Serkan Hosten obtained his PhD in Operations Research from Cornell University in 1997, and after being a postdoc at MSRI and assistant professor at George Mason University, he moved to San Francisco State University's Mathematics department in 2000. Hosten's research focuses on applications of algebraic and discrete geometry in optimization, statistics and computation. He has also been part of programs at MSRI, IMA and SAMSI related to commutative algebra, applied algebraic geometry and algebraic statistics, several times in the capacity of organizer.