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General Information

Full name Alessandro Zocca
Current position Tenured assistant professor

Experience

  • 2019-present
    Assistant Professor
    Department of Mathematics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
    • chair of the departmental outreach committee
    • member of the departmental internship committee
  • 2017-2019
    Postdoctoral researcher
    California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, US
  • 2017-2019
    Postdoctoral researcher
    Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica, Amsterdam
    • advised by Bert Zwart
    • supported by NWO VICI grant ''Rare events: Asymptotics, Algorithms, Applications''

Education

Honors, awards, and grants

  • 2015
    • Applied Probability Trust award for the best PhD thesis in applied probability
  • 2017
    • NWO Rubicon grant (€135.000, 2 years of postdoc funding, ref. 680.50.1529) for the project: Renewables and uncertainty in future power systems: Mathematical challenges and solutions

Academic interests

  • applied probability
    • rare events on networks
    • rare-event sampling methods
    • random graph models
    • interacting particle systmes
  • network optimization and control
    • multi-agent reinforcement learning
    • optimal network design
  • main applications
    • power grids reliability
    • power grids resilience against climate extremes
    • electricity markets
    • robust ship design

Other interests

  • Hobbies: Swimming, cycling, running - living the triathlon dream!