Avi Wigderson

{{Short description|Israeli computer scientist and mathematician}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Avi Wigderson

| native_name = אבי ויגדרזון

| native_name_lang = he

| image = Avi Wigderson (London 2012) Cropped.jpg

| alt =

| caption = Wigderson in 2012

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1956|09|09|df=y}}

| birth_place = Haifa, Israel

| death_date =

| death_place =

| fields = Theoretical computer science

| workplaces = Institute for Advanced Study

| education = Israel Institute of Technology (BS)
Princeton University (MS, PhD)

| doctoral_advisor = Richard Lipton

| doctoral_students = Dorit Aharonov
Ran Raz

| known_for = Zig-zag product,

Computational complexity

| thesis_title = Studies in Computational Complexity

| thesis_year = 1983

| thesis_url = https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/151255

| awards = Nevanlinna Prize (1994)
Gödel Prize (2009)
Knuth Prize (2019)
Abel Prize (2021)
Turing Award (2023)

}}

Avi Wigderson ({{langx|he|אבי ויגדרזון}}; born 9 September 1956{{Citation|last=Wigderson|first=Avi|date=22 May 2014|title=Resumé|url=http://www.math.ias.edu/~avi/CV_shortbio/Drupal_CV/avicv_5_22.pdf|access-date=7 March 2016|archive-date=5 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305020513/http://www.math.ias.edu/~avi/CV_shortbio/Drupal_CV/avicv_5_22.pdf|url-status=live}}) is an Israeli computer scientist and mathematician. He is the Herbert H. Maass Professor in the school of mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America.{{Cite web|title=Faculty {{!}} IAS School of Mathematics|url=https://www.math.ias.edu/people/faculty|access-date=19 June 2020|website=www.math.ias.edu|date=4 August 2008|archive-date=5 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805022951/https://www.math.ias.edu/people/faculty|url-status=live}} His research interests include complexity theory, parallel algorithms, graph theory, cryptography, and distributed computing. Wigderson received the Abel Prize in 2021 for his work in theoretical computer science.{{Cite web|title=Avi Wigderson GS '83 awarded Abel Prize|url=https://www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2021/03/avi-wigderson-mathematics-abel-prize|access-date=4 April 2021|website=The Princetonian|archive-date=22 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210322035219/https://www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2021/03/avi-wigderson-mathematics-abel-prize|url-status=live}} He also received the 2023 Turing Award for his contributions to the understanding of randomness in the theory of computation.{{Cite web |date=2024-04-10 |title=Wigderson Named Turing Awardee for Decisive Work on Randomness – Communications of the ACM |url=https://cacm.acm.org/news/wigderson-named-turing-awardee-for-decisive-work-on-randomness/ |access-date=2024-04-10 |language=en-US |archive-date=10 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240410090635/https://cacm.acm.org/news/wigderson-named-turing-awardee-for-decisive-work-on-randomness/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |title=Avi Wigderson of the Institute for Advanced Study is the recipient of the 2023 ACM A.M. Turing Award |url=https://awards.acm.org/about/2023-turing |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=awards.acm.org |language=en |archive-date=10 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240410094325/https://awards.acm.org/about/2023-turing |url-status=live }}

Early life and studies

Avi Wigderson was born in Haifa, Israel, to Holocaust survivors.{{Cite web|date=16 March 2021|title=Avi Wigderson and the Second Golden Era of Theoretical Computing – Ideas {{!}} Institute for Advanced Study|url=https://www.ias.edu/ideas/avi-wigderson-and-second-golden-era-theoretical-computing|access-date=19 March 2021|website=www.ias.edu|language=en|archive-date=16 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316235935/https://www.ias.edu/ideas/avi-wigderson-and-second-golden-era-theoretical-computing|url-status=live}} Wigderson is a graduate of the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa. He began his undergraduate studies at the Technion in 1977 in Haifa, graduating in 1980.{{Cite web |title=A biography of Avi Wigderson |url=https://www.mathunion.org/fileadmin/IMU/Prizes/Abel/2021/biography_english_AW.pdf |website=Mathunion}} Heidelberg Laureate Foundation Portraits, interview with Avi Wigderson, 2017. In the Technion he met his wife Edna. He went on to graduate study at Princeton University, where he received his Ph.D. in computer science in 1983 after completing a doctoral dissertation, titled "Studies in computational complexity", under the supervision of Richard Lipton.{{Cite book|last=Wigderson|first=Avi|url=https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/151255|title=Studies in computational complexity|date=1983|language=en|access-date=19 June 2020|archive-date=5 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210505150844/https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/151255|url-status=live}}{{Mathgenealogy|id=82100}}. He is credited with significantly expanding the field of computational complexity.

