Dr. Samory Kpotufe

Biography

Samory Kpotufe is a Professor in the Department of Statistics at Columbia University, specializing in statistical machine learning theory. He graduated in September 2010 with a degree in Computer Science from the University of California, San Diego, mentored by Sanjoy Dasgupta. He has worked as a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, where he was part of Bernhard Schoelkopf's department in the learning theory group under Ulrike von Luxburg. Kpotufe spent a few years as an Assistant Research Professor at the Toyota Technological Institute in Chicago and later served as an Assistant Professor at Princeton University in the Operations Research and Financial Engineering department for four years. In Spring 2019, he officially joined Columbia University after a visiting membership at the Institute of Advanced Study in Spring 2020. His research primarily focuses on understanding the performance limits of modern machine learning problems, especially through the lens of nonparametric methods like kNN, trees, and density-based clustering. He is involved in various professional activities, including serving as a co-Chair at the Foundations of Data Science and holding several editorial positions in esteemed statistical journals.

Research Interests