Master/PhD/Postdoc projects.

We are seeking candidates for the following research projects:
  • Postdoc at NTU Singapore (Starting anytime): Moment Methods for Fokker-Planck Equations, supervised by Jean-Bernard Lasserre, Victor Magron, Olga Mula (TU Eindhoven), Kim Chuan Toh (NUS, Singapore) and Jun Zhao (NTU, Singapore). Please see the following description.
  • Master 2 internship at ICFO Barcelone or LAAS CNRS (Starting 2024): Tensor and polynomial optimisation for quantum information, supervised by Antonio Acin (ICFO) and Victor Magron (LAAS CNRS). Please see the following description.
  • Master 2 internship at LAAS CNRS (Starting 2024): Approximation hierarchies for quantum entanglement detection, supervised by Monique Laurent (CWI) and Victor Magron (LAAS CNRS). Please see the following description.
  • Master/PhD at NUS Singapore (Starting anytime): Christoffel-Darboux kernels with applications in deep learning explainability, supervised by Abhik Roychoudhury (NUS Singapore), Jean-Bernard Lasserre and Victor Magron. Please see the following description.

Projects/Grants.

  • QUANTERA project COMPUTE (nonCommutative polynOMial oPtimisation for qUanTum nEtworks). Period: 2024-2026. Project leader: Marc-Olivier Renou (INRIA Saclay). Other participants: Xiangling Xu (INRIA Saclay), Mariami Gachechiladze, David Gross, Anna Schroeder (TU Darmstadt), Victor Magron (LAAS CNRS), Igor Klep, Aljaž Zalar (Univ. Ljubljana), Antonio Acín, Enky Oudot, Hippolyte Dourdent (ICFO).
  • Allocation of 120 000 CPU hours on the computing platform CALMIP for the project FastPOP (Fast Polynomial OPtimization). Period: 2023-2024. Project leader: Victor Magron. Other participants: Adrien Le Franc (LAAS CNRS), Jie Wang (Academy of Sciences, Beijing).
  • European Commission Marie Sklodowska-Curie Doctoral Network TENORS (Tensor modEliNg, geOmetRy and optimiSation). Period: 2024-2027. Project leader: Bernard Mourrain (INRIA Sophia, Nice). Partners: Monique Laurent (CWI-NWO Amsterdam), Salma Kuhlmann (Univ Konstanz), Bernd Sturmfels (MPI Leipzig), Alessandra Bernardi (Univ. Trento), Giorgio Ottaviani (Univ. Florence), Cordian Riener (Univ. Tromsoe), Jakub Marecek (Czech Tech. Univ. Prague), Antonio Acin (ICFO Barcelona), Michael Gabay (Artelys France).
  • PNRIA 1stOrder. Period: 2023. Funded by the national program of research in artificial intelligence (PNRIA). Project led by Jean-Bernard Lasserre, Victor Magron and Edouard Pauwels. Other participants: Elliot Maitre (IRIT, supporting research engineer). Topic: First-order convex optimization for deep learning.
  • CIMI Research Project EPOQCS. Period: 2021-2023. Funded by the International Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science in Toulouse (CIMI). Project leader: Victor Magron. Other participants: Y. Ebihara, I. Klep, M. Maggio, I. Nechita, D. Peaucelle, J. Povh, A. Rantzer, H. Waki, J. Wang. Topic: Efficient Polynomial Optimization for Quantum and Control Systems.
  • Co-PI of the hybrid AI project between France and Singapore DesCartes. Period: 2021-2026. A CREATE Programme on AI-based Decision making in Critical Urban Systems. Project Director: Francisco Chinesta. Topic: Polynomial and stochastic optimization with applications to deep networks.
  • Post-doctoral Fellowship FastQI. Period: 2021-2023. Funded by the institute Quantum technologies in Occitanie. Project leader: Victor Magron. Other participants: Antonio Acin (ICFO). Topic: Fast Polynomial optimization techniques for Quantum Information.
  • CIMI Post-doctoral Fellowship QOC. Period: 2021-2023. Funded by the International Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science in Toulouse (CIMI). Project leader: Nicolas Augier. Other participants: Milan Korda, Jean-Bernard Lasserre, Victor Magron. Topic: Quantum Optimal Control.
