ERC Advanced Grant for Fedor Fomin

Fedor Fomin is one of three Norwegian researchers who received the prestigious five-year funding from the EU this year.

In his new project, "New Horizons of Parameterized Complexity" (NewPC), Fomin will conduct research on parameterized complexity. His goal is to revolutionize how computers solve problems involving geometric and algebraic objects such as points, vectors, linear spaces, or matrices.

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"I hope this project can move the field beyond the so-called classical 'worst-case analysis'," says Fomin.

"Many algorithms that are theoretically difficult actually perform very well in practice. Hopefully, we will develop a better understanding of such problems and improve the performance of these algorithms.”

An ERC Advanced Grant is a major achievement in itself, but Fedor Fomin is only the third researcher in Norway to receive this award twice. The first time was from 2011 to 2016, when he received 2.2 million euros to research heuristic algorithms for improving datasets.

When the news became public, there was naturally a celebration at The Department of Informatics.

As well as cake and drinks, there was also a congratulatory speech by Dean Gunn Mangerud.

“Most of the ERC advanced grants go to research groups and environments which are already very strong, like the algorithms group. We know from experience that they are not only important to the scientists themselves, but to their colleagues,” says Mangerud.

“On behalf of the faculty, I would like to say that we are very proud of you and your colleagues!”

Fomin has distinguished himself in his field for many years. The European Association for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS) named him a fellow in 2019 for his fundamental contributions to parameterized complexity and exponential algorithms. In 2023, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) also named him a fellow.