Chris Criscitiello
About me
I currently work as a quantitative researcher.
Before my current role, I was the departmental postdoctoral fellow in Statistics and Data Science at Wharton, University of Pennsylvania, mentored by Jason Altschuler.
I completed my PhD in mathematics at EPFL in the OPTIM group, led by Nicolas Boumal. My dissertation received EPFL’s 2025 Mathematics Doctoral Thesis Award.
My PhD and postdoc research focused on theoretical guarantees for nonconvex optimization, often motivated by problems from data science. Much of my work involves geometry in some way or another.
I studied mathematics at Princeton University. Between my bachelor’s and PhD, I worked at the fintech startup Rose Technologies, primarily consulting for Better Mortgage. During my PhD, I interned at Citadel Securities as a quantitative researcher, building models for high-frequency trading.
Outside of work, I enjoy hiking, climbing, bouldering, soccer, and woodworking.