Nicolas Le Roux

About

I got my PhD in 2008 from University of Montreal where I worked with Yoshua Bengio on neural networks in general and their optimisation in particular. I then moved to Microsoft Research Cambridge to work on generative models of images with John Winn.

In 2010, I joined Inria in Francis Bach’s team to work on large-scale convex optimisation and stochastic variance reduction methods, for which I was a co-recipient of the Lagrange prize in 2018. From 2012 to 2017, I created and managed the research team at Criteo in Paris, developing the research agenda and matching research areas to business needs. From 2017 to 2021, I created and led the optimization coalition in Google Brain Montreal, working at the intersection of optimization and reinforcement learning, while also leading multiple initiatives to address cultural and well-being issues within the Brain team.

I am now interested in model reusability and decentralization of power, i.e. how we can shift design decisions from a central entity to the consumer.

I am a CIFAR AI Chair and an associate editor for TPAMI, as well as also an adjunct professor at McGill and University of Montreal.