Jeff Decary

Ph.D. Candidate

OPIM

Jeff joined the OPIM department in August 2020. He holds a M.Sc.A. in Mathematics from Polytechnique Montreal, and a B.Sc. in Actuarial Science from the Université du Québec à Montreal. During Jeff’s master’s degree, he was affiliated to the CERC-Data Science for Real-Time Decision-Making, and he took part in research under the supervision of Prof. Andrea Lodi and Prof. David Bergman.

Broadly, Jeff studies optimization for strategic decision-making and market design in prediction markets. His research centers on risk-sensitive combinatorial allocation, platform pricing, and econometric methods for causal inference. Methodologically, he integrates discrete, stochastic, and bilevel optimization with dynamic programming and applied machine learning to design exact and simulation-based algorithms for high-stakes decisions. Digital platforms such as sportsbooks and betting pools serve as testbeds for studying allocation, pricing, and strategy. These marketplaces are structured environments where participants compete under platform-defined rules and incentives. At the intersection of optimization and strategic interaction, his aim is to design tools that help participants and platforms make better decisions in competitive settings where existing methods fall short or lack rigorous guarantees.

You can learn more about Jeff’s on his personal website: Winning Against all Odds! – Jeff Decary