A/Prof Matthew Tam awarded the JH Michell Medal
University of Melbourne Associate Professor Matthew Tam has received the Australian Mathematical Society (AustMS) JH Michell Medal for outstanding new researchers.
A/Prof Tam has a sustained track record of research excellence and is recognised, both nationally and internationally, as an emerging leader in the field of Mathematical Optimisation. Relative to career stage, A/Prof Tam’s publication record is outstanding: 70% of his publications appear in Q1 journals and among them are numerous outputs in the most prestigious optimisation journals such as Mathematical Programming, SIAM Journal on Optimisation and Mathematics of Operations Research.
A/Prof Tam’s specific expertise lies in the development, analysis and application of iterative algorithms for solving optimisation problems, particularly those which use gradient information. His work straddles the interplay between provable algorithmic guarantees, efficient computation and exploiting problem structure. A striking aspect of A/Prof Tam’s research is the number of genuinely new optimisation techniques he has been responsible for (as opposed to modifications or new analyses of existing algorithms).
The quality of A/Prof Tam’s work has been repeatedly recognised by numerous awards with excellence-based criteria including the 2021 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research, the 2018 Mahony–Neumann–Room Prize for best publication in the ANZIAM Journal, and the 2015 B.H. Neumann Prize from the AustMS.
A/Prof Tam has received significant competitive funding from multiple major funding bodies in Australia and Germany including from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the German Research Foundation and the Australian Research Council. A/Prof Tam has supervised 10 postgraduate students to completion, and currently supervises another 5 students in addition to a postdoc.
A/Prof Tam has made significant contributions to ANZIAM, most notably through service on the national executive (2018 to present) and as the current elected chair of its optimisation special interest group SigmaOpt. In the past he has held the roles of Web Editor, Victorian Representative, and (interim) Early Career Representative.