People

Research Team

Students, postdocs, research scientists, visitors, and alumni working across optimization, AI for science, energy AI, and LLM reasoning.

137 people mentored or hosted 11 groups MBZUAI and Lehigh
Group 1

Visiting Researchers / Students [MBZUAI]

16 people
Vladmir Solodkin

Vladmir Solodkin

2025 - 2025
Andrii Semenov

Andrii Semenov

2025 - 2025
Andrey Veprikov

Andrey Veprikov

2025 - 2025
Maksim Bobrin

Maksim Bobrin

2025 - 2025
Aleksandr Lobanov

Aleksandr Lobanov

2024/11 - 2024/12
Nikita Yudin

Nikita Yudin

2023/04 - 2023/07
Konstantin Mishchenko

Konstantin Mishchenko

2022/12 - 2022/12
Eva Starykh

Eva Starykh

2023/09 - 2024/08
Petr Ostroukhov

Petr Ostroukhov

2022/010 - present
Dmitry Pasechnyuk

Dmitry Pasechnyuk

2022/03 - 2025/08
Alexander Rogozin

Alexander Rogozin

2022/02 - 2022/04
Alexander Beznosikov

Alexander Beznosikov

2021/10 - 2021/12
Abdurakhmon Sadiev

Abdurakhmon Sadiev

2021/10 - 2021/12
Prof. Alexander Gasnikov

Prof. Alexander Gasnikov

2021/10 - 2021/12
Dr. Darina Dvinskikh

Dr. Darina Dvinskikh

2021/10 - 2021/12
Slavomír Hanzely

Slavomír Hanzely

2022/01 - 2022
Group 2

Visiting Researchers / PhD students [Lehigh]

6 people
Huseyin Ucar

Huseyin Ucar

Fulbright
Fall 2023 - Spring 2024 - Fall 2023 - Spring 2024
Ruben Solozabal

Ruben Solozabal

PhD student
2019 - 2019
Sai Praneeth Reddy Karimireddy

Sai Praneeth Reddy Karimireddy

PhD student
2018 - 2018
Collaboration with Martin Jaggi
Nicolas Loizou

Nicolas Loizou

PhD student
2018 - 2018
Collaboration with Peter Richtarik
Ion Necoara

Ion Necoara

Faculty
2017 - 2017
Jakub Konecny

Jakub Konecny

PhD student
2014/11 - 2014/11
Collaboration with Peter Richtarik
Group 3

Postdoc [MBZUAI]

13 people
Deepak Kumar

Deepak Kumar

2026 - ---
Artem Agafonov

Artem Agafonov

2026 - ---
Sayantan Choudhury

Sayantan Choudhury

2025/09 - present
Yanda Li

Yanda Li

2025/09 - present
Hachem Madmoun

Hachem Madmoun

2025/09 - present
Arip Asadulaev

Arip Asadulaev

2025 - present
Slavomír Hanzely

Slavomír Hanzely

2023 - present
Ruben Solozabal

Ruben Solozabal

2021/09 - present
Dmitry Kamzolov

Dmitry Kamzolov

2021/10 - 2024/10
Eduard Gorbunov

Eduard Gorbunov

2022 - 2025/07
Grigory Koroteev

Grigory Koroteev

2024 - 2025
Zangir Iklassov

Zangir Iklassov

2025 - 2025
Velibor Bojkovic

Velibor Bojkovic

2025 - 2025
Group 4

Research Scientist [MBZUAI]

5 people
Kirill Dubovikov

Kirill Dubovikov

2025 - present
Omar El Mansouri

Omar El Mansouri

2025 - present
Aya El Mir

Aya El Mir

2025 - present
Alexander Yukhimchuk

Alexander Yukhimchuk

2025 - 2025
Nazarii Tupista

Nazarii Tupista

2022/10 - present
Group 5

Postdoc [Lehigh]

1 people
Albert S. Berahas

Albert S. Berahas

2018/09 - 2020
Group 6

PhD Students [MBZUAI]

13 people
Dmitry Pasechnyuk

Dmitry Pasechnyuk

2025/09 - present
Aidar Alimbayev

Aidar Alimbayev

2024/08 - present
Abdelmajid Essofi

Abdelmajid Essofi

2024/08 - present
Farshed Abdukhakimov

Farshed Abdukhakimov

2024/08 - present
Eva Starykh

Eva Starykh

2024/09 - present
Abduragim Shtanchaev

Abduragim Shtanchaev

2023/09 - present
Klea Ziu

Klea Ziu

2023/09 - present
Nicolás Cuadrado

Nicolás Cuadrado

2023/09 - present
Mohannad Takrouri

Mohannad Takrouri

2023/09 - present
Khalid Al Nahyan

Khalid Al Nahyan

2023/09 - present
Abdulla Almansoori

Abdulla Almansoori

2021 - 2026 (expected)
Artem Agafonov

Artem Agafonov

2022 - 2025/12
Zangir Iklassov

Zangir Iklassov

2021 - 2024
Group 7

Master Students [MBZUAI]

