Dr Thomas Lidbetter
Visiting Senior Fellow
Department of Mathematics
London School of Economics
Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE,
United Kingdom
E-mail: t.r.lidbetter@lse.ac.uk
I am an associate professor in the
Department of Management Science
and Information Systems at Rutgers
Business School.
Research
Interests
Search theory and algorithms, game theory, discrete optimisation, scheduling, mathematical biology.
Awards and
funding
2023-2026:
AFOSR award for “A Polyhedral Approach to some Infinite Sequencing Problems”
(award number FA9550-23-1-0556)
2019-2022:
NSF award for “Continuous
Search and Patrolling on Networks” (award number 1935826)
2019-2022:
NSF award for “Collaborative
Research: Minimum-cost strategies for Sequential Search and Evaluation”
(award number 1909446), with Lisa Hellerstein
2019 Rutgers
Business School Junior Faculty Research Excellence Award
2016 LSE
Teaching and Learning Centre Teaching Prize
2013 Doctoral Dissertation Award for the most distinguished body of research leading to a doctorate in the field of Operational Research, from UK OR Society
2013 Mathematics Class Teacher Prize, LSE Department of Mathematics
Education
2009-2013,
PhD in Department of Mathematics, LSE
PhD
supervisor: Steve
Alpern
Second
supervisor: Bernhard von
Stengel
Thesis:
Hide-and-seek and other Search Games
2007-2009, MSc in Operational Research, LSE
2004-2005, MMath in Mathematics, University of Cambridge
2001-2004,
MA in Mathematics, University of Cambridge
Journal Articles
Bui T,
Lidbetter T and Lin, K (2023) Optimal pure strategies for a discrete search
game, European Journal of Operational Research (in press)
Lidbetter
T and Xie Y (2023) The search
and rescue game on a cycle, Theoretical Computer Science, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tcs.2023.114016
Bui T
and Lidbetter T (2023) Optimal
patrolling strategies for trees and complete networks, European Journal
of Operational Research, 311(2):769-776
Hellerstein
L and Lidbetter T (2023) A game
theoretic approach to a problem in polymatroid maximization, European
Journal of Operational Research, 305(2):979-988
Alpern
S, Bui T, Lidbetter T and Papadaki K (2022) Continuous patrolling games, Operations
Research, 70(6):3076-3089
Happach
F, Hellerstein L and Lidbetter T (2021) A general framework for
approximating min sum ordering problems, INFORMS Journal on Computing, 34(3):1437-1452
Angelopoulos S and Lidbetter T
(2020) Competitive search in a
network, European Journal of
Operational Research, 286(2):781-790
Agnetis A and Lidbetter T (2020) The largest-Z-ratio-first algorithm
is 0.8531-approximate for scheduling unreliable jobs on m parallel machines,
Operations Research Letters,
48(4):405-409
Lidbetter T and Lin KY (2020) A search game on a hypergraph with
booby traps, Theoretical Computer
Science, 821:57-70
Lidbetter T (2020) Search and rescue in the face of
uncertain threats, European Journal
of Operational Research, 285(3):1153-1160
Alpern S and Lidbetter T (2020) Search and delivery man problems:
when are depth-first paths optimal?, European
Journal of Operational Research, 285(3):965-976
Fokkink
R, Lidbetter T and Végh L (2019) On
submodular search and machine scheduling, Mathematics of Operations Research, 44(4):1145-1509
Hellerstein
L, Lidbetter T and Pirutinsky D (2019) Solving zero-sum games using best
response oracles with applications to search games, Operations Research, 67(3):731-743
Lidbetter T and Lin KY (2019) Searching for multiple objects in
multiple locations, European Journal
of Operational Research, 278(2):709-720
Angelopoulos
S, Dürr C and Lidbetter T (2019) The
expanding search ratio of a graph, Discrete
Applied Mathematics, 260:51-65
Alpern
S, Lidbetter T and Papadaki K (2019) Optimizing periodic patrols against
short attacks on the line and other networks, European Journal of Operational Research, 273(3):1065-1073
Alpern
S and Lidbetter T (2019) Approximate solutions for expanding search on
general networks, Annals of
Operations Research, 275(2):259-279
Bonato A and Lidbetter T (2019) Bounds on the burning numbers of
spiders and path-forests, Theoretical
Computer Science, 794:12-19
Lidbetter T (2017) On
the approximation ratio of the random Chinese postman tour for network search,
European Journal of Operational Research
263(3):782-788
Papadaki,
K., Alpern, S., Lidbetter, T. and Morton, A. (2016) Patrolling
a border, Operations Research
64(6):1256-1269
Csóka E and Lidbetter T (2016) The solution to an open problem for a caching game. Naval Research Logistics 63(1):23-31
Lidbetter
T (2015) A
caching game with infinitely divisible hidden material. SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization
52(5):3040-3056
Alpern S and
Lidbetter T (2015) Optimal
trade-off between speed and acuity when searching for a small object. Operations
Research 63(1):122-133
Alpern S and
Lidbetter T (2014) Searching
a variable speed network. Mathematics
of Operations Research, 39(3):697-711
Lidbetter T (2013) Search
games with multiple hidden objects. SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization 51(4):3056–3074
Alpern S and
Lidbetter T (2013) Mining
coal or finding terrorists: the expanding search paradigm. Operations Research, 61(2):265-279
Alpern S, Fokkink R, Lidbetter T and Clayton N
(2012) A search
game model of the scatter hoarder's problem. Journal of the Royal Society Interface, 9(70):869-879
Working
papers
Alpern
S and Lidbetter T (2023) Searching
a tree with signals: routing mobile sensors for targets emitting radiation,
chemicals or scents (in review)
Book Chapters
Lidbetter
T (2013) Search Games for an Immobile
Hider. Fokkink R et al. (ed.) Search
Theory: A Game Theoretic Approach
Conference Proceedings
Hellerstein L, Lidbetter T and Witter TA (2022) Local Search Algorithm
for the Min-Sum Submodular Cover Problem. In The 33rd International Symposium
on Algorithms and Computation (ISAAC 2022)
(accepted)
Alpern S, Lidbetter T, Morton A and Papadaki K (2016) Patrolling a
Pipeline. In International Conference on
Decision and Game Theory for Security 2016, 129-138, Springer International
Publishing.
Angelopoulos S, Dürr C and Lidbetter T (2016) The
expanding search ratio of a graph. In The 33rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer
Science (STACS), 2016.
Alpern S, Fokkink R, Op Den Kelder J and Lidbetter T (2010) Disperse or unite? A mathematical model of coordinated attack. In Decision and Game Theory for Security - First International Conference, GameSec 2010, Berlin, Germany, November 22-23, 2010. Proceedings; 01/2010
Previous
employment
2013-2016,
LSE Fellow
2011-2013,
Graduate teaching assistant, LSE
2009-2011, Operational Research Analyst, Home Office (UK Civil Service)