My research is in the broad areas of theoretical computer science and discrete mathematics.
I am particularly interested in algorithms, computational complexity, discrete optimisation, and homomorphism problems. Most of my work lies at the intersection of these areas, focusing on (the mathematics of) constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs) in their many forms (approximation, counting, decision, optimisation, promise).
All my publications are available online.
Here are some examples of problems I have worked on:
- What is the power of linear programming for combinatorial problems [KTŽ15,TŽ17,CRŽ22]?
- Which problems, just like linear equations, cannot be solved by any polynomial-size convex relaxation [TŽ18]?
- Which problems, just like graph cuts, admit a sparsifier [BŽ20a,PŽ24,BNOŽ25]?
- Which generalisations of submodularity admit efficient optimisation [KTŽ15,WŽ16]?
- Which discrete optimisation problems can be solved exactly and efficiently [KŽ13,TŽ16]?
- Which counting homomorphism problems can be solved approximately [BŽ20b,FGŽ21]?
- Which promise problems can be solved by combining linear programming and linear Diophantine equations [BGWŽ20,CŽ23]?
- When can max-cut, and beyond, be solved with arbitrarily good approximation [RWŽ23,MWŽ23]?
- Given a 7-colourable graph, can one find a 35-colouring efficiently [KOWŽ23], and why can relaxations not solve this problem [CŽ25a,CŽ25b]?
Feel free to get in touch if you are interested in doing an undergraduate project, a master's dissertation, or a PhD with me. I cannot take on interns (except for, occasionally, Oxford undergraduates) and therefore generally do not respond to such requests. I'm happy to supervise highly motivated students with a strong background in theoretical computer science and/or (any branch of) mathematics in any area of algorithms, discrete mathematics, and computational complexity. If you are a student at Oxford, it might be helpful if you take my course Combinatorial Optimisation.
- ERC Consolidator Grant New Approaches to Approximability of Satisfiable Problems (NAASP), 2022–2027, €2.0M
- ERC Starting Grant Power of Algorithms in Discrete Optimisation (PowAlgDO), 2017–2022, €1.4M
- Royal Society University Research Fellowship (URF) Counting of Separable Functions, 2018–2021, £380K
- Royal Society University Research Fellowship (URF) Optimisation of Separable Functions, 2013–2018, £500K
I served as the Acting Head of the Algorithms and Complexity Theory Theme (2025–2026), the Deputy Head of Department for Teaching (2023–2025), the Director of Teaching (2020–2023), a member of the departmental REF panel (2018–2021), and the organiser of the Algorithms and Complexity Theory Seminar (2016–2019).
Conferences Programme Committees
-
TCS:
LICS'27,
ICALP (B)'27,
SODA'27,
STOC'26,
STACS (B)'26,
MFCS'26,
CSL'25,
STOC'24,
WG'24,
ITCS'22,
STACS'20,
MFCS'20,
ESA'19,
ISAAC'19,
ICALP (A)'18,
MFCS'18,
SOFSEM'12.
