DR. STEPHAN HOLZER

I develop and analyze efficient algorithms for distributed networks.

Academic experience:

• MIT
  Postdoc in the Theory of Computation Group working with Nancy Lynch 
  2013-2017
• ETH Zurich
  PhD-student in the Distributed Computing Group advised by Roger Wattenhofer
  2009-2013
• Harvard
  Visiting fellow in the Theory Group advised by Salil Vadhan
  2008-2009
• TU Munich 
  Student in Germany’s first excellence program in mathematics (TopMath) advised by Ernst W. Mayr
  2006-2008   –   Diplom (M.Sc.) 2008   –   B.Sc. 2007

RECENT MANUSCRIPTS

• Distributed Local Multi-Aggregation and Centrality Approximation
  Benjamin Dissler, Stephan Holzer and Roger Wattenhofer.
• Beeping a Maximal Independent Set Fast
  Stephan Holzer and Nancy Lynch.

PUBLICATIONS

• Assessing Security of Crypto-Currencies with Attack-Defense Trees: Proof of Concept and Future Directions
  Julia Eisentraut, Stephan Holzer, Katharina Klioba, Jan Křetínský, Lukas Pin, and Alexander Wagner.
  18th International Colloquium on Theoretical Aspects of Computing. (ICTAC), 2021.
• Leader Election in SINR Model with Arbitrary Power Control
  Magnús Halldórsson, Stephan Holzer, Lilika Markatou and Nancy Lynch.
  Theoretical Computer Science (TCS), 2019.
• The Power of Oblivious Wireless Power
  Magnús Halldórsson, Stephan Holzer and Roger Wattenhofer.
  SIAM Journal of Computing (SICOMP), June 2017.
• Brief Announcement: Leader Election in SINR Model with Arbitrary Power Control
  Magnús Halldórsson, Stephan Holzer and Lilika Markatou.
  31tst International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC), Vienna, Austria, October 2017.
• Deterministic Multi-Channel Information Exchange
  Stephan Holzer, Thomas Locher, Yvonne Anne Pignolet and Roger Wattenhofer.
  Journal of Computer and System Sciences (JCSS), August 2017.
• [best paper award]                Leader Election in SINR Model with Arbitrary Power Control                [best paper award]
  Magnús Halldórsson, Stephan Holzer and Lilika Markatou.
  24th International Colloquium on Structural Information and Communication Complexity (SIROCCO), Porquerolles, France, June 2017.
• Brief Announcement: Beeping a Maximal Independent Set Fast
  Stephan Holzer and Nancy Lynch.
  30th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC), Paris, France, September 2016.
• Approximation of Distances and Shortest Paths in the Broadcast Congest Clique
  Stephan Holzer and Nathan Pinsker.
  19th International Conference on Principles of Distributed Systems (OPODIS), Rennes, France, December 2015.
• A Local Broadcast Layer for the SINR Network Model
  Magnus Halldorsson, Stephan Holzer and Nancy Lynch.
  34th Annual ACM SIGACT-SIGOPS Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC), San Sebastian, Spain, July 2015.
• Brief Announcement: Distributed 3/2-Approximation of the Diameter
  Stephan Holzer, David Peleg and Liam Roditty and Roger Wattenhofer.
  28th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC), Austin, Texas, USA, October 2014.
  Documents: meta bibtex paper pdf  
• Brief Announcement: k-Selection and Sorting in the SINR Model
  Stephan Holzer and Sebastian Kohler and Roger Wattenhofer.
  28th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC), Austin, Texas, USA, October 2014.
  Documents: meta bibtex paper pdf  
• Distributed Approximation of Minimum Routing Cost Trees
  Alexandra Hochuli, Stephan Holzer and Roger Wattenhofer.
  21st International Colloquium on Structural Information and Communication Complexity (SIROCCO), Hida Takayama, Japan, July 2014.
  Documents: meta bibtex paper pdf  
• The Power of Non-Uniform Wireless Power
  Magnus Halldorsson, Stephan Holzer, Pradipta Mitra and Roger Wattenhofer.
  24th ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA), New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, January 2013.
