Bienstock Awarded the 2022 Khachiyan Prize

Daniel Bienstock has been awarded the 2022 Khachiyan Prize for his fundamental methodological and computational contributions to optimization, with an emphasis on very large-scale, non-convex and discrete optimization problems.

Daniel Bienstock, the Liu Family Professor of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research and Professor of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics at Columbia Engineering, is a unique scholar who blends deep mathematics with elegant computational implementation. To obtain practical solutions to large-scale optimization problems, one needs to leverage problem structure to design methodologically sound strategies, and then implement them in a computationally efficient manner - the trade-off between methodology and implementation has to be carefully calibrated for the effort to succeed. Dan has demonstrated this ability many times in his research career, over a wide range of such problems. Dan's research focuses on fundamental methodological and computational aspects of optimization, with an emphasis on very large-scale, non- convex and discrete optimization problems. He is very broad, prolific, and his research is unique in emphasizing both deep mathematics and efficient practical implementations. Seminal methodological contributions include fast approximate solution to very large, structured linear programs, and extended formulations for hard combinatorial integer programs. Dan’s work has also had a significant impact on several application areas, such as optimal development of open pit mines, and real time control of the power grid. (INFORMS Optimization Society)