PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Ilias Diakonikolas

Ilias Diakonikolas is a computer scientist whose algorithms for learning from corrupted, high-dimensional data apply to defenses against data poisoning in machine learning. From Athens, Greece, he earned a PhD at Columbia University in 2010 and held faculty posts at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Southern California before moving to the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2019. In 2016 he and coauthors developed the first efficient robust model-fitting technique in high dimensions, and in 2019 he, Christos Tzamos and Themis Gouleakis won a NeurIPS outstanding paper award for learning halfspaces under Massart noise. He wrote Algorithmic High-Dimensional Robust Statistics with Daniel Kane in 2023, received the 2024 ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award and became a 2026 Guggenheim Fellow. He is the Lubar Professor of Computer Sciences at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Timeline

  1. 2010–2016

    A Columbia PhD and Berkeley postdoc

    From Athens, Greece, he earns a diploma in electrical and computer engineering from the National Technical University of Athens and a PhD in computer science from Columbia University in 2010, advised by Mihalis Yannakakis. He then serves as the Simons postdoctoral fellow in theoretical computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, and as an assistant professor in the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh.

  2. 2016

    Robust estimators in high dimensions

    In 2016, he joins the University of Southern California, where he is an assistant professor and Andrew and Erna Viterbi Early Career Chair in computer science. With Gautam Kamath, Daniel Kane, Jerry Li, Ankur Moitra and Alistair Stewart, he presents “Robust Estimators in High Dimensions without the Computational Intractability” at the 2016 IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, which develops the first efficient robust model-fitting technique in the high-dimensional setting.

  3. 2017

    A Sloan Research Fellowship

    He wins a Sloan Research Fellowship in 2017, a two-year, $60,000 award from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and is one of 16 Sloan Fellows named in computer science. He also receives the NSF CAREER Award and a Google Faculty Research Award in 2017.

  4. 2019

    A NeurIPS outstanding paper

    He joins the Department of Computer Sciences at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2019. With Christos Tzamos and Themis Gouleakis, he wins an outstanding paper award at NeurIPS 2019 for “Distribution-Independent PAC Learning of Halfspaces with Massart Noise,” the first efficient algorithm for learning linear separators in the presence of Massart noise. Some of his algorithms are applied in defenses against data poisoning attacks in machine learning.

  5. 2023

    A robust statistics textbook

    With Daniel M. Kane of the University of California, San Diego, he publishes the textbook Algorithmic High-Dimensional Robust Statistics with Cambridge University Press in 2023. The book gives an overview of algorithmic high-dimensional robust statistics, including mean and covariance estimation.

  6. 2024

    Romnes Fellowship and Hopper Award

    In 2024, he receives the University of Wisconsin–Madison H.I. Romnes Faculty Fellowship for exceptional research contributions within his first six years in a tenured position. The Association for Computing Machinery also gives him its 2024 Grace Murray Hopper Award, announced in May 2025, and he is the first UW–Madison faculty member to win it.

  7. 2026

    A Guggenheim Fellowship

    In April 2026, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation names him one of the 223 fellows in its 101st class of Guggenheim Fellows.

  8. As of October 2026

    Lubar Professor at Wisconsin

    He is the Sheldon B. Lubar Professor of Computer Sciences at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a member of the theory of computing group, machine learning@uw-madison and the Institute for Foundations of Data Science. His research covers high-dimensional robust statistics, learning mixture models and other latent-variable models, and information–computation tradeoffs.

Career

  1. Since 2019University of Wisconsin–MadisonSheldon B. Lubar Professor of Computer Sciences
  2. Until 2016University of EdinburghAssistant Professor
  3. From 2016University of Southern CaliforniaAssistant Professor
  4. University of California, BerkeleyPostdoctoral Fellow

Education

  1. 2010Columbia UniversityPhD in computer science
  2. National Technical University of AthensDiploma in electrical and computer engineering

From the biography.

Videos

YouTube videos in which Ilias Diakonikolas speaks or appears, newest first. A model chose them from YouTube search results. List updated 21 October 2026.

  1. High-Dimensional Robust Statistics with Ilias Diakonikolas - #351The TWIML AI Podcast with Sam Charrington · 24 February 2020 · 35 min

Video data from YouTube API Services. By watching you agree to the YouTube Terms of Service. How we use YouTube data.

  1. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes Ilias Diakonikolas. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.
  2. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes University of Wisconsin–Madison. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  3. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes University of Wisconsin–Madison. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.
  4. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes University of Wisconsin–Madison. We estimate that Google holds the highest combined h-index at 8,016, while universities account for 73% of the deduplicated total across AI organizations.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Ilias Diakonikolas yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. CS Department welcomes Ilias Diakonikolas, Assistant Professor in Algorithms and Machine Learning cs.wisc.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Ilias Diakonikolas simons.berkeley.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Ilias Diakonikolas - The Mathematics Genealogy Project mathgenealogy.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. About the Authors: Theory of Computing: An Open Access Electronic Journal in Theoretical Computer Science theoryofcomputing.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Paving the Way for Robust Machine Learning viterbischool.usc.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. Ilias Diakonikolas Wins 2017 Sloan Research Fellowship viterbischool.usc.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. UW-Madison Dept. of Computer Sciences professors Diakonikolas and Tzamos presented with outstanding paper award at NeurIPS 2019 cs.wisc.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. Ilias Diakonikolas wins ACM Grace Hopper Award for breakthrough techniques in algorithm design cs.wisc.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  9. Index - Algorithmic High-Dimensional Robust Statistics cambridge.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  10. Algorithmic Robust Statistics sites.google.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  11. Professor Ilias Diakonikolas awarded prestigious H.I. Romnes Faculty Fellowship cs.wisc.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  12. Professor Ilias Diakonikolas wins 2026 Guggenheim Fellowship cs.wisc.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  13. Three UW–Madison professors earn Guggenheim Fellowships news.wisc.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.