I am a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications at the University of Minnesota.

I completed my Ph.D. in July of 2011 under the direction of Dr. Stephen Vavasis in the Department of Combinatorics and Optimization at the University of Waterloo.

I previously studied at the University of Guelph where I obtained a M.Sc. in Applied Mathematics (completed under the direction of Dr. Hristo Sendov) and B.Sc. in Mathematics.

My research interests include convex analysis, matrix analysis, semidefinite programming, and their applications to nonlinear optimization. In particular, my current focus is on relaxation of combinatorial optimization problems arising from applications in information retrieval and data mining.

Please follow the links above for preprints of recent publications, slides of talks, etc.

I was the organizer of the IMA Postdoc Seminar for the Fall 2012 semester. The seminar is usually held Tuesday afternoons at 3:30pm in Lind Hall 305. Please follow this link for the full seminar schedule for the Spring 2013 semester.

If you would like to contact me, my email is bpames (at) ima (dot) umn (dot) edu and my office is Lind Hall Room 352.

Last updated: March 16, 2013.