The International Conference on Approximation Algorithms for Combinatorial Problems (APPROX) was started in 1998 by Klaus Jansen, and focuses on algorithmic and complexity theoretic issues relevant to the development of efficient approximate solutions to computationally difficult problems.

The conference has been typically co-located with its sibling, The International Conference of Randomization and Computation (RANDOM), founded in 1997 by José D.P. Rolim, focusing on applications of randomness to computational and combinatorial problems.

List of past conferences

• 2018, Princeton. PC chair: David Steurer
• 2017, UC Berkeley. PC chair: David Williamson
• 2016, IHP Paris. PC chair: Claire Mathieu
• 2015, Princeton. PC chair: Naveen Garg
• 2014, UPC Barcelona. PC chair: Nikhil Devanur
• 2013, UC Berkeley. PC chair: Prasad Raghavendra
• 2012, MIT. PC chair: Anupam Gupta
• 2011, Princeton. PC chair: R. Ravi
• 2010, UPC Barcelona. PC chair: Maria Serna
• 2009, UC Berkeley. PC chair: Seffi Naor
• 2008, MIT. PC chair: Ashish Goel
• 2007, Princeton. PC chair: Moses Charikar
• 2006, UPC Barcelona. PC chair: Uri Zwick
• 2005, UC Berkeley. PC chair: Chandra Chekuri
• 2004, Harvard. PC chair: Sanjeev Khanna
• 2003, Princeton. PC chair: Sanjeev Arora
• 2002, La Sapienza, Roma. PC chair: Vijay Vazirani
• 2001, UC Berkeley. PC chair: Michel Goemans
• 2000, Saarbrücken. PC chair: Samir Khuller
• 1999, UC Berkeley. PC chair: Dorit Hochbaum
• 1998, Aalborg. PC co-chairs: Klaus Jansen and José D. P. Rolim