Michał Pilipczuk from the University of Warsaw is a prominent young researcher in the area of algorithms. He contributed to the breakthrough results which solved fundamental problems in the field of parameterized complexity, some of which have been unsolved since more than 20 years.
Michał contributed to creation of new techniques, which are now used by many researchers, like “Cut-and-Count” and “Randomized Contractions”. Michał contributed to the development of fixed-parameter algorithms for a number of fundamental graph problems, for which parametrized algorithms have been sought-after since long time. This includes the problem of finding disjoint paths in a directed planar graph, minimum bisection, isomorphism test for graphs of bounded tree-width, and many others. Moreover, he has obtained significant results in the field of kernelization - rigorous analysis of preprocessing procedures. Here, his main achievements include the development of the first polynomial kernel for the planar Steiner tree problem, and introducing tools from the theory of sparse graphs to kernelization, in the context of domination problems. Apart from this, he contributed to various related topics, such as moderately exponential-time algorithms, algorithms on special graph classes, structural graph theory, or database theory.
Recently, Michał Pilipczuk, together with Mikołaj Bojańczyk, solved a longstanding conjecture by Courcelle, which establishes a surprising relation between fixed-parameter tractability and logic. The current bibliography of the young researcher comprises over 30 papers in journals and over 50 papers in conference proceedings, including the topmost conferences STOC, FOCS (6 papers), SODA, ICALP, LICS, and PODS. Michał Pilipczuk is also a co-author of a monograph Parametrized Algorithms published by Springer in 2015, which subsumes the state-of-the-art in the area.
From 2011 - 2013, Michał carried out his PhD Studies in Theoretical Computer Science under supervision of Prof. Fedor V. Fomin at the University of Bergen, Norway and defended his PhD thesis “Tournaments and Optimality: New Results in Parameterized Complexity” in November 2013. Since October 2015 he is assistant professor at the Institute of Informatics at the Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics, and Mechanics of the University of Warsaw, Poland.
Cor Baayen Award 2016
Winner:
Michał Pilipczuk
Honorary mentions:
- Mickaël Randour
- Indrajit Saha
Finalists:
- Marios Belk
- Daniel Dombek
- Michele Girolami
- Aurore Guillevic
- Aleksandar Ilic
- Achilleas Koutsou
- Ilkka Törmä
- Daniel Weber
The Cor Baayen Award is given each year to a promising young researcher in computer science and applied mathematics. The award was created in 1995 to honour the first ERCIM President.