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.

I’m excited to share that in summer 2026, I will be joining LinkedIn’s CoreAI team as an AI/ML Engineering intern in the Mountain View, CA headquarters.

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