A 12-year veteran of Georgia Tech, Vigoda is a former associate chair for the School of Computer Science and teaches courses in the Algorithms, Combinatorics and Optimization (ACO) Ph.D. program. His research interests include Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods and phase transitions in statistical physics.

“Eric is the perfect person for this role,” said School of Computer Science Chair Lance Fortnow. “With his longtime commitment to ARC and his intimate knowledge of randomized algorithms, he’s ideally suited for this role.”

Vigoda has been part of ARC since its founding in 2006 by Professor Santosh Vempala. With this new appointment, Vigoda hopes to elevate the center’s presence and continue the innovative programs and research that ARC has initiated.

“It is a great honor to accept this new role and increase my involvement with the center,” said Vigoda. “I look forward to building on the success of previous ARC directors – Professors Dana Randall, Prasad Tetali, and Santosh Vempala.”

Vigoda completed his Ph.D. in Computer Science in 1999 at the University of California at Berkeley. He then held postdoctoral positions at University of Edinburgh and the Weizmann Institute, before starting as an assistant professor at the University of Chicago in 2002. Vigoda joined Georgia Tech as an associate professor in 2004.

ARC identifies and works to understand and solve problems with natural connections to algorithms and randomness. Vigoda takes on his new role as the ARC’s most recent director, Dana Randall, becomes the co-director of Georgia Tech’s new Institute for Data Engineering and Science (IDEaS).

For more information about ARC, please visit the ARC website.