Summary

I’m a Lecturer in the School of Computer Science at the University of St Andrews. My research interests are broadly in algorithms for data science and machine learning and I always aim to develop theoretically sound algorithms which work well in practice.

Previously I was a PhD student and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Edinburgh working with He Sun, and I spent a semester at the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing at UC Berkeley.

Please see my research page to learn more about what I work on.

I have a fully-funded PhD studentship available, with a likely start-date of September 2025. The application deadline is 1st March 2025.

If you are interested in studying for a PhD with me, please email me with an outline research proposal describing the problem area you would like to work on. Paricular areas of interest are:

• Nearest-neighbour search algorithms
• Hierarchical clustering
• Dynamic algorithms
• Numerical linear algebra
• Any other project in the area of algorithmic data science and machine learning.

A good research proposal would likely focus on one of these areas (or some other related topic). The full application process is described here, and you should read the guidelines on writing a research proposal in order to help prepare your application.

To be successful, you will need to have a strong interest in the mathematical analysis of algorithms, knowledge of topics in discrete mathematics and linear algebra, and some familiarity with existing algorithms for data analysis and machine learning.

Contact

Please feel free to get in touch at prm4@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Alternatively, you can also find me in the real world.

0.21a Jack Cole Building
π Potato Ave.
St Andrews, UK
KY16 9SX