PIMS Voyageur Colloquium: Dimitris Bertsimas

Modern probability theory, whose foundation is based on the axioms set forth by Kolmogorov, is  currently the major tool for performance analysis  in stochastic systems. While it offers insights in understanding such systems, probability theory is really not a  computationally tractable theory. Correspondingly, some of its major areas of application remain unsolved when the underlying systems become multidimensional: Queueing networks, network information theory, pricing multi-dimensional financial contracts, auction design in multi-item, multi-bidder auctions among others.