David E. Bernal Neira has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. He worked in theory, algorithms, and software for nonlinear discrete optimization, also known as Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Programming (MINLP) and Generalized Disjunctive Programming (GDP), and their applications to Process Systems Engineering. He also complemented that algorithm development by studying the usage of quantum algorithms got nonlinear combinatorial optimization. During his Ph.D., he developed and co-taught the course on Quantum Integer Programming and Machine Learning, which has already been taught for three years at CMU and replicated in several institutes worldwide.
David is currently an associate scientist in quantum computing at the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at NASA and the Research Institute of Advanced Computer Science (RIACS) of the Universities Space Research Association (USRA), developing and benchmarking quantum and Physics-inspired methods for optimization and chemistry. After this position, David will start a tenure-track position at the Davidson School of Chemical Engineering at Purdue University.