Pierre ALQUIER

Professor
department: Information Systems, Data Analytics and Operations
Campus de Singapour
Statistical Data Analysis – Probability Theory & Mathematical Statistics
Career
Biography

Pierre Alquier is a Professor at ESSEC Business School, in the Department of Information Systems, Data Analytics and Operations (IDO), since January 2023.

At ESSEC, he teaches introductory classes on statistics, data science and machine learning with Python and R, in various programs: BBA, Master in Finance, Master SMIB (Strategy and Management of International Business). He also teaches an advanced class on online learning and optimization for the ESSEC-Centrale-Supelec Master in Data Science and Business Analytics.

His research focuses on the statistical and theoretical aspects of machine learning in general, with special focus on approximate Bayesian methods, high-dimensional models, robust learning and learning with dependent observations. He published a monograph on statistical learning theory with PAC-Bayes bounds: User-friendly introduction to PAC-Bayes bounds, and edited a textbook on high-dimensional models in statistics and econometrics: Inverse Problems and High-Dimensional Estimation.

Pierre Alquier serves as an Action Editor for the Journal of Machine Learning Research and an Associate Editor for the Electronic Journal of Statistics. He is a member of the ALT Steering Committee in charge of the organization of the conference on Algorithmic Learning Theory (ALT) since 1990. He also served as an Action Editor for Transactions in Machine Learning Research, as a Senior Area Chair for ICML and as an Area Chair or Program Chair for major machine learning conferences such as ACML, AISTATS, ALT, COLT and NeurIPS.

Pierre holds a PhD from Sorbonne University, an M. Sc. in probability from Sorbonne University and a degree in statistics and econometrics from ENSAE Paris. Before joining ESSEC, he was a maître de conférences (assistant professor) at Paris Cité University, a lecturer at UCD Dublin, a Professor at ENSAE Paris and a research scientist at the Center for Advanced Intelligence Project of RIKEN, in Tokyo.

Diplomas

  • 2013: Habilitation à diriger des recherches (Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC) France)
  • 2006: PhD (mathematical statistics) (Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC) France)
  • 2003: MSc in Probability Theory and Statistics (Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC) France)
  • 2003: Diplôme de statisticien-économiste (L’École nationale de la statistique et de l’administration économique (ENSAE) France)
Career
Full-time academic appointments
    • 2023 – Now : Professor (ESSEC Business School Singapore)
Other appointments
    • 2019 – 2022 : Research scientist (RIKEN Japan)
Other Academic Appointments
    • 2014 – 2019 : Professor (L’École nationale de la statistique et de l’administration économique (ENSAE) France)
    • 2012 – 2014 : Lecturer (University College of Dublin Ireland)
    • 2007 – 2012 : Assistant Professor (Université Paris Diderot (Paris VII) France)
    • 2006 – 2007 : Teaching and Research Assistant (Université Paris Dauphine-PSL France)
Distinctions

