KAUST Ph.D. Student receives 2020 Ilya Segalovich Scientific Prize for Young Researchers

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By David Murphy

KAUST Ph.D. student Dmitry Kovalev has been named one of nine recipients of the 2020 Ilya Segalovich Scientific Prize for Young Researchers. Awarded by the Russian multinational corporation Yandex, Dmitry received the accolade for his “significant advances in computer science.”

Named after Yandex’s co-founder, Ilya Segalovich, the award focused on Dmitry’s work in the area of machine learning. The award also came with a cash prize of 350,000 RUB.

Prior to joining KAUST, he obtained his B.S degree ('18) in applied mathematics and physics from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Russia. After an initial one-month period spent as a visiting student under the supervision of Professor Peter Richtárik, Dmitry decided to take up his supervisor’s offer to join the University as a full-time M.S./Ph.D. student. He began his M.S. studies at KAUST in August 2018 before receiving his M.S. degree in computer science in December 2019.

“I decided to accept Prof. Richtárik’s offer because I believed KAUST would provide me with the opportunity to become a strong researcher,” Dmitry noted.

“My research at KAUST is dedicated chiefly to optimization and distributed and randomized optimization methods for machine learning. While studying here, I would like to become a strong researcher and publish as many high-quality papers as possible. After my time here, I would like to get a high-level job in research, if possible.”

In his short time at the University, Dmitry has co-authored twenty-three papers.

“In my opinion, Dmitry is one of the most talented young researchers to come out of Russia in recent years,” Richtárik emphasized. “His research is equal parts insightful, creative and deep.”