Columbia Postdoc Kira Goldner Joins CDS
The Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences is pleased to announce the appointment of Kira Goldner as an assistant professor, beginning July 2021.
Goldner holds an NSF Mathematical Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowship and a Data Science Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship at Columbia University. Her research interests primarily lay in algorithmic mechanism design and approximation algorithms.
Goldner received her PhD in Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, advised by Anna Karlin. During her PhD, she received a 2017-19 Microsoft Research PhD Fellowship and a 2016-17 Google Anita Borg Scholarship.
In 2016, she began to shift focus to use these mathematical concepts to aid society, to not only improve access to opportunities and rights but also mitigate global harms. Since co-founding the Mechanism Design for Social Good initiative, her research has also focused on furthering the mathematical foundations of "mechanism design for social good," (for example, gains from trade and residual surplus) and domain specific questions (in healthcare, climate change, and privacy).
Goldner’s joining the Faculty bolsters CDS’s prioritization of Data Science for Good (DS4G). As the unit continues to grow, it provides the infrastructure and visibility necessary to expand BU’s research, programs and curricula centered on civic-minded technology.
“I am so excited to join CDS's truly interdisciplinary and impact-focused environment, and to be somewhere that recognizes the necessity in social-impact research of breaking down barriers and bridging disciplines. I'm also thrilled to join the ranks of the amazing BU faculty who are already pursuing intersections like "theoretical computer science and law," and I'm looking forward to similar future collaborations and directions!”
Join us in welcoming Kira Goldner to the Boston University community! Follow her on Twitter @kiragoldner