About
Alain is a professor of mathematical optimization at the School of Mathematical Sciences and is affiliated to the OR Group and CORMSIS. Prior to joining Southampton, he was a Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham and had previously worked as a Research Associate at the Technical University of Freiberg.
Alain is also an Alexander von Humboldt Experienced Fellow 2024-2026, a Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence 2019-2023, a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics & Its Applications, and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Research
Research groups
Research interests
- Bilevel and hierarchical optimization
- First and second order numerical methods for continuous optimization
- Nonsmooth and nonconvex optimization
- Stability/sensitivity analysis in optimization
- Variational analysis and applications
Current research
Alain's research interests are in continuous optimization, with special focus on bilevel optimization and its applications to transportation (toll setting, network design, demand estimation), data analysis, forecasting, trust topology, and phase retrieval.
In addition to research involving machine learning problems with a hierarchical structure and applications of optimization (pricing, network design, medicine, etc.), he has developed optimality conditions and stability/sensitivity analysis results for such problems and is currently developing numerical algorithms that can capture the optimistic and pessimistic feature of bilevel optimization problems.
Research projects
Completed projects
Publications
Teaching
Alain has taught on a number of modules, including:
MATH3017 Mathematical Programming
MATH6011 Forecasting
External roles and responsibilities
Biography
Prior to joining the University of Southampton, Alain was a Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham and had previously worked as a Research Associate at the Technical University of Freiberg.