Academic career

After short-term positions at the University of California, Berkeley, the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California, and the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley, he returned to Israel and joined the faculty of the Hebrew University in 1986. He received tenure in 1987 and became a full professor in 1991. In 1999 he also took a position at the Institute for Advanced Study, and in 2003 he gave up his Hebrew University position to take up full-time residence at the IAS.[http://math.ias.edu/~avi/cv%20&%20short%20bio/shortbio.pdf Short biography] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100612023406/http://math.ias.edu/~avi/cv%20%26%20short%20bio/shortbio.pdf |date=12 June 2010 }} from Wigderson's web site, retrieved 3 May 2010.

Wigderson investigated computational questions and specifically the role of randomness in the field. Wigderson together with Noam Nisan and Russell Impagliazzo discovered that for algorithms that solve problems through coin flipping, there exists an algorithm that is almost as fast that does not use coin flipping as long as presets are met.

Wigderson developed the Zig Zag product together with Omer Reingold and Salil Vadhan, the Zig Zag product links complexity theory, graph theory and group theory. The Zig Zag product for example can help one understand how to get out of a maze. Today complexity theory is used in cryptography.

Wigderson with Silvio Micali and Oded Goldreich demonstrated that zero-knowledge proofs can be utilized in proving public results on secret data in secret.

Awards and honors

1994: Nevanlinna Prize for his work on computational complexity.{{citation|journal=The Jerusalem Post|date=3 August 1994|title=HU Professor Wins 'Nobel Prize' Of Computers}}

2009: The Gödel Prize for work on the zig-zag product of graphs, a method of combining smaller graphs to produce larger ones used in the construction of expander graphs.{{citation|title=Avi Wigderson and Colleagues Honored with 2009 Gödel Prize|publisher=Institute for Advanced Study|url=http://www.ias.edu/news/news-briefs/avi-wigderson-and-colleagues-honored-with-2009-g-del-prize|access-date=3 May 2010|archive-date=28 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100528084559/https://www.ias.edu/news/news-briefs/avi-wigderson-and-colleagues-honored-with-2009-g-del-prize|url-status=dead}}

2011: Elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.{{Cite web|title=Avi Wigderson|url=https://www.amacad.org/person/avi-wigderson|access-date=19 March 2021|website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences|language=en|archive-date=20 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210420155136/https://www.amacad.org/person/avi-wigderson|url-status=live}}

2018: Elected as an ACM Fellow for "contributions to theoretical computer science and mathematics".{{citation|url=https://www.acm.org/media-center/2018/december/fellows-2018|title=2018 ACM Fellows Honored for Pivotal Achievements that Underpin the Digital Age|publisher=Association for Computing Machinery|date=5 December 2018|access-date=5 December 2018|archive-date=22 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190622040750/https://www.acm.org/media-center/2018/december/fellows-2018|url-status=live}}

2019: The Knuth Prize for his contributions to "the foundations of computer science in areas including randomized computation, cryptography, circuit complexity, proof complexity, parallel computation, and our understanding of fundamental graph properties".{{citation|url=http://www.sigact.org/prizes/knuth/citation2019.pdf|title=2019 Knuth prize is Awarded to Avi Wigderson|publisher=ACM Special Interest Group on Algorithms and Computation Theory|date=23 March 2019|access-date=5 April 2019|archive-date=5 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210505150910/http://www.sigact.org/prizes/knuth/citation2019.pdf|url-status=live}}

2021: Shared the Abel Prize with László Lovász "for their foundational contributions to theoretical computer science and discrete mathematics, and their leading role in shaping them into central fields of modern mathematics."{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/17/science/abel-prize-mathematics.html|title=2 Win Abel Prize for Work That Bridged Math and Computer Science|newspaper=The New York Times|first=Kenneth|last=Chang|date=17 March 2021|accessdate=17 March 2021|archive-date=5 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210505151014/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/17/science/abel-prize-mathematics.html|url-status=live}}{{cite magazine |url=https://www.quantamagazine.org/avi-wigderson-and-laszlo-lovasz-win-abel-prize-20210317/ |magazine=Quanta Magazine |title=Pioneers Linking Math and Computer Science Win the Abel Prize |first=Kevin |last=Hartnett |date=17 March 2021 |accessdate=17 March 2021 |archive-date=5 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210505150826/https://www.quantamagazine.org/avi-wigderson-and-laszlo-lovasz-win-abel-prize-20210317/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite news|last=Castelvecchi|first=Davide|date=17 March 2021|title=Abel Prize celebrates union of mathematics and computer science|url=https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00694-9|journal=Nature|language=en|doi=10.1038/d41586-021-00694-9|access-date=17 March 2021|archive-date=5 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210505151021/https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00694-9|url-status=live}}

April 2024: The Turing Award, by the Association for Computing Machinery, for "reshaping our understanding of the role of randomness in computation, and for decades of intellectual leadership in theoretical computer science."