PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Mikhail Belkin

Also known as Misha Belkin

Mikhail Belkin is a professor at UC San Diego whose work ties the classical bias-variance trade-off to modern machine learning. He co-wrote Laplacian Eigenmaps with Partha Niyogi at NIPS 2001, a widely used algorithm. He completed a mathematics PhD at the University of Chicago in 2003, advised by Niyogi. In 2019 he and three co-authors published a PNAS paper proposing a 'double descent' curve that subsumes the textbook bias-variance trade-off. The ACM named him one of its 2023 Fellows, and he is editor-in-chief of the SIAM Journal on Mathematics of Data Science.

Works
134
Citations
22,605
h-index
36

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 15 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2001

    Laplacian Eigenmaps at NIPS

    He and Partha Niyogi publish Laplacian Eigenmaps at NIPS 2001, an algorithm that is widely used.

  2. 2003

    A mathematics PhD in Chicago

    He completes a mathematics PhD at the University of Chicago in 2003, advised by Partha Niyogi.

  3. 2019

    A double descent curve

    He and three co-authors publish a PNAS paper in 2019 that reconciles modern machine-learning practice with the classical bias-variance trade-off. Their 'double descent' curve subsumes the textbook U-shaped trade-off curve.

  4. 2023

    An ACM Fellowship

    The ACM names him one of its 2023 Fellows, a class chosen by peers for contributions to computing science and technology.

  5. As of October 2026

    Professor at UC San Diego

    He is a professor at the Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute at UC San Diego and an Amazon Scholar.

  6. As of October 2026

    Editing a SIAM journal

    He is editor-in-chief of the SIAM Journal on Mathematics of Data Science.

Sources and credits

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

  1. Laplacian Eigenmaps and Spectral Techniques for Embedding and Clustering proceedings.neurips.cc. Checked 15 October 2026.
  2. Broad Institute - Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center ericandwendyschmidtcenter.org. Checked 15 October 2026.
  3. Mikhail Belkin - The Mathematics Genealogy Project mathgenealogy.org. Checked 15 October 2026.
  4. Professor Mikhail Belkin published in PNAS | Computer Science and Engineering cse.engineering.osu.edu. Checked 15 October 2026.
  5. [1812.11118] Reconciling modern machine learning practice and the bias-variance trade-off arxiv.org. Checked 15 October 2026.
  6. UC San Diego Computer and Data Scientists Named to ACM’s Latest Class of Fellows today.ucsd.edu. Checked 15 October 2026.