Guido Schäfer

Short Biography

I joined CWI as a senior research in 2009 and have been the group leader of the Networks and Optimization Group (N&O) from 2016 to 2021. Since October 2021 I am a scientific member of the Management Team of CWI.

Since February 2021, I am professor by special appointment of Algorithms, Optimization and Game Theory at the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation of the Faculty of Science of the University of Amsterdam (UvA). The chair was established on behalf of the Beta Plus Foundation (see here for the announcement of the appointment). From 2010-2020, I was professor by special appointment of Algorithmic Game Theory at the Department of Econometrics and Operations Research of the School of Business and Economics of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

Before coming to CWI, I pursued my PhD studies at the Max-Planck-Institute for Informatics in Saarbrücken, Germany, and obtained my PhD in 2004. After that, I was a postdocoral researcher at the Sapienza University of Rome (2004-2005) and a junior professor at the Institute for Mathematics of the Technical University Berlin (2005-2008). I received my Habilitation from the Institute of Mathematics at the TU Berlin in 2009.

Research

I conduct fundamental research in the areas of algorithms and complexity, combinatorial optimization and algorithmic game theory. Main themes in my research are the design of optimization algorithms (exact, approximate, online), equilibrium analysis (existence, computation, inefficiency) and mechanism design (truthfulness, cost-sharing, budget-feasible mechanisms).

My research is fundamental in nature, but incorporates various aspects of practical relevance (such as scarce resources, limited information, lack of coordination, uncertainty of data, privacy, etc.) and often connects to applications in routing, networks, logistics, transportation, scheduling and auctions. More recently, I also got intrigued by the emerging research theme of algorithms with predictions.

Industry Cooperations

In a number of cooperations with industry partners, we developed algorithmic techniques that have proven useful to solve large and complex real-world problems. We are always interested in new algorithmic challenges arising in real-world applications and are open to new cooperations.

Please feel free to contact me if you think that our expertise in algorithms and optimization could be useful for you.

Teaching and Student Supervision

Within the PhD program of the Dutch Network on the Mathematics of Operations Research (LNMB), I am regularly offering a PhD course on Algorithmic Game Theory (see here for the latest edition). Together with Marc Uetz, I also offer a new course on Algorithmic Mechanism Design (offered in spring 2021 for the first time).

At the UvA I am offering a Master course on Algorithmic Game Theory (overview available here). I taught a Master Course on Behavioral Operations Research several times at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. For several years, I taught the course on Discrete Optimization at Utrecht University, which is part of the Dutch Master's degree programme in Mathematics (Mastermath). I was also involved in some service teaching for other institutions such as the Amsterdam University College; see the teaching section for a more detailed overview of teaching activities.

If you are interested in pursuing your MSc project in our group and want to learn more about potential topics, please contact me.

Organizational Activities

I served as the general chair and PC co-chair of SAGT 2024 which was held at CWI, Sep. 3-6, 2024.

We are organizing a Research Semester Programme on Learning Enhanced Optimization at CWI in fall 2025. Please see here for more details.

I serve as the Chairman of the Dutch Network on the Mathematics of Operations Research (LNMB) since Jan. 2021. I am on the board of the LNMB since 2017.

I co-organized the Back-to-School Seminar Day on "Developments and Applications in the Area of Game Theory" of the 42nd Conference on Mathematics of Operations Research, January 17-19, 2017, Lunteren.

I organized WINE 2015 which was held at CWI, Dec. 9-12, 2015.