Dr. Rachel Cummings is an Associate Professor of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research and (by courtesy) Computer Science at Columbia University, where she is also a member of the Data Science Institute and co-chairs the Cybersecurity Research Center. Before joining Columbia, she was an Assistant Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering and (by courtesy) Computer Science at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and she received her Ph.D. in Computing and Mathematical Sciences from the California Institute of Technology. Her research interests lie primarily in data privacy, with connections to machine learning, algorithmic economics, optimization, statistics, and public policy. Dr. Cummings is the recipient of numerous awards including an NSF CAREER award, a DARPA Young Faculty Award, a DARPA Director’s Fellowship, an Early Career Impact Award, multiple industry research awards, a Provost’s Teaching Award, two doctoral dissertation awards, and Best Paper Awards at DISC 2014, CCS 2021, and SaTML 2023. Dr. Cummings also serves or has served on the U.S. Census Scientific Advisory Committee, the ACM U.S. Technology Policy Committee, the IEEE Standards Association, and the Future of Privacy Forum’s Advisory Board, and was a Fellow at the Center for Democracy & Technology.

Columbia Faculty Grants Awarded for Teaching and Learning