Markus Wagner

Markus Wagner currently serves as Associate Professor at Monash University's Department of Data Science and AI, following his impactful tenure at the University of Adelaide. After completing his PhD in bio-inspired algorithms at the University of Adelaide and Max Planck Institute for Informatics, he has built an extraordinary career combining theoretical and applied optimization research. His work spans multiple areas including mathematical runtime analysis, theory-guided algorithm design, and applications in software engineering and renewable energy, with over 200 publications garnering 4,700+ citations. As the first Sustainability Officer for ACM SIGEVO and founder of the IEEE CIS Task Force on Computational Intelligence in the Energy Domain, he champions sustainable computing practices while maintaining active industry collaborations with companies like Google and Facebook. His achievements include four best paper awards, a HUMIES Gold Award, and the 2024 Biannual German IT Security Award. Through his leadership roles, including serving as General Chair of GECCO'22 and co-founding the field of Data-Driven Search-Based Software Engineering, he continues to advance both theoretical understanding and practical applications of optimization algorithms while maintaining his passion for sustainability since his high-school days.