dr. anna latour

dr. anna latour

she/her or they/them

scientist. feminist. trekkie.

CV

On this page you can find a short academic CV. For more details, please find me on LinkedIn.

CURRENT POSITION

I joined the Algorithmics group of the Department of Software Technology at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) as an assistant professor in June 2024. My research interests lie in combinatorial optimisation, propositional model counting (#SAT), constraint programming (CP), operations research (OR), and reasoning under uncertainty.

PREVIOUS POSITIONS

Post-doc at National University of Singapore

Before joining TU Delft, I worked as a Research Fellow in the Meel group at the School of Computing (SoC) of the National University of Singapore (NUS). Here, I worked on certification & verification, MaxSAT, and propositional model counting (#SAT).

PhD at Leiden University

I did my doctorate research at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS) of Leiden University, under supervision of prof. dr. Joost Kok (promotor), prof. dr. Holger Hoos (promotor) and dr. Siegfried Nijssen (co-promotor / daily advisor). During the entire period as a doctorate student, I was also a visiting researcher at the ICTEAM of Université catholique de Louvain, where I spent the first year of my PhD (2017). I worked with prof. dr. Fahiem Bacchus from the Knowledge Representation group at the University of Toronto, while I was a visiting researcher there from June to October of 2019.

The project I was hired on is called PROFIDDS (PRObabilistic Features for Intelligent Declarative Data Science), and was financed by an NWO TOP Grant, awarded to dr. Siegfried Nijssen.

My dissertation, Optimal decision-making under constraints and uncertainty, was accepted in March 2022. I defended it on 13 September 2022 and received my doctorate degree on that day.

PUBLICATIONS

See publications.

EDUCATION

AWARDS, SCHOLARSHIPS, GRANTS

2025: Veni 2024 research grant recipient for the project “Finding Variables that Matter”. I am receiving € 320 000 from NWO (Dutch Research Council) for fundamental research. Click here for more info.

2023: Travel grant, to visit the Simons Institute at UC Berkeley for a month, in order to attend the Extendend Reunion: Satisfiability. Grant covered travel, accommodation and food for one month.

2021: Outstanding Program Committee Member Award AAAI 2021, which was awarded to the 13 best reviewers. The AAAI-21 Program Committee: “Your efforts were characterised by exceptional care, thoroughness, and thoughtfulness in the reviews and discussions of the papers assigned to you.”

2019: Travel grant from Google to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration in Orlando, Florida.

2019: ICT.OPEN Pitch Prize for the best 3-minute elevator pitch, scored on content, clarity, and charisma. See here and here.

2018: Google’s Women Techmakers Scholars Program (formally known as the Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship Program) provides scholarships for students in computing and technology who identify as female, to encourage them to excel in their field, and to become active leaders and role models in computing and technology. I am deeply honoured to be one of the recipients of the scholarship.

2017: The KNVI (Koninklijke Nederlandse Vereniging voor Informatieprofessionals, or Royal Dutch Association for Information professionals) together with the KHMW (Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen, or Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities) each year awards three master students with a prize for their grades and their thesis. In order to win, your work not only has to be of excellent quality, it also has to be relevant and valuable to society. I received this award for the work I did at KU Leuven, which resulted in my Master thesis. The jury: “Despite the complexity of the material, Anna managed to write a thesis that is very pleasant to read, with clear arguments and explanations. The jury is impressed by the quality of the work and the way in which Anna conducted the research.”

Press releases can be found on the website of Leiden University and the website of KNVI. The full jury report can be downloaded from the website of KHMW. All of these are in Dutch. The thesis itself can be downloaded here.

2017: Travel grant for attending the Constraint Programming Conference in Melbourne, Australia.

2013: The Hugo van Woerden award is a prize that is given to young amateur astronomers that work to promote astronomy with children and youngsters. I received the award for the work I did for the Jongeren Werkgroep voor Sterrenkunde (JWG): a Dutch youth association for astronomy. Specifically, I received the award for the work I did to reinvent our astronomy magazine for children: Universum. The jury: “Anna’s dedication and vigour have permanently elevated Universum to a higher level.”

TEACHING

See teaching.

SERVICE

CO-ORGANISER

PROGRAM COMMITTEE MEMBER

REVIEWER

SUB-REVIEWER

MISCELLANEOUS

OTHER THINGS YOU MIGHT KNOW ME FROM

  • I am featured on a page to promote the first Informatics Ladies Day, organised in November 2017 by VHTO and Leiden University, and again in 2018.
  • I am a member of the programme committee of Leiden University’s Studium Generale.
  • In 2015 a bunch of awesome fellow students and I organised a scientific field trip to Boston and New York, for study association De Leidsche Flesch.
  • In 2014 a different bunch of awesome fellow students and I made a very special yearbook for De Leidsche Flesch. Leiden University’s weekly newspaper De Mare honoured our yearbook with the yearbook-of-the-year award, which consisted of free beer and life-long fame, of course. The theme? Ikea.