Tamara Broderick and Sertac Karaman promoted

We are thrilled to share terrific news for two LIDS faculty members: Tamara Broderick has been granted tenure by the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), and LIDS director Sertac Karaman has been promoted to Full Professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Tamara Broderick joined EECS in 2015; she is affiliated with the MIT Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS), the MIT Statistics and Data Science Center, and the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS). Broderick works in the fields of machine learning and statistics. Her research focuses on providing fast and reliable quantification of both uncertainty and robustness in complex data analysis procedures. Together with her research group and collaborators, she provides data analysis tools in areas ranging from genetics to economics to assistive technology. Broderick earned her Ph.D. in Statistics at the University of California, Berkeley in 2014. Previously, she received an AB in Mathematics from Princeton University, a Master of Advanced Study for completion of Part III of the Mathematical Tripos from the University of Cambridge, an MPhil by research in Physics from the University of Cambridge, and an MS in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley. Among many other honors, Broderick has been awarded selection to the COPSS Leadership Academy (2021), an Early Career Grant (ECG) from the Office of Naval Research (2020), the Ruth and Joel Spira Award for Distinguished Teaching (2020), the Junior Bose Award (2019), an NSF CAREER Award (2018), a Sloan Research Fellowship (2018), an Army Research Office Young Investigator Program (YIP) award (2017), the Jerome H. Saltzer Award (2017), Google Faculty Research Awards, and an Amazon Research Award.

Sertac Karaman’s research interests lie in the broad areas of robotics and control theory. In particular, he studies the applications of probability theory, stochastic processes, stochastic geometry, formal methods, and optimization for the design and analysis of high-performance cyber-physical systems. The application areas of his research include driverless cars, unmanned aerial vehicles, distributed aerial surveillance systems, air traffic control, certification and verification of control systems software, and many others. He obtained B.S. degrees in mechanical engineering and in computer engineering from the Istanbul Technical University, Turkey, in 2007; an S.M. degree in mechanical engineering from MIT in 2009; and a Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering and computer science also from MIT in 2012. He delivered the Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS) Early Career Spotlight Talk in 2017. He is the recipient of an Amazon Faculty Award in 2020, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Early Career Award in 2017, an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award in 2017, Army Research Office Young Investigator Award in 2015, National Science Foundation Faculty Career Development (CAREER) Award in 2014, AIAA Wright Brothers Graduate Award in 2012, and an NVIDIA Fellowship in 2011. He serves as the technical area chair for the Transactions on Aerospace Electronic Systems for the robotics area, a co-chair of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Technical Committee of Algorithms for the Planning and Control of Robot Motion. He serves on the RSS Foundation Board and acts as the Secretary of the RSS Foundation. He is also co-founder of Optimus Ride, a Boston-based MIT-spinoff startup company that developed self-driving vehicle technologies to enable accessible, equitable, safe and sustainable mobility for all, and was acquired by Magna in 2021.