Welcome! I’m Petros (Peter), a 3rd year Ph.D. student in Operations Research at MIT, advised by Prof. Rahul Mazumder. My interests lie at the intersection of mathematical optimization, high-dimensional statistics, machine learning, and differential privacy.

I was previously a Senior Research Analyst in the Banking Studies department of the NY Fed Research & Statistics Division, working on numerous research and policy projects regarding bank reserves and their effect on monetary policy implementation. I received my B.S. degree in Applied Mathematics (with a concentration in Computer Science) and Economics from Yale, graduating with honors and distinction in both majors.

Aside from problem solving, my hobbies include geography, calisthenics, swimming, biking, rowing, and listening to rap & contemporary classical music. I hold Greek and US dual citizenship.

email: pprastak AT mit DOT edu

Publications

• Differentially Private High-dimensional Variable Selection via Integer Programming
  Petros Prastakos, Kayhan Behdin, Rahul Mazumder
  NeurIPS 2025
  Preliminary version appeared at the ICLR 2024 Workshop on Private ML