Nikhil R. Devanur is a researcher in the theory group at Microsoft Research, Redmond. He is interested in designing algorithms that are faster, simpler, work online or in a distributed fashion, for some of the fundamental combinatorial optimization problems and in "Automated Economics", which studies the question of how technology can be used to improve the efficiency of economic systems. Prior to joining Microsoft Research, Devanur obtained his PhD from Georgia Tech and spent a year at the Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago as a Research Assistant Professor.