Sebastian Pokutta received both his master’s degree (2003) and his Ph.D. degree (2005) in Mathematics from the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany. In 2006 he spent a year as a postdoctoral fellow in the Operations Research Center at MIT. Subsequently, he was appointed as an optimization expert by ILOG Germany, and then joined KDB Krall Demmel Baumgarten to develop risk management methods for top tier banks. Sebastian became a research scientist at the Technische Universität Darmstadt in 2008. Currently he is a visiting lecturer at MIT Sloan. His research interests include integer programming, in particular cutting-plane procedures, and the use of optimization methods in supply chain managment, production planning, mechanical engineering, and finance.