Nordic Winter School on Advanced Stochastic Optimization

We invite PhD students to a Nordic winter school on Advanced Stochastic Optimization at the Norwegian Univer-

sity of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway, from 1 – 5 December 2025.


The course is part of the Nordic Courses in Stochastic Programming, a cooperation between NTNU, NHH in

Bergen, and UCPH in Copenhagen that provides PhD courses on stochastic programming. The course builds on

the material taught in the introduction-level Nordic PhD course in stochastic programming taught in Bergen in

September this year. Prior participation in that course is not mandatory, but some basic knowledge of stochastic pro-

gramming models is required.


The course is taught by multiple lecturers, each teaching on their field of expertise. This provides PhD students

a unique opportunity to learn from and connect with experts in the field, as well as with other students with similar

interests. The following lecturers will give talks on the indicated topics:


  • Vincent Leclère (Ecole des Ponts, Paris) – Stochastic dual dynamic programming and related methods
  • Francesca Maggioni (University of Bergamo) – Bounding techniques in (multi-stage/-horizon) stoch. programs
  • Ward Romeijnders (University of Groningen) – Mixed-integer stochastic programming
  • Peter Schütz (NTNU) – Dual decomposition
  • Stein-Erik Fleten (NTNU) – Applications in energy systems
  • Ruben van Beesten (Erasmus University Rotterdam, NTNU) – Quick recap of basics, modeling risk aversion


The course takes place at the Gløshaugen campus in Trondheim from 1 – 5 December. During this week, the tra-

ditional Christmas market on the city square starts, which will keep you busy during the evenings. Lectures start

Monday morning and end around 14:00 on Friday.


Participation is free of charge. Students that wish to receive credits (5 EC) should write a 10-page essay after

the course related to one of the topics discussed (you can relate this to your own research project), graded pass/fail.


The deadline for registration is 15 September (if you cannot make the deadline, email me to ask for remaining

options). See the second page of this document for instructions on how to register.


For any remaining questions, contact me using the email address below. I hope to see many of you there!


Kind regards,

Ruben van Beesten (coordinator)


Registration procedure

  1. Everyone: fill out the registration form here.
  2. Students that wish to receive credit must also register officially within the NTNU system.
  3. NTNU students: enroll for the courses using the regular procedure on Studentweb.
  4. External students: follow the following steps:
  5. Go to Søknadsweb using this link
  6. Choose the institution Norwegian University of Science and Technology, press continue
  7. At the bottom of the page, choose Register new international applicant
  8. Answer the questions. When asked if you are a current or former student at NTNU, choose No (i.e., do not answer I am a PhD-Candidat).
  9. Once registered in Søknadsweb, log into your account. Follow the following steps:
  10. Fill out your personal details
  11. Under Single courses, choose PhD courses for external candidates Autumn 2025.
  12. In the drop-down list, select 9690 PhD courses for external candidates. Moreover, in the text box, write the course code of the course you wish to follow:
    - IØ8404 Advanced Stochastic Optimization
    Press Submit your application
  13. Upload the requested documents. Press Next
  14. You will see a confirmation screen. Press Done

2025 Roger J. B. Wets Junior Researcher Best Paper Prize Finalists

By SPS Wolfram • July 13, 2025
Dear Stochastic Programming Society, We are pleased to announce the finalists for the 2025 Roger J. B. Wets Junior Researcher Best Paper Prize. We have received excellent nominations this year and after careful deliberation the jury has chosen 2 finalists. Both finalists will present their work in a dedicated session on Wednesday 30/07 at ICSP 2025. In alphabetical order, the finalists are: Rui Gao , for the paper : "Finite-Sample Guarantees for Wasserstein Distributionally Robust Optimization: Breaking the Curse of Dimensionality" Bradley Sturt , for the paper : "A nonparametric algorithm for optimal stopping based on robust optimization" Congratulations to the finalists! Sincerely, The 2025 Roger J. B. Wets Junior Researcher Best Paper Prize Committee: Andrzej Ruszczynski (Rutgers University) Siqian Shen (University of Michigan at Ann Arbor), Wim van Ackooij (EDF-Lab Paris-Saclay, Chair).

How to Post on the StoProg Mailing List

By SPS Wolfram • July 13, 2025
To post on the StoProg mailing list, you first need to subscribe to the list by email: Open a new message window in your preferred email program and address your message to stoprog-l@maillist.usc.edu. In the body of the message, type the following on the first line: subscribe stoprog-l First Last (replacing “First Last” with your first and last name). If you use an automatic "signature" in your email software, it must be disabled before you send your subscription request. Send your message. Once your subscription is successfully processed, you will get an email message that contains information regarding how to unsubscribe from the list, how to turn mail off temporarily, and how to change to digest mode. Save this message for future reference. Once you have subscribed to the StoProg mailing list, you can post messages by sending emails to stoprog-l@maillist.usc.edu.