education Committee

Nathan Srebro

Nathan Srebro

TTI Chicago, CS; Research Committee

Matthew Walter

Matthew Walter

TTI Chicago, CS; Outreach Committee

Binghui Wang

Binghui Wang

IIT, CS; Education Committee

Yichao Wu

Yichao Wu

UIC, Statistics; Research Committee

Elena Zheleva

Elena Zheleva

UIC, cs; Industry Coordinator

 Alekh Agarwal

Alekh Agarwal

Google

 Eric Auerbach

Eric Auerbach

Northwestern, Economics

Antonio (Tuca) Auffinger

Antonio (Tuca) Auffinger

Northwestern, math

Pranjal Awasthi

Pranjal Awasthi

Google

Avrim Blum

Avrim Blum

TTIC, CS

Federico Bugni

Federico Bugni

Northwestern, Economics

Randall Berry

Randall Berry

Northwestern, ECE

Ivan Canay

Ivan Canay

Northwestern, Economics

Ozan Candogan

Ozan Candogan

University of Chicago, Operations Management

Ahmet Enis Cetin

Ahmet Enis Cetin

UIC, EE

Yu Cheng

Yu Cheng

Brown University, CS

Julia Chuzhoy

Julia Chuzhoy

TTI, CS and Math

Aloni Cohen

Aloni Cohen

University of Chicago, CS and Law

Christoph Dann

Christoph Dann

Google

Natasha Devroye

Natasha Devroye

UIC, EE

Jinqiao Duan

Jinqiao Duan

IIT, math

James Freitag

James Freitag

UIC, Math

Claudio Gentile

Claudio Gentile

Google

Reza Gheissari

Reza Gheissari

Northwestern, Math

Dongning Guo

Dongning Guo

Northwestern, EE

Chao Gao

Chao Gao

University of Chicago, Statistics

Julia Gaudio

Julia Gaudio

Northwestern, OR and Stats

Benjamin Golub

Benjamin Golub

Northwestern, Economics

Varun Gupta

Varun Gupta

University of Chicago, Operations Management

Shuo Han

Shuo Han

UIC, EE

Jason Hartline

Jason Hartline

Northwestern, CS

Michael Horn

Michael Horn

Northwestern, CS

Joel Horowitz

Joel Horowitz

Northwestern, Economics

Jessica Hullman

Jessica Hullman

Northwestern, CS

Vishesh Jain

Vishesh Jain

UIC, math

Satyen Kale

Satyen Kale

Google

Lulu Kang

Lulu Kang

IIT, math

Ian Kash

Ian Kash

UIC, cs

Samir Khuller

Samir Khuller

Northwestern, CS

Mladen Kolar

Mladen Kolar

University of Chicago, Stat/CS

Annie Liang

Annie Liang

Northwestern, Economics

Tengyuan Liang

Tengyuan Liang

University of Chicago, Econ/Stat

Lek-Heng Lim

Lek-Heng Lim

University of Chicago, Math

Daniel W. Linna Jr.

Daniel W. Linna Jr.

Northwestern, CS/Law

Chun Liu

Chun Liu

IIT, math

Cong Ma

Cong Ma

UChicago, Stats

Konstantin Makarychev

Konstantin Makarychev

Northwestern, CS

Yury Makarychev

Yury Makarychev

TTI Chicago, CS

Teodor Vanislavov Marinov

Teodor Vanislavov Marinov

Google

Marcus Michelen

Marcus Michelen

UIC, Math

Mehryar Mohri

Mehryar Mohri

Google

Rad Niazadeh

Rad Niazadeh

University of Chicago, Operations Management

Jorge Nocedal

Jorge Nocedal

Northwestern, IEMS

Mesrob Ohannessian

Mesrob Ohannessian

UIC, EE

Lorenzo Orecchia

Lorenzo Orecchia

Uchicago, CS

Will Perkins

Will Perkins

Georgia Tech, Math/cs

Veronika Rockova

Veronika Rockova

University of Chicago, Stat

Miklos Z. Racz

Miklos Z. Racz

Northwestern, Stat/CS

Lev Reyzin

Lev Reyzin

UIC, math/cs

Anastasios (Tasos) Sidiropoulos

Anastasios (Tasos) Sidiropoulos

UIC, CS

Nathan Srebro

Nathan Srebro

TTI Chicago, CS

 Xiaorui Sun

Xiaorui Sun

UIC, CS

Yi Sun

Yi Sun

University of Chicago, Statistics

Madhur Tulsiani

Madhur Tulsiani

TTIC, cs

Daniela Tuninetti

Daniela Tuninetti

UIC, ECE

Gyorgy Turan

Gyorgy Turan

UIC, Math

Victor Veitch

Victor Veitch

University of Chicago, Stat

Aravindan Vijayaraghavan

Aravindan Vijayaraghavan

Northwestern, CS

Binghui Wang

Binghui Wang

IIT, CS

Matthew Walter

Matthew Walter

TTIC, CS

Ren Wang

Ren Wang

IIT, ECE

Zhaoran Wang

Zhaoran Wang

Northwestern, IEMS

Ermin Wei

Ermin Wei

Northwestern, EE/IEMS

Yichao Wu

Yichao Wu

UIC; Stat

Haifeng Xu

Haifeng Xu

University of Chicago, cs

Miloš Žefran

Miloš Žefran

UIC; EE

Xinhua Zhang

Xinhua Zhang

UIC; CS

Elena Zheleva

Elena Zheleva

UIC; CS

Ming Zhong

Ming Zhong

IIT, math

Ping-Shou Zhong

Ping-Shou Zhong

UIC, Stat

Julian Zimmert

Julian Zimmert

Google

Stefani Karp

Stefani Karp

Google

Ravi Kannan

Ravi Kannan

Microsoft

John Lafferty

John Lafferty

Yale

Éva Tardos

Éva Tardos

Cornell

Prasad Tetali

Prasad Tetali

Carnegie Mellon University

Rebecca Willett

Rebecca Willett

University of Chicago

Aditya Bhaskara

Aditya Bhaskara

University of Utah

Lisa Hellerstsein

Lisa Hellerstsein

NYU

Cynthia Rush

Cynthia Rush

Columbia

Corrine Yap

Corrine Yap

Rutgers

Saba Ahmadi

Saba Ahmadi

TTI Chicago

Jinshuo Dong

Jinshuo Dong

Northwestern

Aditya Potukuchi

Aditya Potukuchi

UIC

Suprovat Ghoshal

Northwestern

Ali Vakilian (Former Postdoc)

Ali Vakilian (Former Postdoc)

TTI Chicago

IDEAL logo with cityscape

Our Sponsors

The Phase II operations of the IDEAL is supported by the National Science Foundation through the TRIPODS HDR program (under the awards EECS 2216970, 2217023, 2216926, 2216912, 2216899). The IDEAL Phase II institute builds on the activities of two NSF TRIPODS Phase 1 institutes: IDEAL Phase 1 (supported by the NSF award CCF 1934931) and UIC TRIPODS Institute (supported by the NSF award CCF 1934915).