Alistair Sinclair

Research Areas

Theory (THY)
Randomized algorithms; applied probability; statistical physics

Research Centers

Center for the Theoretical Foundations of Learning, Inference, Information, Intelligence, Mathematics and Microeconomics at Berkeley (CLIMB)
Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing (SITC)

Teaching Schedule

Fall 2024

CS 271. Randomness and Computation, TuTh 09:30-10:59, Soda 310

Spring 2025

CS 174. Combinatorics and Discrete Probability, TuTh 09:30-10:59, Soda 310

Biography

Alistair Sinclair received his B.A. in Mathematics from St. John's College, University of Cambridge in 1979, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Edinburgh in 1988. Prior to joining the Computer Science Division at Berkeley, he held a faculty position at Edinburgh and visiting positions at the Center for Discrete Mathematics and Computer Science (DIMACS) and the International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley. Sinclair was the recipient of the Goedel Prize in 1996, and the Fulkerson Prize in 2006.

Selected Publications

F. Martinelli, A. Sinclair, and D. Weitz, "Glauber dynamics on trees: Boundary conditions and mixing time," Communications in Mathematical Physics, vol. 250, no. 2, pp. 301-334, Sep. 2004.
Y. Rabani, Y. Rabinovich, and A. Sinclair, "A computational view of population genetics," Random Structures & Algorithms, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 313-334, July 1998.
M. Jerrum and A. Sinclair, "Polynomial-time approximation algorithms for the Ising model," SIAM J. Computing, vol. 22, no. 5, pp. 1087-1116, Oct. 1993.
Y. Rabinovich, A. Sinclair, and A. Wigderson, "Quadratic dynamical systems," in Proc. 33rd Annual Symp. on Foundations of Computer Science, Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Computer Society Press, 1992, pp. 304-313.