25 people
Viktor Kovalchuk

Viktor Kovalchuk

2025/09 - present
Meir Roketlishvili

Meir Roketlishvili

2025/09 - present
Albert Baichorov

Albert Baichorov

2024/09 - present
Semyon Semenov

Semyon Semenov

2024/09 - present
Vladislav Ryspayev

Vladislav Ryspayev

2024/09 - present
Hazem Lashen

Hazem Lashen

2024/09 - present
Arman Bolatov

Arman Bolatov

2024/09 - present
Farkhad Akimov

Farkhad Akimov

2023/09 - 2025/05
Maitha Abdelhakeem Yousif Almushtaghil Alnaqbi

Maitha Abdelhakeem Yousif Almushtaghil Alnaqbi

2023/09 - 2025/05
Aisha Abduljabbar Ahmed Al-Musalami

Aisha Abduljabbar Ahmed Al-Musalami

2023/09 - 2025/05
Baketah Alrashdi

Baketah Alrashdi

2022/09 - 2024/05
Salma Alrashdi

Salma Alrashdi

2022/09 - 2024/05
Yanlin Wu

Yanlin Wu

2022/07 - present
Chulu Xiang

Chulu Xiang

2022/06 - present
Li Yunxiang

Li Yunxiang

2022/07 - present
Dmitrii Medvedev

Dmitrii Medvedev

2021/01 - 2022/12
Farshed Abdukhakimov

Farshed Abdukhakimov

2021/08 - 2023/05
Shahd Hamad Ghanem Alshamsi

Shahd Hamad Ghanem Alshamsi

2021/09 - 2022/12
Nicolás Cuadrado

Nicolás Cuadrado

2021/09 - 2023/05
Talal Abdullah Fadhl Algumaei

Talal Abdullah Fadhl Algumaei

2021/09 - 2023/05
Klea Ziu

Klea Ziu

2021/09 - 2023/05
Roberto Alejandro Gutiérrez Guillén

Roberto Alejandro Gutiérrez Guillén

2021/09 - 2023/05
Aigerim Zhumabayeva

Aigerim Zhumabayeva

2021/09 - 2023/05
Khalid Al Nahyan

Khalid Al Nahyan

2021/09 - 2023/05
Brahim Erraji

Brahim Erraji

2021/09 - 2023/05
Group 8

PhD Students (supervised/co-supervised/close collaboration) [Lehigh]

12 people
Sergey Rusakov

Sergey Rusakov

2019 - 2021
Zheng Shi

Zheng Shi

2019 - 2022/04
Majid Jahani

Majid Jahani

2016/09 - 2021/05
Xi He

Xi He

2014/09 - 2018/12
Jie Liu

Jie Liu

2014/09 - 2018/09
Chenxin Ma

Chenxin Ma

2014/09 - 2018/05
Soheil Sadeghi Eshkevari

Soheil Sadeghi Eshkevari

2016 - 2020
Collaboration with Shamim Pakzad
Group 9

Master research/thesis supervision

21 people
Ved Patel

Ved Patel

2020 - 2021
Yuqing Chen

Yuqing Chen

2019 - 2020
Ran Ran

Ran Ran

2019 - 2020
Siner Gokhan Yilmaz

Siner Gokhan Yilmaz

2019 - 2020
Yutong Chang

Yutong Chang

2016 - 2017
Sean Byrne

Sean Byrne

2016 - 2017
Haoran Zhang

Haoran Zhang

2014 - 2016
Shihwei Wang

Shihwei Wang

2018 - 2019
Jingyu Liang

Jingyu Liang

2016 - 2017
Bolun Xu

Bolun Xu

2016 - 2017
Zhou Cao

Zhou Cao

2015 - 2016
Jiawei Zhang

Jiawei Zhang

2015 - 2016
Yawei Yuan

Yawei Yuan

2014 - 2015
Sitao Zhang

Sitao Zhang

2018 - 2018
Sang Yun Kang

Sang Yun Kang

2019 - 2019
Tao Zhang

Tao Zhang

2018 - 2018
Diwakar Prasad

Diwakar Prasad

2017 - 2018
Creatrol Xu

Creatrol Xu

2017 - 2017
Arjun Chidambaram Subbiah

Arjun Chidambaram Subbiah

2017 - 2017
Kunal Salvi

Kunal Salvi

2017 - 2017
Nitant Pandey

Nitant Pandey

2017 - 2017
Group 10

Undergraduate research supervision

24 people
Jack Heller

Jack Heller

2020 - 2021
Yanzhe Ma

Yanzhe Ma

2020 - 2020
Shengli Zhu

Shengli Zhu

2019 - 2019
Xiaming (Garfield) Jin

Xiaming (Garfield) Jin

2019 - 2019
Danmeng Xue

Danmeng Xue

2019 - 2019
Kevin T. Aspesi

Kevin T. Aspesi

2019 - 2019
Cameron R. Shollenberger

Cameron R. Shollenberger

2019 - 2019
Demetri J. Greco

Demetri J. Greco

2019 - 2019
Spencer M. Leuba

Spencer M. Leuba

2019 - 2019
Hui Ye

Hui Ye

2019 - 2019
Onur G. Ates

Onur G. Ates

2019 - 2019
Vincent Albanese

Vincent Albanese

2019 - 2019
Zachary Weinert

Zachary Weinert

2019 - 2019
Zhijian Yang

Zhijian Yang

2017 - 2019
Haiteng Wei

Haiteng Wei

2017 - 2019
Yuan He

Yuan He

2017 - 2019
Judy Lu

Judy Lu

2017 - 2019
Zhenyu Li

Zhenyu Li

2017 - 2018
Logan Herr

Logan Herr

2017 - 2018
Jack Circus

Jack Circus

2017 - 2018
Sam Presti

Sam Presti

2017 - 2018
Tao Zhang

Tao Zhang

2017 - 2018
Purvesh Rana

Purvesh Rana

2017 - 2017
Adam Smiechowski

Adam Smiechowski

2015 - 2016
Group 11

Mentoring of High-school Students

1 people
Neil Deshmukh

Neil Deshmukh

2017 - 2019