Dzung Phan

I am a Senior Research Scientist at IBM Research, based at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in New York. My research lies at the intersection of optimization theory and algorithms, quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and operations research. My current interests include AI for mathematics and optimization, optimization for quantum computing, nonconvex and sparse optimization, stochastic optimization, anomaly detection, data-driven decision making, and optimization for power and energy systems.

My research has been translated into several IBM products and platforms, including Asset Investment Planning for IBM Maximo, anomaly detection for SROM, production optimization solutions, and dispatching and scheduling for IBM Maximo. My work on AI for optimization has also contributed to synthetic data generation for optimization modeling used in the training of IBM Granite 4.0.

At IBM, I currently serve as Subtheme Co-Lead for AI for Mathematics and Optimization, a role I have held since 2025, and previously co-led the Resource Planning and Optimization subtheme from 2022 to 2023. I serve on the editorial board of Computational Optimization and Applications. I am a two-time recipient of the IBM Pat Goldberg Memorial Best Paper Award: in 2013 for work on global optimization for the optimal power flow problem, and in 2023 for work on variance-reduction methods for stochastic gradient algorithms. I have also been recognized as an IBM Master Inventor since 2021.

I received my Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from the University of Florida in 2010 under the supervision of Prof. William W. Hager, an M.S. in Computational Engineering from the National University of Singapore in 2004, and a B.S. in Mathematics from Vietnam National University, Hanoi, in 2001.