Short Bio
Christian Sommer is a researcher in Computer Science, currently as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He got his MSc from ETH Zurich in 2006 and his PhD from the University of Tokyo in 2010, where he also received the Dean's award for the best PhD thesis in the Computer Science Department. His research interests are algorithms, data structures, and graphs.
Curriculum Vitae (Map)
List of publications
Current
Postdoctoral Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (since 9.2010)- Teaching: 6.889 Algorithms for Planar Graphs and Beyond (Fall 2011)
Video lectures on Planar Separators, Single-Source Shortest Path, Multiple-Source Shortest Path, Exact Distance Oracles, Approximate Distance Oracles, Traveling Salesman, and Shortest Paths with Negative Lengths.
Past
Assistant Professor at the University of Tokyo, Japan (4.2010 - 8.2010)- Research on compact routing with additive stretch; started investigations on linear-space approximate distance oracles for planar graphs
- Teaching: Advanced Algorithms (Spring 2010)
- Research at the University of Tokyo / NII
- PhD thesis: Approximate Shortest Path and Distance Queries in Networks, which won the Dean's award
Advisors: Shinichi Honiden and Michael E. Houle
Thesis Committee: Hiroshi Imai (chair), David Avis, Takeo Igarashi, Kunihiko Sadakane, and Tetsuo Shibuya - Main results in my thesis: space lower bound on distance oracles for sparse graphs, efficient distance oracle for power-law graphs, and efficient practical method for shortest-path queries
- Other research: algorithms for shortest disjoint paths in planar graphs
- Fellowship of the University of Tokyo (4.2008 - 3.2010)
- Research assistant at the National Institute of Informatics (11.2006 - 3.2010)
- Co-supervision of MSc students: Daisuke Fukuchi and Yojiro Kawamata
- PhD thesis: Approximate Shortest Path and Distance Queries in Networks, which won the Dean's award
- Research at other institutions
- Internship at the Los Alamos National Laboratories in the CCS-3 Group (7.2009 - 10.2009)
Research on large-scale transportation simulations and shortest-path queries on polyhedral surfaces - Internship at Microsoft Research Asia in the Theory Group (7.2008 - 10.2008)
Research on shortest-path queries and compact routing for power-law graphs
- Internship at the Los Alamos National Laboratories in the CCS-3 Group (7.2009 - 10.2009)
- Extra-curricular: Distance running; I participated in the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai with the University of Tokyo Track & Field Club and in many other races with Namban Rengo.
- Major: Theoretical Computer Science
- Master's thesis: Robust Combiners for Cryptographic Protocols
Supervisors: Bartosz Przydatek and Ueli Maurer - Term project: A Note on Coloring Sparse Random Graphs
Supervisor: Konstantinos Panagiotou (then at ETH in the Combinatorial Structures and Algorithms group) - Teaching Assistant for Discrete Mathematics, Professor: Ueli Maurer
- Teaching Assistant for Open Class lectures, Professor: Juraj Hromkovic
- Master's thesis: Robust Combiners for Cryptographic Protocols
- Minor: Software Engineering
- Term project: Model Checking Networked Programs in the Presence of Transmission Failures
Supervisor: Cyrille Artho, work done at the National Institute of Informatics
- Term project: Model Checking Networked Programs in the Presence of Transmission Failures
- Others: basic business lectures (accounting, international management, etc.)
- Publication: Outsourcing and Offshoring: the Consultancies' Estimates
- Internship: Accenture Management Consulting (10.2005 - 12.2005)
- Research Assistant: Chair of Strategic Management and Innovation
- Extra-curricular: Frenchhorn player in the Academic Orchestra (and the Alumni Orchestra), the Swiss Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Swiss Army Concert Band, and others. Concerts all around Europe.
