Research focuses on fairness in allocation problems.
Dr. Hannaneh Akrami was selected into the Minerva Fast Track Programme. Photo: MPI-INF/ Philipp Zapf-Schramm
Dr. Hannaneh Akrami has been selected as one of only two scientists from the Chemical-Physical-Technical Section to join the Minerva Fast Track programme of the Max Planck Society. She will receive funding for four years, with the goal of subsequently applying to lead a Max Planck research group with an open topic. Hannaneh Akrami is a researcher in the Algorithms and Complexity department at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Informatics in Saarbrücken, where she works in the field of algorithmic game theory.
As part of her Minerva Fast Track Fellowship, she will primarily study how indivisible goods can be distributed fairly among different agents. This topic is a fundamental problem in algorithmics and has numerous potential real-world applications, since both the resources and the agents among whom they are distributed can take any form.
Examples include the fair distribution of medical supplies among countries, the allocation of computing power among universities, or the division of household chores within families. The goal is to find decision-making processes that are perceived as fair by everyone, even when resources cannot be freely divided and the participants’ interests diverge.
One open problem she will address concerns the concept of “Envy-Free up to any item (EFX)” allocation. The idea of envy-freeness means that all participants are satisfied with their share and no one prefers someone else’s bundle. With indivisible goods, however, complete envy-freeness is often impossible: if there is only one desirable item, such as an expensive car, it cannot be allocated in a way that makes everyone happy. For this reason, relaxed forms of envy-freeness have been developed, for which researchers are seeking algorithmic solutions. EFX asks whether there exists an allocation where an agent’s envy disappears as soon as any single item is removed from someone else’s bundle. A general method to always find such EFX allocations remains an unsolved problem.
Hannaneh Akrami received her PhD in December 2024 from Saarland University and the Max Planck Institute for Informatics with her dissertation “Share-Based and Envy-Based Approaches to Fair Division of Indivisible Goods.” Since January 2025, she holds a position as postdoctoral researcher at the Hertz Chair for Algorithms and Optimization at the University of Bonn and continues her research at the MPI for Informatics as part of her Minerva Fast Track Fellowship. The Fellowship’s mentor is the Institute’s founding director, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Kurt Mehlhorn.
The Minerva Fast Track programme of the Max Planck Society offers exceptional female scientists the opportunity for long-term career planning after completing their doctorate. Upon completing their dissertation or their first postdoctoral position, participants receive funding for up to four years, with the goal of subsequently applying for a Max Planck research group with an open topic. The programme was initially only introduced in the Chemistry, Physics, and Technology Section in 2014, followed by the Human Sciences Section in 2017 and the Biology and Medicine Section in 2023. The selection of Minerva Fast Track Fellows is conducted through a competitive, multi-stage process. The key criteria considered are both the scientific qualifications and the potential for leading a research group.
Further information:
https://www.mpg.de/22001985/minerva-fast-track
Editor:
Philipp Zapf-Schramm
Max Planck Institute for Informatics
Tel: +49 681 9325 4509
E-Mail: pzs@mpi-inf.mpg.de