PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Yin Tat Lee

Yin Tat Lee is an associate professor at the University of Washington and a member of the technical staff at OpenAI. Best paper awards at SODA and FOCS in 2014 recognized faster algorithms for maximum flow and linear programming, and a NeurIPS best paper award in 2018 recognized optimal algorithms for non-smooth distributed optimization. He completed a mathematics Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2016 after a B.S. at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2012, then held a Microsoft Research postdoc and joined the University of Washington in 2017. Sloan and Packard fellowships came in 2020. In 2024 he coauthored the Phi-4 technical report, which presents a 14-billion parameter language model.

Works
167
Citations
6,145
h-index
37

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 17 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2008–2016

    Mathematics at CUHK and MIT

    He earns a B.S. in mathematics from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2012 and a Ph.D. in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2016.

  2. 2014–2015

    Faster flow and linear programs

    Approximate maximum flow earns a best paper award at SODA in 2014, and linear programming earns best paper awards at FOCS in 2014. A faster cutting-plane method for convex problems earns a best student paper award at FOCS in 2015.

  3. 2016–2017

    Postdoc at Microsoft Research

    In 2016, after a Ph.D. at MIT, he takes a postdoc at Microsoft Research before joining the University of Washington.

  4. 2018

    The Tucker Prize

    The Mathematical Optimization Society awards him the Tucker Prize in 2018 for the best doctoral thesis in optimization over three years, for faster algorithms for convex and combinatorial optimization.

  5. 2018

    A NeurIPS best paper

    Kevin Scaman, Francis Bach, Sébastien Bubeck, Laurent Massoulié, and Yin Tat Lee share a NeurIPS best paper award in 2018 for optimal algorithms for non-smooth distributed optimization in networks.

  6. 2020

    Sloan and Packard fellowships

    A Packard Fellowship is awarded in 2020, while he is a visiting researcher at Microsoft Research and a Sloan Research Fellow. He joins the University of Washington in 2017.

  7. December 2024

    The Phi-4 technical report

    He coauthors the Phi-4 technical report in December 2024. The report presents phi-4, a 14-billion parameter language model whose training recipe centers on data quality and incorporates synthetic data.

  8. Since 2024

    OpenAI and a UW professorship

    He serves as a principal researcher at Microsoft Research from 2022 to 2024 and as a senior principal researcher in 2024. He is an associate professor at the University of Washington from 2022 and a member of the technical staff at OpenAI from 2024.

Sources and credits

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  1. CV yintat.com. Checked 16 October 2026.
  2. Yin Tat Lee | UW Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering ee.washington.edu. Checked 16 October 2026.
  3. Yin Tat Lee and Thomas Rothvoss honored for significant contributions in mathematical optimization news.cs.washington.edu. Checked 16 October 2026.
  4. Yin Tat Lee to join the UW CSE faculty news.cs.washington.edu. Checked 16 October 2026.
  5. Hannaneh Hajishirzi and Yin Tat Lee named 2020 Sloan Research Fellows news.cs.washington.edu. Checked 16 October 2026.
  6. Awards neurips.cc. Checked 16 October 2026.
  7. Allen School's Yin Tat Lee earns Best Paper Award at NeurIPS 2018 for new algorithms for distributed optimization news.cs.washington.edu. Checked 16 October 2026.
  8. Allen School professor Yin Tat Lee earns Packard Fellowship to advance the fundamentals of modern computing news.cs.washington.edu. Checked 16 October 2026.
  9. [2412.08905] Phi-4 Technical Report arxiv.org. Checked 16 October 2026.
  10. Phi-4 Technical Report - Microsoft Research microsoft.com. Checked 16 October 2026.