plenary-speakers
2027 INFORMS Applied Probability Society Conference
Plenary Speakers
Invited lectures at the twenty-third INFORMS Applied Probability Conference.
Five plenary lectures are delivered to the whole conference alongside the parallel session programme. They include the 2027 IMS Medallion Lecture. All five speakers are confirmed, and titles, abstracts and biographies are added here as they become available.
Details of the full schedule, including when each lecture takes place, are on the programme overview page.
Confirmed speakers
2027 IMS Medallion Lecture
Tom Hutchcroft
Princeton University, United States
New approaches to critical percolation
Abstract
To be announced.
Biography
Tom Hutchcroft is a Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University and the Gordon and Betty Moore Professor of Mathematics at the California Institute of Technology. He attained his PhD from the University of British Columbia in 2017 under the supervision of Asaf Nachmias and Omer Angel, and held postdoctoral positions at the University of Cambridge. His work covers a range of topics including statistical mechanics, random geometry, and interactions between probability and geometric group theory.
The IMS Medallion Lecture is awarded annually by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and delivered at a meeting of the awardee’s choosing. The Institute has confirmed that the 2027 lecture will be given at APS 2027 in Durham.
Plenary lecture
Rami Atar
Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Israel
Interacting particle systems: Free boundary and free obstacle problems
Abstract
To be announced.
Biography
Rami Atar is a Professor in the Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, where he holds the Lady Davis Chair in Science. He received his DSc in Electrical Engineering from the Technion in 1997 under the supervision of Ofer Zeitouni and, after postdoctoral visits to Brown University and the Fields Institute, joined the Technion faculty in 1999. His research in probability theory and its applications includes interacting particle systems and free boundary problems, stochastic networks in heavy traffic, and stochastic control and differential games. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and Editor-in-Chief of Stochastic Systems.
Plenary lecture
Sarah Penington
University of Bath, United Kingdom
Lecture title to be announced
Abstract
To be announced.
Biography
Sarah Penington is a Reader and Royal Society University Research Fellow in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Bath. She completed her DPhil at the University of Oxford in 2016 under the supervision of Alison Etheridge, and held the G. H. Hardy Junior Research Fellowship at New College, Oxford, before joining Bath as a Prize Fellow in 2018. Her research in probability theory is largely motivated by population genetics and covers branching processes, interacting particle systems and probabilistic approaches to partial differential equations. She received the 2024 Erlang Prize of the INFORMS Applied Probability Society.
Applied Probability Trust Lecture
Johan van Leeuwaarden
Tilburg University, the Netherlands
Lecture title to be announced
Abstract
To be announced.
Biography
Johan van Leeuwaarden is Professor of Stochastic Operations Research at Tilburg University. He received his PhD in Mathematics cum laude from Eindhoven University of Technology in 2005 under the supervision of Onno Boxma, Sem Borst and Jacques Resing. After a postdoctoral position at EURANDOM, he joined the Eindhoven faculty in 2006 and held the chair in Stochastic Networks from 2012 until moving to Tilburg in 2019. His research covers applied probability, queueing theory, stochastic networks, random graphs and decision making under uncertainty. He received the 2012 Erlang Prize of the INFORMS Applied Probability Society.
Plenary lecture
Peter Taylor
University of Melbourne, Australia
Lecture title to be announced
Abstract
To be announced.
Biography
Peter Taylor is a Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Melbourne, and was an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow from 2013 to 2018. He received a BSc (Hons) and a PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Adelaide in 1980 and 1987 respectively. In between, he spent time working for the Australian Public Service in Canberra. After periods at the Universities of Western Australia and Adelaide, he moved at the beginning of 2002 to the University of Melbourne. In January 2003, he took up a position as the inaugural Professor of Operations Research. He was Head of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics from 2005 until 2010.
His research interests lie in the fields of stochastic modelling and applied probability, with particular emphasis on applications in queueing, telecommunications, biological modelling, economics, healthcare and disaster management. He is regularly invited to present plenary papers at international conferences.
He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Applied Probability and Advances in Applied Probability. In 2017, he was awarded the Ren Potts Medal by the Australian Society for Operations Research, in 2018 the George Szekeres Medal by the Australian Mathematical Society and in 2019 the ANZIAM Medal. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and the Australian Mathematical Society.
Society prize lectures
The Applied Probability Society presents its prize lectures during the conference, including the Markov Lecture and lectures by the recipients of the Erlang, Nicholson and Blackwell Prizes. Recipients are announced by the society ahead of the conference and will be listed here.
Further information about the society’s awards is on the Applied Probability Society pages.