Education
Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2003
Ryan O'Donnell
Carnegie Mellon University
Computer Science
Profile
Ryan O'Donnell obtained a B.Sc. in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Toronto in 1999 and a PhD in Applied Mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2003. After postdoctoral positions at the Institute for Advanced Study and Microsoft Research, he joined the faculty of the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University in 2006, and is now a Professor. He has held visiting/sabbatical positions at the Institute for Advanced Study, Boğaziçi University, and the University of British Columbia, and has consulted for PsiQuantum and Microsoft Research.
Research
Ryan O'Donnell's quantum interests include state and process tomography, quantum statistics and information theory, and quantum algorithms. Outside of quantum, his interests are in Computer Science Theory and Mathematics, including complexity theory, analysis of Boolean functions, spectral graph theory, and probability.
Students
Most Cited Publications
Analysis of Boolean Functions
R O'Donnell
Cambridge University Press
Optimal inapproximability results for MAX-CUT and other 2-variable CSPs?
S Khot, G Kindler, E Mossel, R O’Donnell
SIAM Journal on Computing 37 (1), 319-357
Noise stability of functions with low influences: invariance and optimality
E Mossel, R O'Donnell, K Oleszkiewicz
Annals of Mathematics (2010): 295-341.
Learning functions of k relevant variables
E Mossel, R O'Donnell, RA Servedio
Journal of Computer and System Sciences 69 (3), 421-434
Learning intersections and thresholds of halfspaces
AR Klivans, R O'Donnell, RA Servedio
Journal of Computer and System Sciences 68 (4), 808-840
Recent Publications
Quantum chi-squared tomography and mutual information testing
S. Flammia, R. O'Donnell
Query-optimal estimation of unitary channels in diamond distance (pdf)
J. Haah, R. Kothari, R. O'Donnell, E. Tang
Mean estimation when you have the source code; or, quantum Monte Carlo methods
R. Kothari, R. O'Donnell
Optimizing strongly interacting fermionic Hamiltonians
M. Hastings, R. O'Donnell
The Quantum Union Bound made easy
R. O'Donnell, R. Venkateswaran