Positions at the University of Chicago

About me


My name is Tian Li. I received my PhD in Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in August 2023. I got my undergraduate degrees in CS and Economics at Peking University in 2018. I will be joining the University of Chicago CS Department (and Data Science Institute) as an Assistant Professor starting summer 2024. My research is generally around (algorithmic approaches for):

• distributed/robust/private/convex optimization
• federated and collaborative learning
• trustworthy (fair/robust/private) machine learning in different contexts

I care about a nice balance between theory and practice. A minimum requirement of each project is to provide useful insights for experts in the community.


Personal website to know more about my research: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~litian/ 


I have 1-3 PhD/Postdoc openings as well as some research internship positions available (official start date is 2024 Fall for PhD students). If you are interested, feel free to drop me an email at litian@cs.cmu.edu or litian@uchicago.edu, and apply through the official system when it's open (for PhD applicants).


What I can provide:

• world-class training to be a good researcher 

• exceptional environments and enough freedom for you to explore your interests 
• comprehensive support for career development, including but not limited to travel support, collaboration with top researchers in academic and industry, job search help, and nominating for different kinds of awards/honors

What I expect from you:

• strong technical background with solid coding/maths skills in related areas
• good communication skills

• stay motivated, curious, honest, and passionate

What I DON’T need:

• exact alignment of research interests
• not-so-useful statistics such as the number of papers, GPA, etc

Why UChicago

• Top private university with lots of resources
• Top and fast-growing CS department and Data Science institute (this year's hiring: https://cs.uchicago.edu/news/uchicago-cs-to-welcome-nine-new-faculty-members-over-the-next-two-academic-years)
• Great AI/ML communities involving the Stats Department, Business School, departments of other sciences, Argonne National Lab, TTIC, and Northwestern

Is the final decision made by admission or professors?

Hi Professor Li, I have sent an application email to your email. Thank you for consideration! My email address is dav***415@gmail.com

Dear Professor Li, I wish to express my gratitude for considering my application, which I have submitted to both your email addresses. My contact email is t3****@ucsd.edu. Thank you for your kind attention.