  Documents: meta bibtex paper pdf slides pdf slides ppt  
• Smart Energy Case Study
  Christof Baumann, Stephan Holzer, Miguel Rodriguez and Roger Wattenhofer.
  4th ACM Workshop On Embedded Sensing Systems For Energy-Efficiency In Buildings (BuildSys), Toronto, Canada, November 2012.
  Documents: meta bibtex paper pdf slides pdf  
• Distributed Verification and Hardness of Distributed Approximation
  Atish Das Sarma, Stephan Holzer, Liah Kor, Amos Korman, Danupon Nanongkai, Gopal Pandurangan, David Peleg and Roger Wattenhofer.
  SIAM Journal on Computing (special issue of STOC 2011), November 2012.
  Documents: meta bibtex paper pdf  
• Optimal Distributed All Pairs Shortest Paths and Applications
  Stephan Holzer and Roger Wattenhofer.
  31st Annual ACM SIGACT-SIGOPS Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC), Madeira, Portugal, July 2012.
  Documents: meta bibtex paper pdf slides pdf slides ppt  
• Deterministic Multi-Channel Information Exchange
  Stephan Holzer, Thomas Locher, Yvonne Anne Pignolet and Roger Wattenhofer.
  24th ACM Symposium on Parallelism in Algorithms and Architectures (SPAA), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, June 2012.
  Documents: meta bibtex paper pdf slides pdf slides ppt  
• Monitoring Churn in Wireless Networks
  Stephan Holzer, Yvonne-Anne Pignolet-Oswald, Jasmin Smula and Roger Wattenhofer.
  Theoretical Computer Science (special issue of ALGOSENSORS 2009 + 2010), January 2012.
  Documents: meta bibtex paper pdf  
• Networks Cannot Compute Their Diameter in Sublinear Time
  Silvio Frischknecht, Stephan Holzer and Roger Wattenhofer.
  23rd ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA), Kyoto, Japan, January 2012.
  Documents: meta bibtex paper pdf slides pdf slides ppt  
• Brief Announcement: Time-Optimal Information Exchange on Multiple Channels
  Stephan Holzer, Yvonne-Anne Pignolet-Oswald, Jasmin Smula and Roger Wattenhofer.
  30th ACM SIGACT-SIGOPS Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC), San Jose, June 2011
  Documents: meta bibtex paper pdf slides pdf slides ppt  
• Time-Optimal Information Exchange on Multiple Channels,
  Stephan Holzer, Yvonne-Anne Pignolet-Oswald, Jasmin Smula and Roger Wattenhofer.
  Seventh ACM SIGACT/SIGMOBILE International Workshop on Foundations of Mobile Computing (FOMC), San Jose, June 2011
  Documents: meta bibtex paper pdf slides pdf slides ppt  
• Distributed Verification and Hardness of Approximation
  Atish Das Sarma, Stephan Holzer, Liah Kor, Amos Korman, Danupon Nanongkai, Gopal Pandurangan, David Peleg and Roger Wattenhofer.
  43rd Symposium on Theory of Computing (STOC), San Jose, California, USA, June 2011
  Documents: meta bibtex paper pdf  
• Monitoring Churn in Wireless Networks
  Stephan Holzer, Yvonne Anne Pignolet, Jasmin Smula and Roger Wattenhofer.
  6th International Workshop on Algorithms for Sensor Systems (ALGOSENSORS), Wireless Ad Hoc Networks and Autonomous Mobile Entities, Bordeaux, France, July 2010.
  Documents: meta bibtex paper pdf slides pdf slides ppt  
• Brief Announcement: Self-Monitoring in Dynamic Wireless Networks
  Stephan Holzer, Yvonne-Anne Pignolet-Oswald, Jasmin Smula and Roger Wattenhofer.
  29th Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC), Zurich, Switzerland, July 2010.
  Documents: meta bibtex paper pdf slides pdf slides ppt  
• Illustrating the Classification of Real Cubic Surfaces
  Stephan Holzer and Oliver Labs.
  Algebraic Geometry and Geometric Modeling. Springer Verlag (as an undergrad student).
  Documents: meta bibtex link external  

PHD THESIS

• Distance Computation, Information Dissemination, and Wireless Capacity in Networks. (pdf available upon request)
  Stephan Holzer.
  Volume 19 in the Series in Distributed Computing, pages 1-247, 2014. Hartung-Gorre.
  

