Liza (Elizaveta) Rebrova

Intro

I am an Assistant Professor at Princeton University Operations research (ORFE) Department.

My previous academic story includes:

• In the first half of 2021, I was a postdoctoral scholar at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Computation Research Division on the project "Tensor Factorizations in Machine Learning".
• Until the end of 2020, I was an Assistant Adjunct Professor (which means, a postdoc :)) at UCLA Department of Mathematics in July'18. My mentors were Deanna Needell and Terence Tao.
• In Spring 2018 I graduated from University of Michigan (Mathematics). I was fortunate to have Roman Vershynin as my graduate advisor.
• Summers 2017 and 18 I worked at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Computation Research Division (in the Xiaoye Sherry Li group).
• In 2012 I got my specialist degree (B.S.+M.S. equivalent) in Mathematics at Moscow State University under supervision of Professor Vladimir Bogachev.

Full story:

CV (March, 2021)

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Research

I study the structure of large high-dimensional objects in the presence of randomness, and use this understanding to develop randomized algorithms that efficiently process complex data. See here for the list of my most relevant papers and preprints roughly organized by topic; see my CV (a button above) for the full list of publications; and see here for some past talks slides.

If you are a Princeton student and would like to talk, please email me to set up a meeting, I am happy to meet with you. If you are looking to apply for a PhD program, you should apply directly to the department. Sorry that I do not reply to the outside emails about applying for our PhD program.

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Teaching

See the button on top of the page for the link to ongoing class website.

Past teaching at Princeton: ORF387 (Networks, Fall 2022), ORF523 (Convex and Conic Optimization, Spring 2022)

At UCLA: Probability (170A, Fall 2018 and Spring 2020), Statistics (170S, Winter and Spring 2019), Stochastic Processes (Math 171, Spring 2020), Optimization (164, Fall 2020). At UofMichigan: Calculus (Math 115; primary instructor), Differential Equations (Math 216). Back in Moscow, I worked as a calculus instructor for high school students at 57-th math school (2008-2012) and as an algebra teacher at Kolmogorov math and physics high school (2012-2013).

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Random likes

My first name is the Russian version of Elizabeth. I like all versions of my name: please call me Liza, Lisa, Eliza, or Elizabeth, whatever you like the best. In case you were curious, Elizaveta is pronounced as "Ye (like in yellow) - lee - zah - VYE - tah". Standard pronunciation of Liza is "LEE - zuh".

In addition to doing research and explaining math for various audiences, I enjoy coding and playing with data. During my undergraduate time in Moscow, I completed two year CS program in Yandex Data Analysis school, it was such a great time.

My non-mathy interests include all that I find beautiful or challenging. For example, songs, art, street art, cities, oceans and mountains, cats, great stories of any kind, poetry and classic fantasy, puzzles... Finally, I love consuming and talking about coffee and European sweets.

“Poirot,” I said. “I have been thinking.”
“An admirable exercise my friend. Continue it.”
(Agatha Christie, Peril at End House)