Ruth Misener

My role within Computing:

Professor in Computational Optimisation

About me:

I’m from Maine, which is the northeast corner of the USA. Both my undergraduate (MIT) and PhD (Princeton) degrees are in chemical engineering. I came to the UK with a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowship and used the freedom associated with the funding to switch to computer science. 

Research interests:

I’m interested in computational optimisation, i.e. designing new ways of solving decision-making problems containing some kind of criteria for what is the best possible solution. I’m interested in mixed-integer nonlinear optimisation which incorporates both discrete decisions, e.g. whether to turn a machine on or off, and nonlinear equations, e.g. following the laws of physics. I especially enjoy collaborating with practitioners on industrially-relevant optimisation challenges, so I also end up studying decision making under uncertainty.

What I love about my research:

I love the heterogeneity that comes with computational optimisation. My team: (i) writes mathematical proofs, (ii) develops new algorithms, (iii) applies our work to real engineering problems, and (iv) makes our code available. My favourite kind of research is where foundational work ends up making a big difference in solving a class of practical optimisation problem.

Who inspires me:

My collaborators are my biggest inspiration. I work with a very gifted team of people, so there are always interesting things to do.

Something people might not know about me is:

My favourite thing about London is attending lots of concerts.