  • PEPS2 research collaboration between LAAS and RTE FastOPF. Period: 2021-2022. Funded by the French Agency for mathematics in interaction with industry and society (AMIES). Project leader: Victor Magron. Other participants from LAAS: Jean-Bernard Lasserre, Hoang Ngoc Anh Mai, Jie Wang. Participants from RTE: Jean Maeght, Patrick Panciatici and Manuel Ruiz. Topic: Fast polynomial optimization techniques for Optimal Power Flow.
  • Bilateral research collaboration between France and Slovenia QUANTPOP. Period: 2021-2022. Funded by Partenariat Hubert Curien (PHC) Proteus. Project leader: Victor Magron. Other participants from France: Ion Nechita (CNRS IRSAMC). Participants from Slovenia: Igor Klep and Janez Povh (University of Ljubljana). Topic: QUANTum information with noncommutative Polynomial OPtimization.
  • International mobility grant at LTH, Sweden POPSIC. Period: 2021. Funded by the International Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science in Toulouse (CIMI). Project leader: Victor Magron. Participants from LTH: Anders Rantzer, Martina Maggio, Richard Pates, Pauline Kergus. Topic: Polynomial OPtimization for Scalability In Control.
  • Artificial and Natural Intelligence Toulouse Institute ANITI. Period: 2019 - 2023. Polynomial optimization for Machine Learning. Chair: Jean-Bernard Lasserre. Topic: optimization for Machine Learning and the Christoffel function for data analysis.
  • Polynomial Optimization, Efficiency through Moments and Algebra POEMA. Period: 2019 - 2022. Funded by European Commission Marie Sklodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network. Project leader: Bernard Mourrain.
  • Tremplin-ERC Starting Grant COPS. Period: 2019 - 2020. Funded by the French national research agency (ANR). Project leader: Victor Magron. Topic: certification and modeling of polynomial optimization problems.
  • PGMO (Projet Gaspard Monge for Optimization) EPICS. Period: 2018 - 2021. Funded by the Gaspard Monge Program for Optimization and operationnal research, Fondation Jacques Hadamard. Project leader: Victor Magron. Participants: Victor Magron, Thao Dang (CNRS VERIMAG, Grenoble) and Jean-Charles Faugère (INRIA Polsys, Paris). Topic: Exact Polynomial optimization with Innovative Certifed Schemes.
  • Projet Exploratoire Persyval-Lab AEPS. Period: January 2016 - September 2017. Funded by the French program Investissement d'avenir (ANR-11-LABX-0025-01). Project leader: Victor Magron. Participants: Victor Magron (CNRS Verimag, Grenoble), Bruno Gaujal (INRIA Mescal/CNRS Lig, Grenoble) and Panayotis Mertikopoulos (CNRS Lig, Grenoble). Topic: Algorithmes efficaces de programmation semidéfinie pour l'optimisation stochastique.
  • PEPS-JCJC (Projet Exploratoire Pluridisciplinaire Jeunes Chercheurs) ACE. Period: January 2016 - December 2016. Funded by the French CNRS Institute of Information Sciences (INS2I). Project leader: Delphine Bresch-Pietri (CNRS Gipsa-Lab, Grenoble). Topic: Analysis and Control of Partial Differential Equations.

Interesting Solved/Unsolved Conjectures.

  • Generalized Lax Conjecture: “Every hyperbolicity cone is spectrahedral”. For more details, see the slides by Tim Netzer.


  • Kepler Conjecture: “The maximal density of sphere packings in 3D-space is π/√18”.
    The formal verification project of the conjecture was completed on August 10, 2014.


  • Reformulation of Bessis-Moussa-Villani (BMV) Conjecture by Lieb and Seiringer: “For all positive semidefinite matrices A and B and all positive integer m, the single variable polynomial p(t) = trace((A + tB)m) has only nonnegative coefficients“. A proof of the conjecture by Herbert R Stahl is available here.


  • The MUB conjecture: construct a set of at least 4 mutually unbiased bases in dimension six. See here for more details on MUBs. Finding a correct answer to this problem will be rewarded by the Golden KCIK Award established by the National Quantum Information Centre (KCIK) in Poland.