Biography
Albert S. Berahas is an Assistant Professor in the Industrial and Operations Engineering department at the University of Michigan. Before joining the University of Michigan, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Industrial and Systems Engineering department at Lehigh University (working with Professors Katya Scheinberg, Frank E. Curtis and Martin Takáč), and prior to that appointment, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences department at Northwestern University (working with Professor Jorge Nocedal). Berahas completed his PhD studies in the Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics (ESAM) department at Northwestern University in 2018, advised by Professor Jorge Nocedal. He received his undergraduate degree in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering (ORIE) from Cornell University in 2009, and in 2012 obtained an MS degree in Applied Mathematics from Northwestern University. Berahas’ research broadly focuses on designing, developing and analyzing algorithms for solving large scale nonlinear optimization problems. Specifically, he is interested in and has explored several sub-fields of nonlinear optimization such as: (i) constrained optimization, (ii) optimization algorithms for machine learning, (iii) stochastic optimization, (iv) derivative-free optimization, and (v) distributed optimization. Berahas served as the vice-chair of the Nonlinear Optimization cluster for the INFORMS Optimization Society (2020-2022), the chair of the Nonlinear Optimization cluster for the INFORMS Optimization Society Conference (2021-2022), the co-chair of the Nonlinear Optimization cluster for the ICCOPT 2022 conference (2021-2022), and served as the president of the INFORMS Junior Faculty Interest Group (JFIG) from 2023-2024. Berahas was awarded the 2022 Charles Broyden Prize, the 2024 IISE Excellence in Teaching of Operations Research Award, the INFORMS Moving Spirit Award for Forums in 2024, and the Martin Luther King, Jr Spirit Award for Community Building & Impact in 2024.