-
AI:
CP'25 (SPC),
CP'21 (SPC),
IJCAI'21 (SPC),
AAAI'21,
IJCAI-PRICAI'20,
AAAI'20,
IJCAI'19,
IJCAI-ECAI'18,
AAAI'18,
AAAI'17,
CP'17,
CP'16,
IJCAI'15,
CP'14,
CP'13,
DPCP'13,
IJCAI'13,
AAAI'12,
CP'12,
DPCP'12 (co-chair),
AAAI'11,
CP'11,
DPCP'11,
IJCAI'11,
AAAI'10,
CP'10,
DPCP'10 (co-chair),
DPCP'09
Journal Editorial
- SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics (SIDMA), Associate Editor since 2017 (Editor-in-Chief, 2022–2026)
- Proceedings of the Royal Society A (RSPA), Editorial Board Member, since 2025
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A (RSTA), Editorial Board Member, 2019–2024
- Constraints, Editorial Board Member, 2019–2023
Organiser
- Simons Programme Symmetry in Efficient Computation with Local Constraints, 2027 (with A. Bulatov, V. Guruswami, P. Kothari, T. Pitassi, P. Raghavendra, and W. Slofstra)
- GoldbergFest, 2026 (with A. Galanis and P. Goldberg)
- American Institute of Mathematics (AIM) SQuARE: Relaxations for Promise CSPs, 2023–2026
- LMS Computer Science Colloquium, 2020–2026 (with the LMS CS committee)
- Isaac Newton Institute Workshop Geometric and Combinatorial Methods in the Foundations of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, 2025 (with M. Bronstein, C. Drutu, D. Kielak, A. Lubotzky, and A. Naor)
- Dagstuhl Seminar 25211 The Constraint Satisfaction Problem: Complexity and Approximability, 2025 (with M. Bodirsky, V. Guruswami, and D. Marx)
- Dagstuhl Seminar 22201 The Constraint Satisfaction Problem: Complexity and Approximability, 2022 (with M. Grohe, V. Guruswami, and D. Marx)
- Early Career Researchers Workshop, European Computer Science Summit, 2021 (with E. Di Nitto)
- Dagstuhl Seminar 18231 The Constraint Satisfaction Problem: Complexity and Approximability, 2018 (with M. Grohe, V. Guruswami, and D. Marx)
- Doctoral Programme of CP, 2012 (with M. Lombardi)
- Doctoral Programme of CP, 2010 (with P. Nightingale)
- Oxford University Computer Science Student Conference, 2008 (with S. Faily)
Panel Member
- EATCS Distinguished Dissertation Award, 2026 (chair), 2025 (chair), 2024
- Royal Society Research Grants Committee, since 2025
- ACP Doctoral Research Award, 2025, 2018
- London Mathematical Society (LMS) Computer Science Committee, 2019–2026 (chair 2022–2026)
- Czech Summer School on Discrete Mathematics, 2021–2026
- EPSRC Peer Review College, since 2018
- Informatics Europe, 2021–2022
- EurAI PhD Dissertation Award, 2019
- Royal Society International Exchanges Committee, 2015–2020
ECRs
- Jonas Conneryd, 2026–2028 (WASP scholarship)
- Paolo Marimon, 2026–2027
- Gianluca Tasinato, 2026–2027
- Amirhossein Kazeminia, 2025–2027
- Ioannis Eleftheriadis, 2025–2026 → JRF at Oxford's Magdalen College, UK
- Karolina Okrasa, 2024–2026 → faculty at Warsaw University of Technology, Poland
- George Osipov, 2025 (VR fellowship) → faculty at Birkbeck, University of London, UK
- Alberto Larrauri, 2023–2025 → faculty at University of Zaragoza, Spain
- Silvia Butti, 2023–2025 → faculty at King's College London, UK
- Lorenzo Ciardo, 2020–2025 → faculty at TU Graz, Austria
- Caterina Viola, 2020–2022 → faculty at University of Catania, Italy
- Jakub Opršal, 2021–2022 → faculty at University of Birmingham, UK
- Shuai Shao, 2020–2021 → faculty at USTC, China
- Michael Kompatscher, 2020–2021 → faculty at Charles University, Czechia
- Balázs Mezei, 2020–2021 → finance
- Marcin Wrochna, 2018–2020 → faculty at University of Warsaw, Poland
- Miguel Romero, 2017–2019 → faculty at PUC, Chile
- Clément Carbonnel, 2017–2018 → CNRS, France
PhDs
- Zephyr Verwimp, since 2024
- Raymond Chang, since 2024 (with C. Coester)
- Tamio-Vesa Nakajima, PhD 2025
→ postdoc at University of Marburg, Germany