KEYNOTES AND INVITED TALKS

• Wie verteilt sich Wissen und Macht in Netzwerken?
  Plenary Talk at the General Assembly of the Academy of Science and Literatur | Mainz, Germany
  Mainz, Germany, 2017
• Insights into a Distributed World
  TED style event at German Consulate General in Boston, invited by German American Business Council
  Boston, USA, November 2016
• Distances and Diameters of Networks
  5th Workshop on Advances in Distributed Graph Algorithms (ADGA)
  Paris, France, September 2016
• Lower Bounds for Distributed Graph Problems via Information Theory
  Nexus of Information and Computation Theories at the Institute Henri Poincare (IHP)
  Paris, France, February 2016
• Tools for Efficient Multi-Channel Broadcast
  5th Workshop on Realistic Models for Algorithms in Wireless Networks (WRAWN)
  Paris, France, July 2014
• New Lower Bounds and Algorithms in Distributed Computing
  9th annual Theory Day of the Icelandic Center of Excellence for Theoretical Computer Science (ICE-TCS)
  Reykjavik, Iceland, March 2013

CONFERENCE TALKS AND POSTER

• Distributed Computing
  Inaugural presentation at Academy of Science and Literature|Mainz
  Mainz, Germany, November 2016
• Brief Announcement: Beeping a Maximal Independent Set Fast
  30th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC)
  Paris, France, September 2016
• Poster: Fast Computation of Shortest Paths and Central Nodes in Large Scale Graphs
  Annual MIT CSAIL Alliance Program (CAP)
  Cambridge, USA, May 2016
• Approximation of Distances and Shortest Paths in the Broadcast Congest Clique
  19th International Conference on Principles of Distributed Systems (OPODIS)
  Rennes, France, December 2015
• Poster: Approximation of Distances and Shortest Paths in the Broadcast Congest Clique
  29th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC)
  Tokyo, Japan, October 2015 – presented by Nathan Pinsker
• A Local Broadcast Layer for the SINR Network Model
  34th Annual ACM SIGACT-SIGOPS Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC)
  San Sebastian, Spain, July 2015
• The power of a Leader in the Stone Age
  2nd Workshop on Biological Distributed Algorithms (BDA)
  Austin, Texas, USA, October 2014
• Brief Announcement: Distributed 3/2-Approximation of the Diameter
  28th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC)
  Austin, Texas, USA, October 2014
• Brief Announcement: k-Selection and Sorting in the SINR Model
  28th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC)
  Austin, Texas, USA, October 2014
• Deterministic Multi-Channel Information Exchange
  Dagstuhl Workshop 14051: Algorithms for Wireless Communication
  Dagstuhl, Germany, January 2014
• The Power of Non-Uniform Wireless Power
  24th ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA)
  New Orleans, USA, January 2013 – prepared talk and could not attend, Klaus-Tycho Foerster gave the talk
• Poster: Optimal Distributed All Pairs Shortest Paths
  National Center of Competence in Research for Mobile Communication and Communication Systems (NCCR MICS) Final Event
  Lausanne, Switzerland, September 2012
• Optimal Distributed All Pairs Shortest Paths and Applications
  31st Annual ACM SIGACT-SIGOPS Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC)
  Madeira, Portugal, July 2012
• Deterministic Multi-Channel Information Exchange
  24th ACM Symposium on Parallelism in Algorithms and Architectures (SPAA)
  Pittsburgh, USA, June 2012
• Poster: Optimal Distributed All Pairs Shortest Paths
  Algorithmic Frontiers Workshop
  Lausanne, Switzerland, June 2012
• Networks Cannot Compute Their Diameter in Sublinear Time
  23rd ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA)
  Kyoto, Japan, January 2012
• Brief Announcement: Information Dissemination on Multiple Channels
  30th ACM SIGACT-SIGOPS Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC)
  San Jose, USA, June 2011
• Time-Optimal Information Exchange on Multiple Channels
  Seventh ACM SIGACT/SIGMOBILE International Workshop on Foundations of Mobile Computing (FOMC)
  San Jose, USA, June 2011
• Brief Announcement: Self-Monitoring in Dynamic Wireless Networks
  29th ACM SIGACT-SIGOPS Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC)
  Zurich, Switzerland, July 2010

