Nicole Immorlica

Nicole Immorlica is a theoretical computer scientist who applies algorithms and economics to the design of markets and AI systems. At MIT, she earned a BS, MEng, and PhD; she completed postdoctoral work at Microsoft Research and CWI, served on Northwestern's EECS faculty, and joined Microsoft in 2012. Her 2014 pricing paper proposed a revenue mechanism for additive buyers, while a 2024 paper with Brendan Lucier and Aleksandrs Slivkins modeled generative AI as an economic agent. She chaired ACM SIGecom from 2019 to 2023; her 2005 paper with Mohammad Mahdian won SIGecom's 2023 Test of Time Award, and ACM named her a Fellow in 2023. Since 2025, she is a professor of computer science at Yale and a researcher at Microsoft; her Yale work uses game theory to study whether proprietary AI models align with users' intentions.

Now at: Microsoft Research and Yale University
Born: 1978
Works: 269
Citations: 8,806
h-index: 42
Badges: Bridge
Wayfarer
Loyal

Years link to their sources. Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

2000–2005

Degrees at MIT

She earns a BS at MIT in 2000, an MEng there in 2001, and a PhD in theoretical computer science in 2005.
2005–2013

Postdocs and Northwestern

From 2005 to 2007, she completes a postdoc in Microsoft Research's Theory Group; from 2007 to 2008, she is a postdoc in CWI's PNA1 Group. From 2008 to 2013, she serves as an assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Northwestern.
2012–2025

Senior Principal Researcher

She joins Microsoft as a researcher in 2012. Before joining Yale in 2025, she is a Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research New England and leads its Economics and Computation group. Her work uses theoretical computer science and economics to study sociotechnical systems.
2014

A mechanism for additive buyers

In 2014, she coauthors “A Simple and Approximately Optimal Mechanism for an Additive Buyer” with Moshe Babaioff, Brendan Lucier, and S. Matthew Weinberg. It compares separate-item pricing with bundle pricing and achieves a constant-factor approximation to the seller's optimal revenue.
2019–2023

SIGecom chair and honors

She chairs ACM SIGecom from 2019 to 2023. In 2023, her 2005 paper with Mohammad Mahdian, “Marriage, Honesty, and Stability,” wins SIGecom's Test of Time Award, and ACM names her a Fellow.
2024

Generative AI as an agent

With Brendan Lucier and Aleksandrs Slivkins, she coauthors “Generative AI as Economic Agents” in 2024. The paper models each user as paired with an AI agent they can consult before acting in a game; the AI and user may have different information and preferences.
2026

A hashing award and AI alignment

Her 2004 paper with Mayur Datar, Piotr Indyk, and Vahab S. Mirrokni, “Locality-Sensitive Hashing Scheme Based on p-Stable Distributions,” wins the SoCG Test of Time Award in 2026. In 2026, she uses game theory at Yale to study whether proprietary AI models' actions align with users' intentions.
Since 2025

Professor at Yale

She joins Yale as a professor of computer science in 2025 and continues as a researcher at Microsoft. In 2026, she is a professor of computer science and economics at Yale.

Career

Since 2025Yale UniversityProfessor of computer science and economics
Since 2012MicrosoftResearcher
Since 2005Microsoft ResearchPostdoctoral researcher
2008–2013Northwestern UniversityAssistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science
2007–2008National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science in the NetherlandsPostdoctoral researcher
2007–2009NWO-I
2003–2005MIT CSAIL