Rate My Professor Peter Davies-Peck

Dr Peter Davies-Peck is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Durham University. His research interests encompass graph algorithms, communications networks, randomised algorithms, distributed algorithms, the probabilistic method, and parallel algorithms. Previously, he served as a lecturer at the University of Surrey. Prior to that, he held postdoctoral positions in Artur Czumaj's group at IST Austria and with Dan Alistarh at the University of Warwick. He defended his PhD in 2019 on algorithms for radio networks. Davies-Peck has made significant contributions to distributed and parallel computing through his publications in leading venues. Notable works include 'On the Locality of the Lovász Local Lemma' presented at STOC 2025; 'Parallel Derandomization for Coloring' at IPDPS 2024 and published in Theoretical Computer Science in 2026; 'Optimal message-passing with noisy beeps' in Distributed Computing in 2025; 'Component stability in low-space massively parallel computation' with Czumaj and Parter in Distributed Computing in 2024; 'Improved Distributed Algorithms for the Lovász Local Lemma and Edge Coloring' at SODA 2023; and 'Optimal (degree+1)-Coloring in Congested Clique' at ICALP 2023. Earlier publications feature 'Exploiting Spontaneous Transmissions for Broadcasting and Leader Election in Radio Networks' in the Journal of the ACM in 2021 and multiple papers at PODC, including two in 2023.

Davies-Peck has received the PODC 2017 Best Student Paper Award for joint work with Czumaj and holds an Advance HE Fellowship (FHEA). He has secured a grant for the project 'Distributed Lovász Local Lemma'. His professional service includes programme committee membership for PODC 2021 and 2023, ICDCS 2021, and ALGOSENSORS 2022. He delivered invited talks at the ADGA Workshop (DISC 2021) and AMG Workshop (DISC 2022). Currently, he is involved in organising SIROCCO 2026 and supervises PhD studentships in distributed algorithms within Durham's NESTiD group and Algorithms and Complexity research themes.