Official Professional Biography

Adam Wierman is a Professor in the Department of Computing and Mathematical Sciences (CMS) at the California Institute of Technology. He is the director of the Information Science and Technology (IST) initiative and served as Executive Officer (a.k.a. Department Chair) of CMS from 2015-2020. Additionally, he serves on Advisory Board of the Linde Institute of Economic and Management Sciences and previously served on Advisory Board of the “Sunlight to Everything” initiative of the Resnick Institute for Sustainability. He received his Ph.D., M.Sc., and B.Sc. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University in 2007, 2004, and 2001, respectively, and has been a faculty at Caltech since 2007.

Adam’s research strives to make the networked systems that govern our world sustainable and resilient. He develops new mathematical tools in machine learning, optimization, control, and economics and applies these tools to design new algorithms and markets that can be deployed in data centers, the electricity grid, transportation systems, and beyond. He is best known for his work spearheading the design of algorithms for sustainable data centers, which led to significant industry adoption and was named a Computerworld Honors Laureate. He is a co-author of a book on “The Fundamentals of Heavy-tails”. Currently, his work focuses on the interface of machine learning and control, with applications to sustainability.

He is a recipient of multiple awards, including the ACM Sigmetrics Rising Star award, the IEEE Communications Society William R. Bennett Prize, the ACM Sigmetrics Test of Time award, the IEEE INFOCOM Test of Time award, an NSF Career Award, the Caltech IDEA Advocate Award, and multiple teaching awards. He is a co-author of papers that have received “best paper” awards at a wide variety of conferences across computer science, power engineering, and operations research including ACM Sigmetrics, IEEE INFOCOM, IFIP Performance, and IEEE PES.

Shortened Professional Biography

Adam Wierman is a Professor in the Department of Computing and Mathematical Sciences at Caltech. He received his Ph.D., M.Sc., and B.Sc. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University and has been a faculty at Caltech since 2007. Adam’s research strives to make the networked systems that govern our world sustainable and resilient. He is best known for his work spearheading the design of algorithms for sustainable data centers and is co-author of a recent book on “The Fundamentals of Heavy-tails”. He is a recipient of multiple awards, including the ACM Sigmetrics Rising Star award, the ACM Sigmetrics Test of Time award, the IEEE INFOCOM Test of Time award, the IEEE Communications Society William R. Bennett Prize, the Caltech IDEA Advocate award, multiple teaching awards, and is a co-author of papers that have received “best paper” awards at a wide variety of conferences across computer science, power engineering, and operations research.

Curriculum vitae

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

I am committed to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in my research group, in my courses, within the CMS department, at Caltech more broadly, and within my research communities.

• Diversity: I recognize that diversity, in all its shapes and forms, strengthens us both culturally and intellectually.
• Equity: I will fight for equal treatment of all people, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, or any other attributes that are irrelevant to academic and research potential.
• Inclusion: I will work to create an inclusive working environment so that everyone feels their voices are heard and their contributions are recognized.a

Read more about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the CMS department at Caltech here.

Outreach

I serve on the advisory board of the Math Academy, a program aimed at radically accelerating the learning curve of mathematically gifted students. In 6th grade, Math Academy students begin learning algebra, geometry, and trigonometry and complete everything up through AP calculus by the end of 8th grade. The students then learn college-level math and computer science during high school, where I engage with them as a mentor.

I serve on the board of the Pasadena Education Network (PEN), an organization that promotes family participation in public education and provides parent education programs to help parents explore, evaluate, and engage with their public schools.

I collaborate with the Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) on the design of their open enrollment program, working to ensure that it is equitable and efficient, and on initiatives related to improving the college placement of students.

I have taught math and computer science outreach classes for elementary and middle school students at multiple schools within Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) and I co-teach a course at Caltech on K-14 educational outreach that enables undergraduate and graduate students to design classes for local K-12 students.

Industrial Interations

I frequently serve as a scientific consultant and/or advisory board member for startups and funds in the areas of machine learning / AI, sustainability, and education. Recent examples include FreeFlow, Math Academy, Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP), and Virtualitics.

I look to develop partnerships with companies to enable tech transfer from our research group to industry. A partial list of partners over the years includes Amazon AWS, Beyond Limits, Google, HP, IBM, Microsoft, PIMCO, Pasadena Water and Power, Southern California Edison, VMWare, Yahoo, and Facebook. Some large-scale current partnerships include collaborations with VMWare on the CarbonFirst project and Amazon AWS, Virtualitics, & PIMCO on the AI4Science initiative, and Beyond Limits and Pasadena Water & Power on smart grid challenges.

Academic Service

Leadership Positions (past and current)

• ACM e-Energy Program Committee co-Chair
• ACM Greenmetrics Conference co-Chair
• ACM Greenmetrics Program Committee co-Chair
• ACM Greenmetrics Steering Committee
• ACM SigEnergy Steering Committee
• ACM Sigmetrics Vice Chair
• ACM Sigmetrics Board of Directors
• ACM Sigmetrics Program Committee co-Chair
• ICCCN Program Committee co-Chair
• IFIP Performance Program Committee co-Chair
• IFIP Performance Working Group
• SoCal Network Economics & Game Theory Conference Steering Committee
• Simons Institute Program co-Chair for “Algorithms & Uncertainty”
• NetEcon Program Committee co-Chair
• YEQT Conference co-Chair

Editorships (past and current)

• ACM Transactions on Measurement and Performance Evaluation of Computer Systems (TOMPECS) Editorial Board
• ACM Transactions on Internet Technology Guest Editor
• IEEE Transactions on Network Science & Engineering Editorial Board
• IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing Editorial Board
• IEEE Transactions on Networking (ToN) Associate Editor
• INFORMS Operations Research Associate Editor
• INFORMS Journal of Computing Associate Editor
• Journal of the ACM Area Editor
• Queueing Systems Theory and Analysis (QUESTA) Editorial Board
• Sustainable Energy, Grids, & Networks (SEGAN) Editorial Board
• Performance Evaluation Editorial Board

Program Committees (past and current, each listed only once)

• ACM EC
• ACM e-Energy
• ACM Greenmetrics
• ACM MAMA
• ACM Sigmetrics
• AIStats
• COLT
• DCPerf
• ECQT
• IEEE ACC
• IEEE CDC
• IEEE ICDCS
• IEEE Green Computing
• IEEE MASCOTS
• IEEE SmartGridComm
• ICML
• ITC
• IFIP Performance
• INFORMS APS
• INFORMS MSOM
• Mascots
• NetCOOP
• NetEcon
• NeurIPS
• NSDI
• Reinforcement Learning in Networks & Queues
• WWW
• ValueTools