Michael Dinitz

Michael Dinitz is an associate professor of computer science with a secondary appointment in Applied Mathematics and Statistics. An expert in theoretical computer science, he is known for his research on approximation algorithms, online algorithms, distributed algorithms, and the theory of networking.

His work ranges from the purely theoretical to applications of theory, with a focus on computer networking and distributed systems. Much of his theoretical work has centered on approximation algorithms, particularly problems involving distances, such as graph spanners and distance oracles.  For his more applied work, together with colleagues specializing in computer systems, he recently designed a novel data center architecture, Xpander, that significantly outperforms both traditional and proposed next-generation data center designs. He has also used theoretical insights to help design the algorithms and architecture for resilient routing on overlay networks, enabling new internet services with extremely demanding timeliness and reliability requirements.

Dinitz’s research has been published more than 40 times in leading conferences and journals and has been supported by a number of National Science Foundation grants, including a CRII grant, Algorithms in the Field grant, and an Algorithmic Foundations grant. He is the recipient of an ICDCS (International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems) Best Paper Award and JHU’s Professor Joel Dean Excellence in Teaching Award, which recognizes faculty members who have exhibited extraordinary performance in teaching undergraduates. As a graduate student, he was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and an ARCS (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists) Scholarship.

He is currently an associate editor for ACM Transactions on Algorithms and has served on the program committees of many computer science theory conferences. Dinitz also serves as Diversity Champion for the Department of Computer Science at Johns Hopkins and chairs the Computer Science Committee on Diversity and Inclusion. He is a member of JHU’s Algorithms and Complexity group.

He earned his undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Princeton University in 2005 and his PhD from Carnegie Mellon University in 2010. Prior to joining Johns Hopkins as an assistant professor in 2014, he spent four years as a postdoctoral fellow at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel.