Ton Dieker, assistant professor in the Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering, has been awarded the prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award. The NSF offers Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education, and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations.

Dieker received the award for his research project “Stochastic Processes in High Dimensions: from Asymptotic Analysis to Algorithms”, which aims to devise and study algorithms for large-scale random systems where direct computation is infeasible despite today's ever-increasing availability and affordability of computing resources. If successful, the results of this research will lead to effective algorithms for large-scale random systems, along with accompanying qualitative insights and mathematical performance analysis. The results will for instance help in computing probabilities of rare, but significant events. They will also help in understanding and managing large-scale service systems. Furthermore, they will aid in improving internal efficiencies in large-scale computer systems, which becomes ever more important in the face of rising energy costs and associated environmental impact.

Dieker was recently awarded the Erlang Prize at the 2012 INFORMS Annual Conference for his contributions to the theory of stochastic processes, stochastic networks, and stochastic analysis of algorithms. Some of Dieker’s research on stochastic networks is showcased in his computer game "Theme Park" for high school students, which aims to raise student awareness for the role of engineering and mathematics in our daily lives. Dieker defended his Ph.D. thesis “Extremes and fluid queues” at the University of Amsterdam in 2006. He came to Georgia Tech from the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center. Prior to that, he worked at the University College Cork, Ireland, as a postdoctoral researcher.