Internationally renowned Israeli computer scientist and mathematician Prof. Avi Wigderson has been awarded the A.M. Turing Award, colloquially known as the “Nobel Prize of Computing.”
Wigderson, a graduate of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa and former faculty member of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is currently a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University in the US, where he also completed his master’s degree and doctorate.
The Turing Award, named for British mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing, is awarded annually by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) in the US – seen as the highest international honor in the field.
The award comes with a prize of $1 million, given in conjunction with Google.
The ACM said the award was bestowed for Wigderson’s “foundational contributions to the theory of computation, including reshaping our understanding of the role of randomness in computation, and for his decades of intellectual leadership in theoretical computer science.”
ACM President Yannis Ioannidis paid tribute to Wigderson as “a towering intellectual force in theoretical computer science.”
The association also praised Wigderson for his role “as an esteemed mentor and colleague who has advised countless young researchers.” It also singled out his “vast knowledge and unrivaled technical proficiency—coupled with his friendliness, enthusiasm, and generosity—[that] have attracted many of the best young minds to pursue careers in theoretical computer science.”
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