Awards

  • 2019 : Best Paper Award (Asian Conference on Machine Learning, Japan)
Research

Journal articles

Conference Proceedings

Presentations at an Academic or Professional conference

Presentations at a Faculty research seminar

Invited speaker at an academic conference

Teaching

Thesis co-director

  • 2023 : Quelques contributions à la statistique des modèles dynamiques aléatoires (Université Paris X Nanterre France)
  • 2017 : Étude théorique de quelques procédures statistiques pour le traitement de données complexes (L’École nationale de la statistique et de l’administration économique (ENSAE) France)
Other activities
Research activities
  • Participation in scientific commissions or reviewer for a conference
    • 2025 – 2025: The 14th Workshop on High Dimensional Data Analysis (HDDA-XIV) – Member of the Scientific Committee (Central Michigan University United States of America)
    • 2025 – 2025: ICML 2025: Senior Area Chair (International Machine Learning Society (ICML) Canada)
    • 2025 – 2025: ALT 2025: PC chair (Association for Algorithmic Learning Theory (AALT) Italy)
    • 2025 – 2025: Bayes Comp 2025: Member of the Scientific program committee (National University of Singapore Singapore)
    • 2025 – 2025: 12th Days of Econometrics for Finance — Member of the scientific commiittee (Université Mohammed V Morocco)
    • 2025 – 2025: AISTATS 2025: Journal-to-conference track Chair (The Society for AI and Statistics )
    • 2025 – 2025: ICLR 2025: Workshop Chair (International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR) Singapore)
    • 2024 – 2024: COLT 2024: senior PC member (Association for Computational Learning (ACL) Canada)
    • 2024 – 2024: ALT 2024: senior PC member (Association for Algorithmic Learning Theory (AALT) United States of America)
    • 2023 – 2023: ACML 2023: PC chair (Asian Conference on Machine Learning Turkey)
    • 2023 – 2023: COLT 2023: senior PC member (Association for Computational Learning (ACL) India)
    • 2023 – 2023: ALT 2023: senior PC member (Association for Algorithmic Learning Theory (AALT) Singapore)
    • 2022 – 2022: NeurIPS 2022: AC (area chair) (Neural Information Processing Systems foundation United States of America)
    • 2022 – 2022: COLT 2022: PC chair (Association for Computational Learning (ACL) United Kingdom)
    • 2022 – 2022: AISTATS 2022: AC (area chair) (The Society for AI and Statistics )
    • 2021 – 2021: NeurIPS 2021: AC (area chair) (Neural Information Processing Systems foundation United States of America)
    • 2021 – 2021: ITISE 2021: PC chair (Universidad de Granada Spain)
    • 2020 – 2020: ALT 2020: PC chair (Association for Algorithmic Learning Theory (AALT) United States of America)
    • 2018 – 2018: JDS 2018: scientific committee member (Société Française de Statistique (SFdS) France)
    • 2016 – 2016: AISTATS 2016: publication chair (The Society for AI and Statistics Spain)
  • Function in an academic association
    • 2025 – 2028: Member of the ALT Steering Committee (Association for Algorithmic Learning Theory (AALT) )
  • Senior or Associate Editor
    • 2025 – Now: Associate Editor: The Electronic Journal of Statistics
    • 2022 – 2024: Action Editor: Transactions in Machine Learning Research
    • 2020 – Now: Action Editor: Journal of Machine Learning Research
  • Organization of a conference or a seminar
    • 2024 – 2024: The 13th Workshop on High Dimensional Data Analysis (HDDA-XIII) (ESSEC Business School Singapore)
    • 2024 – 2024: Interpretable Inference via Principled BNP Approaches in Biomedical Research and Beyond (National University of Singapore Singapore)
    • 2024 – 2024: CNRS@CREATE — ESSEC APAC workshop (ESSEC Business School Singapore)
    • 2024 – 2024: Approximate Inference in Theory and Practice Conference (Institut Henri Poincaré France)
  • Other academic activity
    • 2024 – Now: arXiv moderator (arXiv United States of America)
  • Member of an academic association
    • 2022 – Now: Member (European Mathematical Society (EMS) )
    • 2022 – Now: Member (Société Mathématique de France (SMF) France)
    • 2022 – Now: Member (Société de Mathématiques Appliquées et Industrielles (SMAI) France)
    • 2022 – Now: Member (Société Française de Statistique (SFdS) France)
    • 2014 – Now: Member (IMS – Bernoulli Society United States of America)
  • Editorial Board Membership
    • 2020 – 2022: Topic Advisory Panel: Entropy
Theses
  • 2019 : CAREL L. (L’École nationale de la statistique et de l’administration économique (ENSAE)), Thesis director, Big data analysis in the field of transportation
  • 2020 : CHÉRIEF-ABDELLATIF B.-E. (L’École nationale de la statistique et de l’administration économique (ENSAE)), Thesis director, Contributions to the theoretical study of variational inference and robustness
  • 2017 : COTTET V. (L’École nationale de la statistique et de l’administration économique (ENSAE)), Thesis co-director, Theoretical study of some statistical procedures applied to complex data
  • 2017 : MAI T. T. (L’École nationale de la statistique et de l’administration économique (ENSAE)), Thesis director, PAC-Bayesian estimation of low-rank matrices
  • 2023 : ROSIER A. (Université Paris X Nanterre), Thesis co-director, Contributions to statistics of stochastic processes