Dr Thomas Lidbetter

Visiting Fellow

Department of Mathematics
London School of Economics

Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, United Kingdom

Office: Columbia House COL.2.05C
E-mail: t.r.lidbetter@lse.ac.uk

Office hours: Thursday 15:30-16:30

 

I am also an assistant professor the Department of Management Science and Information Systems in Rutgers Business School.

 

Research Interests                                                         

 

Search theory and algorithms, game theory, discrete optimisation, scheduling, mathematical biology.

 

 

Awards

 

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

Thesis: Hide-and-seek and other Search Games

 

2007-2009, MSc in Operational Research, LSE

Dissertation: Using data mining techniques to analyse a large financial dataset

 

2004-2005, MMath in Mathematics, University of Cambridge

 

2001-2004, MA in Mathematics, University of Cambridge

 

 

Working papers

 

Alpern, S. and Lidbetter, T.  Constant Factor Approximate solutions for Expanding Search on General Networks (in review)

 

Fokkink, R., Lidbetter T. and Végh, L. Submodular Search is Scheduling (in review)

 

Angelopoulos, S., Dürr, C. and Lidbetter, T.  The expanding search ratio of a graph (in review)

 

Lidbetter, T.  The Random Chinese Postman Tour is 4/3-approximate for network search (in review)

 

 

Journal Articles

 

Papadaki, K., Alpern, S., Lidbetter, T. and Morton, A. (2016) Patrolling a Border, Operations Research (published online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/opre.2016.1511)

 

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) pp. 122-133

 

Alpern, S. and Lidbetter, T. (2014) Searching a Variable Speed Network. Mathematics of Operations Research, 39(3) pp. 697-711

 

Lidbetter, T. (2013) Search Games with Multiple Hidden Objects.  SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization 51(4) pp.3056–3074

 

Alpern, S. and Lidbetter, T. (2013) Mining Coal or Finding Terrorists: The Expanding Search Paradigm. Operations Research, 61 (2) pp.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) pp.869-879

 

 

Book Chapters

Lidbetter, T. (2013) Search Games for an Immobile Hider.  Fokkink, R. et al (ed.) Search Theory: A Game Theoretic Approach

 

 

Conference Proceedings

 

Angelopoulos S. and Dürr, C (2016) The expanding search ratio of a graph, 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.  Decision and Game Theory for Security - First International Conference, GameSec 2010, Berlin, Germany, November 22-23, 2010. Proceedings; 01/2010

 

 

Previous employment

 

2011-2013, Graduate teaching assistant, LSE

2009-2011, Operational Research Analyst, Home Office (UK Civil Service)