Scott Aaronson#Popular work

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Scott Aaronson

| image = Scott Aaronson retouched.jpg

| image_size =

| caption = Aaronson in 2011

| birth_name = Scott Joel Aaronson

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1981|5|21|mf=y}}{{Cite web |date=2008 |title=Scott Aaronson |url=http://qwiki.stanford.edu/wiki/Scott_Aaronson |url-status=dead |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20080221174749/http://qwiki.stanford.edu/wiki/Scott_Aaronson |archive-date=2008-02-21 |website=qwiki.stanford.edu}}{{Cite web |title=Professor Scott Aaronson |url=https://constructor.university/directory/key-people/scott-aaronson |access-date=2024-09-11 |website=Constructor University |language=en}}

| birth_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

| nationality = American

| fields = Computational complexity theory, quantum computing

| workplaces = {{Plainlist|

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| alma_mater = {{Plainlist|

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| doctoral_advisor = Umesh Vazirani

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| awards = {{Plainlist|

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| signature =

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| spouse = Dana Moshkovitz

| website = {{URL|https://scottaaronson.blog/}}, {{URL|https://www.scottaaronson.com/}}

}}

Scott Joel Aaronson (born May 21, 1981) is an American theoretical computer scientist and Schlumberger Centennial Chair of Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin. His primary areas of research are computational complexity theory and quantum computing.

Early life and education

Aaronson grew up in the United States, though he spent a year in Asia when his father—a science writer turned public-relations executive—was posted to Hong Kong.{{Cite web |last = Hardesty |first = Larry |date = April 7, 2014 |title = The complexonaut |url = http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2014/scott-aaronson-shapes-conventional-and-quantum-computing-0407 |publisher = mit.edu |access-date = April 12, 2014 }} He enrolled in a school there that permitted him to skip ahead several years in math, but upon returning to the US, he found his education restrictive, getting bad grades and having run-ins with teachers. He enrolled in The Clarkson School, a gifted education program run by Clarkson University, which enabled Aaronson to apply for colleges while only in his freshman year of high school. He was accepted into Cornell University, where he obtained his BSc in computer science in 2000,[http://www.scottaaronson.com/vita.pdf CV] from Aaronson's web site and where he resided at the Telluride House.{{cite web|last1=Aaronson|first1=Scott|title=Quickies|url=https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=3553|website=Shtetl-Optimized|access-date=January 30, 2018|date=December 5, 2017}} He then attended the University of California, Berkeley, for his PhD, which he got in 2004 under the supervision of Umesh Vazirani.{{mathgenealogy|id=109495|name=Scott Joel Aaronson}}

Aaronson had shown ability in mathematics from an early age, teaching himself calculus at the age of 11, provoked by symbols in a babysitter's textbook. He discovered computer programming at age 11, and felt he lagged behind peers, who had already been coding for years. In part due to Aaronson getting into advanced mathematics before getting into computer programming, he felt drawn to theoretical computing, particularly computational complexity theory. At Cornell, he became interested in quantum computing and devoted himself to computational complexity and quantum computing.

Career

After postdoctorates at the Institute for Advanced Study and the University of Waterloo, he took a faculty position at MIT in 2007. His primary area of research is quantum computing and computational complexity theory more generally.

In the summer of 2016 he moved from MIT to the University of Texas at Austin as David J. Bruton Jr. Centennial Professor of Computer Science and as the founding director of UT Austin's new Quantum Information Center.Shetl-Optimized, [http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=2620 "From Boston to Austin"], February 28, 2016. In summer 2022 he announced he would be working for a year at OpenAI on theoretical foundations of AI safety.{{cite news |title=OpenAI is developing a watermark to identify work from its GPT text AI |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/2350655-openai-is-developing-a-watermark-to-identify-work-from-its-gpt-text-ai/ |access-date=31 December 2022 |work=New Scientist |date=2022}}{{cite web |title=OpenAI! |url=https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=6484 |website=Shtetl-Optimized |access-date=31 December 2022 |date=17 June 2022}}

