Speaker's Bio:
Piotr Sankowski is a distinguished Polish computer scientist and CEO of IDEAS NCBR, a Warsaw-based research and development center specializing in artificial intelligence. He is also an associate professor at the Institute of Computer Science, Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Mechanics at the University of Warsaw.
Sankowski's research interests encompass the practical application of algorithms, including economic applications, learning data structures, and parallel algorithms for data science. He holds a doctorate in computer science (2005) and a habilitation and doctorate in physics (2009) in the field of solid-state theory from the Polish Academy of Sciences. He has completed post-doctoral internships at ETH Zurich Institute of Science and Sapienza University of Rome.
Notably, Sankowski co-founded the Highlights of Algorithms conference and served as the chairman of Track A at the 24th Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2016). He has received numerous awards, including the Crystal Brussels Sprout Award and the National Science Center award.
He has also been recognized as the first Pole to receive four ERC grants from the European Research Council, including Starting Grant (2010), Proof of Concept Grant (2015, 2023), and Consolidator Grant (2017). Sankowski has conducted significant research and led various projects, including "Efficient Planar Graph Algorithms" and is involved in the spin-off company MIM Solutions. He currently serves as the president of the management board at IDEAS NCBR since March 2021.