Rate My Professor Jim Ostrowski

James Ostrowski is the Dan Doulet Faculty Fellow and Professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he serves as Associate Department Head and Director of Graduate Studies. He holds a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering and an M.S. in Management Science from Lehigh University, M.A. degrees in Mathematics and Statistics from Miami University, and a B.A. in Mathematics, Statistics, and Economics from Miami University. After completing his doctorate in 2009, Ostrowski was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, Illinois, and at the University of Waterloo in Canada. He joined the University of Tennessee as Assistant Professor in 2012, advancing to Associate Professor and later Professor.

Ostrowski's research specializes in integer programming, stochastic programming, nonlinear programming, combinatorial optimization, power systems, scheduling problems, and energy markets, with recent extensions to quantum computing. His seminal contributions include developing orbital branching techniques to exploit symmetry in integer programs, enabling tighter bounds and solutions to previously intractable instances. Key publications are 'Tight mixed integer linear programming formulations for the unit commitment problem' (2011, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 573 citations), 'Orbital branching' (2011, Mathematical Programming, 204 citations), 'On mixed integer programming formulations for the unit commitment problem' (2020, INFORMS Journal on Computing, 299 citations), 'Multi-angle quantum approximate optimization algorithm' (2022, Scientific Reports, 182 citations), and 'Parameter transfer for quantum approximate optimization of weighted maxcut' (2023, ACM Transactions on Quantum Computing, 146 citations). He shared the 2014 INFORMS Computing Society Prize with Jeff Linderoth, Fabrizio Rossi, and Stefano Smriglio for symmetry-handling advancements in combinatorial optimization. Ostrowski received the Tickle College of Engineering Professional Promise in Research Award in 2020. His team placed sixth among 18 finalists in the U.S. Department of Energy ARPA-E Grid Optimization Competition in 2022, securing a $200,000 contract for grid scheduling software incorporating renewables. He contributes to the Quantum Entanglement Science and Technology Hub, AI Tennessee Initiative, and Bredesen Center Energy Science and Engineering program.