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Joan Boyar Professor Emerita, Ph.D.

I am a professor emerita of Computer Science in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science (IMADA) at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU), where I was employed from 1991 until the end of 2023.

Since receiving my Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley in 1983, I have worked at the University of Chicago and Loyola University Chicago, and held longer visiting positions at the University of Aarhus, the University of Toronto, the University of Wisconsin, Madison, the University of California, Irvine, and the University of Waterloo.

My primary research interests are online algorithms, combinatorial optimization, cryptology, Boolean functions, data structures, and computational complexity. I am currently a participant in the Online Algorithms with Machine Learning Predictors grant from Independent Research Fund Denmark, Natural Sciences. I am also member of the Digital Democracy Centre at the University of Southern Denmark.

I have had the pleasure of working with great colleagues, Danish as well as international, in addition to my Ph.D. students, nine of which continued in research after their graduation.

Through the years, I have spent considerable time on service for the department in councils, committees, and management, as well as for the community, most notably in the form of a four-year membership in the Danish Research Council for Natural Sciences.

I am currently chair of the organizing committe for a PhD Summer School to take place at SDU in Odense, July 1-4, 2025, titled Intersections of Algorithms and Machine Learning. This is for PhD students, Danish and internationally, having some background in design and analysis of algorithms and in basic probability. The three main topics are Algorithms with Predictions, Fundamentals of Machine Learning, and Prophet Inequalities. The other organizers are Kasper Green Larsen (AU), Nutan Limaye (ITU), Kevin Schewior (SDU), and Amir Yehudayoff (KU). It is supported by DIREC.