Steering Committee

QOBLIB is maintained and developed by a steering committee of researchers from academia and industry. The committee oversees benchmark design, reviews contributions, and guides the long-term direction of the library.


Committee Members
Maximilian Schicker
Zuse Institute Berlin
Maintainer

Researcher in combinatorial optimization and mixed-integer programming. Leads the day-to-day maintenance of QOBLIB and its CI infrastructure, including submission validation and best-known-value tracking.

Thorsten Koch
Zuse Institute Berlin
Maintainer

Professor for Algorithms and Software for discrete Optimization and head of the Applied Optimization department. Co-founder of several open benchmarking initiatives for mathematical programming. Provides oversight of problem class design and benchmark methodology.

Christa Zoufal
IBM Research
Maintainer

Research scientist working on quantum optimization and quantum machine learning algorithms. Guides the quantum computing aspects of QOBLIB, including paradigm classification and quantum submission evaluation.

Stefan Wörner
IBM Research
Maintainer

Research scientist and manager specializing in quantum algorithms for combinatorial optimization and finance. Contributes to the strategic direction of QOBLIB and its role in advancing quantum advantage assessment.

David Bernal Neira
Purdue University
Maintainer

Assistant professor specializing in quantum and classical optimization algorithms, mixed-integer nonlinear programming, and the interface between quantum computing and mathematical optimization.


Committee Responsibilities
Benchmark Design

Curating and evolving the ten problem classes, their instance generators, and reference solutions to ensure diverse, fair, and meaningful challenges for both classical and quantum solvers.

Submission Review

Reviewing pull requests — every PR requires approval by at least two committee members — resolving disputes about attribution and correctness, and operating the automated checker pipeline that validates every contribution.

Community & Standards

Maintaining the contributing guidelines, responding to community questions, and evolving the submission format as the benchmarking landscape matures.

Scientific Governance

Overseeing the scientific integrity of the benchmark, coordinating with the broader optimization community, and publishing updates on methodology and results.


Want to contribute?

Join the effort

The best way to engage is to submit results, report issues, or start a discussion on GitHub. For deeper collaboration or questions about benchmark design, reach out to any committee member directly.