FURTHER SELECTED TALKS

• New Algorithms and Lower Bounds in Distributed Computing (invited)
  Vienna Center for Logic and Algorithms, TU Wien, invited by Prof. Helmut Veith
  Vienna, Austria, August 2015
• New Lower Bounds and Algorithms in Distributed Computing (invited)
  Microsoft Research Asia, invited by Prof. Thomas Moscibroda
  Beijing, China, February 2013
• New Lower Bounds and Algorithms in Distributed Computing (invited)
  Collaborative Research Center SFB 876 on Providing Information by Resource-Constrained Data Analysis, invited by Prof. Petra Mutzel 
  Dortmund, Germany, May 2012
• Distributed Computing and Steiner Trees (invited)
  TU Dortmund, Chair of Efficient Algorithms, invited by Prof. Petra Mutzel
  Dortmund, Germany, May 2012
• Distributed Verification and Hardness of Distributed Approximation (invited)
  TU Munich, Chair of Efficient Algorithms, hosted by Prof. Ernst W. Mayr
  Munich, Germany, January 2011
• Derandomization of Space Bounded Computation (invited)
  Computer Engineering and Networks Laboratory, ETH Zurich, invited by Prof. Roger Wattenhofer
  Zurich, Switzerland, June 2009
• A Survey on Derandomization of Space Bounded Computation (invited)
  University of Heidelberg, invited by PD. Wolfgang Merkle
  Heidelberg, Germany, July 2008
• Bounded Treewidth and Applications
  Euler Institute – Joint Advanced Student School JASS 2008
  St. Petersburg, Russia, March 2008
• Quivers, Representations and Quantum Groups
  Summer School of the German National Academic Foundation
  Alpbach, Austria, September 2006

• Blockchains, Ledgers and Distributed Algorithms – Advanced Topics
  Master Class, Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (German National Merit Foundation), August 2019
• Blockchains, Ledgers and Distributed Algorithms
  30h Master Class, Academy of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (German National Merit Foundation), March 2019
• 6.S899 Distributed Graph Algorithms
  Lecturer and creator of this new course in collaboration with Mohsen Ghaffari and Nancy Lynch. Lecture Notes.
  MIT, fall 2014
• 6.S897 Distributed Algorithms
  Two Guest Lectures
  MIT, fall 2016
• 6.852/18.437 Distributed Algorithms
  Two Guest Lectures
  MIT, fall 2015
• Principles of Distributed Computing 
  Teaching assistant
  ETH Zurich, spring 2013
• Seminar in Distributed Computing 
  Teaching assistant
  ETH Zurich, spring 2013
• Principles of Distributed Computing
  Teaching assistant. Also created new lecture on Hard Problems, the corresponding problem set and solution in collaboration with Roger Wattenhofer.
  ETH Zurich, spring 2012
• Seminar in Distributed Computing
  Teaching assistant
  ETH Zurich, spring 2012
• Principles of Distributed Computing 
  Teaching assistant
  ETH Zurich, spring 2011
• Seminar in Distributed Computing
  Teaching assistant
  ETH Zurich, spring 2011
• Linear Algebra
  Teaching assistant
  TU Munich, winter 2007
• TopMath Seminar
  Founder and organizer
  TU Munich, November 2006 – August 2008
• Theory Tea
  Founder and organizer
  TU Munich, November 2006 – August 2008
• ACM ICPC programming competition team
  Founder and organizer
  Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, May 2005 – July 2006