Abstract: Given a graph, the maximum clique problem asks for a clique of maximum cardinality. Computationally equivalent problems are the maximum independent set problem and the minimum node cover problem. During the last decade, many problems in social, biological, and financial networks require finding cliques, or quasi-cliques. Cliques or clique partitions have also been used as clustering or classification data mining tools in data sets represented by networks. These networks can be very large and often massive and therefore external (or semi-external) memory algorithms are needed. We discuss applications, exact algorithms, heuristics, and computational approaches for all types of problems.

Brief Biography of the Speaker:
Dr. Panos Pardalos is Distinguished Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Florida. He is also affiliated faculty member of the Computer Science Department, the Hellenic Studies Center, and the Biomedical Engineering Program. He is also the director of the Center for Applied Optimization. Dr. Pardalos obtained a PhD degree from the University of Minnesota in Computer and Information Sciences. He has held visiting appointments at Princeton University, DIMACS Center, Institute of Mathematics and Applications, FIELDS Institute, AT&T Labs Research, Trier University, Linkoping Institute of Technology, and Universities in Greece. He has received numerous awards including, University of Florida Research Foundation Professor, UF Doctoral Dissertation Advisor/Mentoring Award, Foreign Member of the Royal Academy of Doctors (Spain), Foreign Member Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, Foreign Member of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, Foreign Member of the Petrovskaya Academy of Sciences and Arts (Russia), and Honorary Member of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences. Dr. Pardalos received the degrees of Honorary Doctor from Lobachevski University (Russia) and the V.M. Glushkov Institute of Cybernetics (Ukraine), he is a fellow of AAAS, a fellow of INFORMS, and in 2001 he was awarded the Greek National Award and Gold Medal for Operations Research. Dr. Pardalos is a world leading expert in global and combinatorial optimization. He is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Global Optimization, Journal of Optimization Letters, and Computational Management Science. In addition, he is the managing editor of several book series, and a member of the editorial board of several international journals. He is the author of 8 books and the editor of several books. He has written numerous articles and developed several well known software packages. His research is supported by National Science Foundation and other government organizations. His recent research interests include network design problems, optimization in telecommunications, e-commerce, data mining, biomedical applications, and massive computing. Dr. Pardalos has been an invited lecturer at many universities and research institutes around the world. He has also organized several international conferences.