- Thomas Orton, PhD 2023 (with V. Kanade and R. Santhanam) → finance
- Alex Brandts, PhD 2022
→ finance
- Jacob Focke, PhD 2020 (with L. Goldberg)
→ industry
- Peter Fulla, PhD 2018
→ faculty at Chuo University, Japan
- Andrius Vaicenavičius, 2014–2017 (with P. Jeavons and C. McDiarmid)
→ transferred to pursue a PhD in AI
BScs/MScs
- Martin Kopchev
- Aaron Manning (with S. Kiefer)
- Arina Kosovskaia (with J. Foerster and A. Kalisz)
- Liam Devine, MMathCompSci 2026 (distinction)
- Krešimir Nežmah, MFoCS 2025 (distinction)
- Jack Li, MSc 2025 (distinction)
- Yihe Gao, BA 2025 (distinction) → PhD at CMU
- Jonathan Uy, MCompSci 2025 (distinction)
- Leon Balan-Tribus, MMathCompSci 2024 (merit)
- Ruxandra-Laura Nanu, BA 2023 (distinction)
- Hong Zhang, MSc 2023 (distinction)
- Serban-Ion Cercelescu, BA 2023 (distinction) → PhD at University of Oxford
- Yichen Huang, BA 2023 (distinction)
→ PhD at Harvard University
- Jannik Kudla, MFoCS 2022 (distinction)
- Costin Oncescu, MCompSci 2022 (distinction) (with J.F. Henriques)
→ PhD at Harvard University
- Jáchym Solecký, MMathCompSci 2021 (distinction)
- Costin Oncescu, BA 2021 (distinction)
- Eden Pelleg, MFoCS 2020 (distinction)
- Yunus Aydin, BA 2020 (distinction)
→ PhD at UC Riverside
- David Klambauer, MFoCS 2019 (distinction)
- Silvia Butti, MFoCS 2018 (distinction)
→ PhD at UPF
- Gregor Matl, MFoCS 2018 (distinction)
- Ragnar Groot Koerkamp, MFoCS 2017 (distinction)
→ PhD at ETH
- Andrius Vaicenavičius, MMath 2014 (Gibbs dissertation prize) (with P. Jeavons)
→ PhD at University of Oxford
Research Interns
- Aaron Manning, 2026–2027
- Piotr Mitosek, internship funded by the RS, 2020 (with M. Wrochna)
→ PhD at University of Birmingham
- Joanna Ochremiak, internship funded by the EU, 2015
→ PhD at University of Warsaw
- Andrius Vaicenavičius, internship funded by the EPSRC, 2013 (with P. Jeavons)
→ PhD at University of Oxford
College Lecturers
- Ioannis Eleftheriadis, 2027
- Jeffrey Mak, 2027
- Mahsa Shirmohammadi, 2025–2026
- Maximilian Doré, 2024–2026
- Zev Shirazi, 2023–2024
- Ross Gales, 2023–2024
- Atılım Güneş Baydin, 2021–2024
- Matthias Lanzinger, 2021–2023
- Cristina Matache, 2020–2021
- Swaraj Dash, 2019–2021
- Matthew Katzman, 2019–2021
- Reino Niskanen, 2019–2020
Courses
- Algorithms for Constraint Satisfaction Problems
- Combinatorial Optimisation
- Complexity of Valued Constraint Satisfaction Problems
- Mathematics for Computer Scientists
- Probability and Computing
Classes, practicals, and tutorials
- Advanced Data Structures and Algorithms
- Algorithms and Data Structures
- Automata and Formal Languages
- Computational Complexity
- Concurrency
- Continuous Mathematics
- Data Structures and Algorithms
- Design and Analysis of Algorithms
- Digital Systems
- Discrete Mathematics
- Functional Programming
- Imperative Programming
- Introduction to Formal Proof
- Introduction to Programming
- Introduction to Proof Systems
- Linear Algebra
- Logic and Proof
- Models of Computation
- Object Oriented Programming
- Probability and Computing
- Randomised Algorithms
- Theory of Data and Knowledge Bases
Trivia
My first name, used on papers and official documents, is Stanislav but I go by Standa [ˈstʌn.da] (roughly STUN-da), a commonly used Czech variant/diminutive of Stanislav.
My last name Živný [ˈʒɪv.niː] (roughly ZHIV-nee, with zh as in measure)
is is written as \v{Z}ivn\'{y} in LaTeX.
I grew up in Soběslav, a small town in south Bohemia, Czechia. I have lived in Czechia, Finland, the Netherlands, the UK, and the USA.
I enjoy teaching and do quite a lot of (tutorial) teaching. Consequently,
and for family reasons,
I minimise travel but you can always visit me (virtually, if preferred) in Oxford.
