Philippe Rigollet

Philippe Rigollet currently serves as the Cecil and Ida Green Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at MIT, where he has made significant contributions at the intersection of statistics, machine learning, and optimization. His academic journey began in France, where he earned his B.Sc. in statistics in 2001 and applied mathematics in 2002, followed by a Ph.D. in mathematical statistics in 2006 from the University of Paris VI (now Sorbonne University). Initially labeled a "slacker" in high school, Rigollet found his passion in mathematics, drawn to its inherent freedom and creativity. After completing his doctorate, he held positions at Georgia Tech as a postdoctoral fellow and at Princeton University as an assistant professor in the Department of Operations Research and Financial Engineering before joining MIT in 2015. His research spans high-dimensional statistics, optimal transport, and the mathematical foundations of Transformers, with recent focus on statistical optimal transport and its applications to geometric data analysis and sampling. His groundbreaking work includes establishing theoretical limits for efficiently computing sparse dimensions in high-dimensional datasets and developing statistical methods for clinical trials and web advertising optimization. His exceptional contributions have earned him numerous accolades, including an NSF CAREER award, the Howard B. Wentz Jr. Junior Faculty Award, and the COLT 2013 Best Paper Award. Beyond research, he actively contributes to academic publishing as an associate editor for several prestigious journals and has served as Program Committee co-Chair for COLT 2018.