About me

I am a postdoctoral researcher at the QMATH Centre of the University of Copenhagen, where I work with Matthias Christandl, through August 2026.

In September 2026, I will start as an Assistant Professor of Geometry (Professor Auxiliar) at the Department of Mathematics of the University of Porto.

Previously, I worked at Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in Amsterdam, under the supervision of Monique Laurent. I received my doctoral degree from the Universität Konstanz, under the supervision of Markus Schweighofer.

My research applies techniques from algebraic geometry and semidefinite optimization to tensor problems. Tensor geometry has a rich scope of applications, including algebraic statistics, polynomial optimization and quantum information theory.

On the side of pure mathematics, I am interested in generic ranks and identifiability of secant varieties, and in algorithms for invariant tensor decomposition models.

Samples, which follow a Gaussian mixture distribution.

On the side of applications, Gaussian mixtures have been a central theme in my research, and I am particularly interested in the problems of identifiability and parameter recovery for mixture distributions. It is particularly fascinating to me, how classical subjects of 19th and 20th century geometry, such as the theory of Waring decompositions and sum-of-squares representations, are applied in cutting-edge algorithms and recovery results for high-dimensional estimation problems.

Recent research

In recent work with Benjamin Lovitz, we give a linear-time algorithm for low-rank Chow decompositions, based on matrix pencils, together with subquadratic extensions for higher-order and nongeneric decompositions. In work with Alex Casarotti, we study defectivity of joins and reducible secant varieties, obtaining new cases of Fröberg’s conjecture and applications to mixture distributions and partition ranks.

Our earlier paper on nondefectivity of invariant secant varieties resolves many cases of the Baur–Draisma–de Graaf conjecture, proves identifiability for a large class of tensor varieties and gives bounds on generic ranks.

In our nondefectivity paper, we showed that the distance between the generic \(X\)-rank \(m_g\) and the maximum nondefective rank \(m_0\) is bounded by \(m_g - m_0 \le \dim X - 1\) for many tensor varieties \(X\). In the figure, \(X\) is a Segre–Veronese variety.

On the optimization side, my work with Monique Laurent on moment-sos and spectral hierarchies appeared in the SIAM Journal on Optimization in 2026. My results on Gaussian mixture identifiability from degree 6 moments and power sum decomposition appeared in 2025. See the publications page for the complete list.