Maximilian Schicker

PhD Researcher at Zuse Institute Berlin

I'm Max, a mathematician drawn to problems that are provably hard in theory yet often surprisingly solvable in practice. I work on combinatorial optimization, algorithm design, and quantum optimization.

Portrait of Maximilian Schicker

About

I'm a PhD researcher at the Zuse Institute Berlin (ZIB). I care most about the gap between worst-case hardness and what solvers actually achieve, and about measuring that gap honestly for classical and quantum methods alike. Much of my recent work has gone into the Quantum Optimization Benchmarking Library (QOBLIB), which was built for exactly that comparison.

Before my doctorate I was a research intern at IBM Research Europe in Zürich and studied mathematics at TU Berlin. I also run Alster Systems, a small software company I founded at 18. Running it has taught me that the hardest optimization problems rarely come with a clean objective function.

Research

Projects

  • Quantum Optimization Benchmarking Library (QOBLIB)

    Zuse Institute Berlin, IBM, and international partners · Core contributor since 2024

    Ten classes of hard combinatorial optimization problems, an "intractable decathlon", with instances, baseline results, and evaluation protocols that put classical and quantum methods on a common footing. I also built the project's website, which tracks the state of the art on every instance.

    Website Code and data Paper

Interests

  • Combinatorial optimization
  • Quantum optimization
  • Algorithm design and analysis
  • Scheduling theory
  • Mathematical programming
  • Discrete mathematics

Publications

Journal articles

  • The Quantum Optimization Benchmarking Library

    Thorsten Koch, David E. Bernal Neira, Ying Chen, Giorgio Cortiana, Daniel J. Egger, Raoul Heese, Narendra N. Hegade, Alejandro Gomez Cadavid, Rhea Huang, Toshinari Itoko, Thomas Kleinert, Pedro Maciel Xavier, Naeimeh Mohseni, Jhon A. Montanez-Barrera, Koji Nakano, Giacomo Nannicini, Corey O'Meara, Justin Pauckert, Manuel Proissl, Anurag Ramesh, Maximilian Schicker, Noriaki Shimada, Mitsuharu Takeori, Victor Valls, David Van Bulck, Stefan Woerner, and Christa Zoufal

    Nature Computational Science, 2026

    The paper introducing QOBLIB: its ten problem classes, instance sets, baseline results, and the protocol for comparing classical and quantum optimization methods.

    DOI arXiv:2504.03832 Code and data

Theses

  • Solving Higher-Order Binary Optimization Problems

    Maximilian Schicker

    Master's thesis, Technische Universität Berlin, 2026. Supervised by Prof. Dr. Thorsten Koch.

    Solution methods for unconstrained binary optimization problems whose objective contains terms of degree higher than two.

  • Competitive Algorithms for Non-Clairvoyant Scheduling with Lossy Preemption

    Maximilian Schicker

    Bachelor's thesis, Technische Universität Berlin, 2023. Supervised by Prof. Dr. Max Klimm.

    Competitive analysis of scheduling algorithms when job processing times are unknown in advance and every preemption incurs a cost.

Talks & Conferences

  • September 2026

    IntelligenceX 2026 Talk & tutor

    The Global Quantum×AI Frontier · National University of Singapore · Singapore

    • Quantum Optimization Benchmarking Library

    Tutor in the hands-on tutorial on agentic AI coding led by Prof. Dr. Thorsten Koch.

  • July 2026

    IFORS 2026 2 talks

    International Federation of Operational Research Societies · Vienna, Austria

    • The Quantum Optimization Benchmarking Library
    • Multicores, Manycores, GPUs, HPC, and Quantum: Wishes, Hopes, and Reality
  • June 2026

    IBM Quantum Optimization Working Group Meeting Participant

    Czech Technical University · Prague, Czech Republic

  • June 2025

    MODAL Berlin Algorithmic Intelligence Workshop Talk

    Zuse Institute Berlin · Berlin, Germany

    • Optimal Decision Trees for Financial Optimization (preliminary results)
  • April 2025

    IBM Quantum Optimization Working Group Meeting Participant

    University of Liverpool · Liverpool, United Kingdom

  • September 2024

    CO@Work 2024 Participant & volunteer

    Combinatorial Optimization at Work summer school · Zuse Institute Berlin

Experience

  • Sep 2026 – present

    PhD Researcher

    Zuse Institute Berlin · Berlin

  • Jun – Aug 2026

    Research Scientist Intern

    IBM Research Europe · Zürich

    Among other work, developed the QOBLIB website.

  • Mar 2024 – May 2026

    Student Research Assistant

    Zuse Institute Berlin · Berlin

    Core contributor to QOBLIB; classical baselines for optimization benchmarking.

  • Oct 2024 – Mar 2025

    Research Assistant

    National University of Singapore · Singapore

    Optimal decision trees for financial data.

  • Jul 2020 – present

    Founder & Managing Director

    Alster Systems UG · Kaltenkirchen

    Digital class register used by schools in the Henstedt-Ulzburg region.

Education

Contact

Working on something hard? I'd like to hear about it. I'm open to research collaborations, questions about QOBLIB, and invitations to give talks.