Brown CS News

The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) and American multinational technology company IBM jointly present the SIAM/IBM Early Career Research Award to recognize an individual in the field of data science who has made outstanding, influential, and lasting contributions within ten years of receiving a PhD. This year’s recipient is Brown CS visiting scientist and PhD alum Matteo Riondato (now at Amherst College), who was advised by Rush C. Hawkins Professor of Computer Science Eli Upfal. Matteo received the award at the 2025 SIAM International Conference on Data Mining (SDM) in May in Alexandria, Virginia.

Matteo develops algorithms for knowledge discovery, data mining, and machine learning, focusing on scalable and statistically sound methods for analyzing rich datasets like graphs and time series. His work bridges theoretical rigor and real-world utility, advancing the frontiers of data science. He received an NSF CAREER Award in 2023 and has earned best-of-conference honors at several premier data mining venues. His research trajectory includes prior positions as a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University and as a research scientist at Two Sigma.

“Matteo is an outstanding data mining researcher with an impressive track record of balancing deep theoretical analysis and useful, practical considerations to create impactful algorithms for important problems,” says Jilles Vreeken of the CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security, who nominated him for the award. “I am particularly enamored by Matteo's high-quality research on statistically sound knowledge discovery: he leads the way towards next-generation data mining methods by combining knowledge discovery techniques with recent developments in statistical hypothesis testing, ensuring the scalability and applicability of theory and methods to real-world problems.”

Reflecting on the recognition, Matteo says, “I’m extremely honored to receive this award, as many previous winners have been a source of inspiration for my research. It would not have been possible without my mentors, including my PhD advisor Eli Upfal, my collaborators, and my students, including Brown CS PhD student Maryam Abuissa, and the undergraduate researchers in my group, the Amherst College Data Mammoths.”

For more information, click the link that follows to contact Brown CS Communications Manager Jesse C. Polhemus.