Faculty

Christopher Umans

Professor of Computer Science; William M. Coughran Jr. Leadership Chair, Department of Computing and Mathematical Sciences; Executive Officer for Computing and Mathematical Sciences

Degrees and Appointments

B.A., Williams College, 1996; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 2000. Assistant Professor, Caltech, 2002-08; Associate Professor, 2008-10; Professor, 2010-; EAS Division Deputy Chair, 2018-20; Executive Officer, 2020-; Coughran Leadership Chair, 2022-.

Research Overview

Professor Umans is interested in theoretical computer science, and especially computational complexity. He enjoys problems with an algebraic flavor, and this often leads to research questions in derandomization and explicit combinatorial constructions, algebraic algorithms, coding theory, and hardness of approximation.

List of Research Areas

computational complexity, randomness in computation, algebraic complexity and algorithms, hardness of approximation

EAS News about Christopher Umans

Coughran Leadership Chair Amplifies Research and Teaching in Computing and Mathematical Sciences »

American Institute of Mathematics Moves to Caltech »

Ching-Yun (Chloe) Hsu Receives 2017 Henry Ford II Scholar Award »

Read more news about Christopher Umans »