Academic:
Past Teaching:
Research Interests
In general, I try to understand what is easy and what is hard to compute,
independently of any particular computer. I work in algorithm design and complexity theory, and I especially like connections between the two subjects. I think about many questions, but a few of them haunt me more than others. Some examples:
Can the existence of an algorithm for a problem be used to prove that other algorithms cannot exist for other problems? Can the nonexistence of algorithms be used to prove that another algorithm correctly solves a problem? (In fact, there are "yes" answers to both questions!)
Does every function implementable with a low memory footprint also have a fast implementation? (Is $P = PSPACE$?)
Could computers themselves help us make progress on answering these questions?
Current PhD Students
Rahul Ilango
Ce Jin
Ted Pyne
Jiatu Li
Graduated PhD Students
Huacheng Yu
Cody Murray
Josh Alman
Dylan McKay
Brynmor Chapman
Lijie Chen
Nikhil Vyas
Shyan Akmal
Former Postdocs
Michael Forbes
Roei Tell
About Me
I grew up near the big city of
Somerville, Alabama, where there is
good fishing
in the water and
good football on the radio. Further south in Alabama there is a
good school for math and science.