Alexandru Damian
Assistant Professor
Develops a predictive theory of deep learning, including optimization dynamics at the edge of stability and the implicit bias of gradient descent.
Alexandru Damian's lab at MIT works on learning theory & optimization. 8 papers since 2023, 5 at top venues, mostly COLT and ICLR. Applications close .
At a glance
- papers, 2023–2026
- 2/ year
- at T1 venues
- 63%
- PhD students
- —
- MS students
- —
- alumni listed
- —
Papers by yearfrom the lab homepage, 2023–2026
- 0 papers2026 · T1 0 · collecting
- 3 papers2025 · T1 2
- 2 papers2024 · T1 2
- 3 papers2023 · T1 1
T1 venuesOtherVenues: COLT, ICLR, ICML
Research focuspaper titles that use each topic's words
- Learning theory & optimization5 papers
- stability1 paper
- implicit1 paper
- bias1 paper
- predictive0 papers
Paper list
From the lab homepage.
20253 papers
- COLT (T1)Learning Compositional Functions with Transformers from Easy-to-Hard Data Zixuan Wang*, Eshaan Nichani*, Alberto Bietti, Alex Damian, Daniel Hsu, Jason D. Lee, Denny Wu
- NeurIPS SpotlightThe Generative Leap: Sharp Sample Complexity for Efficiently Learning Gaussian Multi-Index Models Alex Damian, Jason D. Lee, Joan Bruna
- ICLR (T1)Understanding Optimization in Deep Learning with Central Flows Jeremy M. Cohen*, Alex Damian*, Ameet Talwalkar, J. Zico Kolter, Jason D. Lee blog code
20242 papers
- COLT (T1)Computational-Statistical Gaps in Gaussian Single-Index Models Alex Damian, Loucas Pillaud-Vivien, Jason D. Lee, Joan Bruna
- ICML (T1)How Transformers Learn Causal Structure with Gradient Descent Eshaan Nichani, Alex Damian, Jason D. Lee code
20233 papers
- NeurIPS SpotlightProvable Guarantees for Nonlinear Feature Learning in Three-Layer Neural Networks Eshaan Nichani, Alex Damian, Jason D. Lee
- ICLR (T1)Self-Stabilization: The Implicit Bias of Gradient Descent at the Edge of Stability Alex Damian*, Eshaan Nichani*, Jason D. Lee code
- NeurIPS OralSmoothing the Landscape Boosts the Signal for SGD: Optimal Sample Complexity for Learning Single Index Models Alex Damian, Eshaan Nichani, Rong Ge, Jason D. Lee
Where alumni went
Alumni are not listed on the lab homepage.
Apply to MITFall 2027
MIT EECS Computer Science PhD
- Round
- Single round
- Opens
- —
- GRE
- See program page
- English
- TOEFL/IELTS
- Fee
- USD 90
Confirmed on the program page.
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Your notes
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Data
Some numbers could not be verified:
- The member list could not be found on the lab site.
- The alumni list could not be found on the lab site.
- Collected
- Verified
- Papers
- The lab homepage
- Members
- Not collected
- Alumni
- Not collected
Tiers are venue classifications, not lab rankings.
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