Postdoctoral Researcher
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
UC Berkeley
I am a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley, hosted by Michael I. Jordan. Previously, I was a PhD student at ETH Zurich in Florian Dörfler's research group. My current research lies at the intersection of optimization, statistics, and computation, addressing the challenges of optimal decision-making under uncertainty. This includes complex forms of uncertainty such as distribution shifts, rare events, and graph-structured correlations. My PhD work mainly focused on developing the foundations of distributionally robust optimization, with applications in high-dimensional estimation, automatic control, and energy markets. Earlier in my PhD, I worked on the stability and robustness of nonlinear systems, with applications to renewable-integrated power systems.
Stochastic and Robust Optimization, Asymptotic and High-Dimensional Statistics, Uncertainty Quantification, Optimal Transport, Control Theory
[1] L. Aolaritei, N. Lanzetti, H. Chen, F. Dörfler. “Distributional Uncertainty Propagation via Optimal Transport”. Accepted in IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control. ArXiv version: arxiv:2205.00343 (2025).
[2] S. Shafiee, L. Aolaritei, F. Dörfler, D. Kuhn. “Nash Equilibria, Regularization and Computation in Optimal Transport-Based Distributionally Robust Optimization”. Accepted in Operations Research. ArXiv version: arXiv:2303.03900 (2025).
[3] L. Aolaritei, S. Shafiee, F. Dörfler. “Wasserstein Distributionally Robust Estimation in High Dimensions: Performance Analysis and Optimal Hyperparameter Tuning”. Accepted in Mathematical Programming. ArXiv version: arxiv:2206.13269 (2025).
[4] L. Aolaritei, M.I. Jordan, R. Pathak, A. Ulichney. “Revisiting mean estimation over ℓp balls: Is the MLE optimal?”. Under review in The Annals of Statistics. ArXiv version: arxiv:2506.10354 (2025).
[5] S. Braun, L. Aolaritei, M.I. Jordan, F. Bach. “Minimum Volume Conformal Sets for Multivariate Regression”. Major Revision in Journal of the American Statistical Association (Theory and Methods). ArXiv version: arxiv:2503.19068 (2025).
Contact: liviu.aolaritei@berkeley.edu