Popular work

He is a founder of the Complexity Zoo wiki, which catalogs all classes of computational complexity.Automata, Computability and Complexity by Elaine Rich (2008) {{isbn|0-13-228806-0}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=lIuu53IcKWoC&pg=PA589&dq=%22complexity+zoo%22 p. 589, section "The Complexity Zoo"][https://complexityzoo.net/Complexity_Zoo The Complexity Zoo page] (originally) at Qwiki (a quantum physics wiki, Stanford University) He is the author of the blog "Shtetl-Optimized".{{cite web|url=http://scottaaronson.com/blog|title=Shtetl-Optimized|publisher=scottaaronson.com|access-date=January 23, 2014}}

In the interview to Scientific American he answers why his blog is called shtetl-optimized, and about his preoccupation to the past:

{{Blockquote|text=Shtetls were Jewish villages in pre-Holocaust Eastern Europe. They're where all my ancestors came from—some actually from the same place (Vitebsk) as Marc Chagall, who painted the fiddler on the roof. I watched Fiddler many times as a kid, both the movie and the play. And every time, there was a jolt of recognition, like: "So that's the world I was designed to inhabit. All the aspects of my personality that mark me out as weird today, the obsessive reading and the literal-mindedness and even the rocking back and forth—I probably have them because back then they would've made me a better Talmud scholar, or something."|author=Scott Aaronson{{cite web |last1=Horgan |first1=John |title=Scott Aaronson Answers Every Ridiculously Big Question I Throw at Him |url=https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/scott-aaronson-answers-every-ridiculously-big-question-i-throw-at-him/ |website=Scientific American |access-date=9 June 2021}}}}

He also wrote the essay "Who Can Name The Bigger Number?".{{cite web|last=Aaronson|first=Scott|title=Who Can Name the Bigger Number?|url=http://www.scottaaronson.com/writings/bignumbers.html|work=academic personal website|publisher=Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT|access-date=January 2, 2014}} The latter work, widely distributed in academic computer science, uses the concept of Busy Beaver Numbers as described by Tibor Radó to illustrate the limits of computability in a pedagogic environment.

He has also taught a graduate-level survey course, "Quantum Computing Since Democritus",{{cite web|url=http://www.scottaaronson.com/democritus/|title=PHYS771 Quantum Computing Since Democritus|publisher=scottaaronson.com|access-date=January 23, 2014}} for which notes are available online, and have been published as a book by Cambridge University Press.{{cite web|url=http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/physics/quantum-physics-quantum-information-and-quantum-computation/quantum-computing-democritus|title=Quantum Computing Democritus :: Quantum physics, quantum information and quantum computation|publisher=cambridge.org|access-date=January 23, 2014}} It weaves together disparate topics into a cohesive whole, including quantum mechanics, complexity, free will, time travel, the anthropic principle and more. Many of these interdisciplinary applications of computational complexity were later fleshed out in his article, "Why Philosophers Should Care About Computational Complexity".{{cite arXiv |last=Aaronson |first=Scott |eprint=1108.1791v3 |title=Why Philosophers Should Care About Computational Complexity |year=2011 |class=cs. CC }} Since then, Aaronson published a book entitled Quantum Computing Since Democritus based on the course.

An article of Aaronson's, "The Limits of Quantum Computers", was published in Scientific American,{{cite journal |title=The Limits of Quantum Computers |author=Aaronson, Scott |journal=Scientific American |date=February 2008 |bibcode=2008SciAm.298c..62A |volume=298 |doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0308-62 |issue=3|pages=50–7 |pmid=18357822 }} and he was a guest speaker at the 2007 Foundational Questions in Science Institute conference.{{cite web |url=http://www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow/stories/2007/2007888.htm |work=The Science Show |title=Foundational Questions in Science Institute conference |date=August 18, 2007 |access-date=December 1, 2008 |publisher=ABC Radio}} Aaronson is frequently cited in the non-academic press, such as Science News,{{Cite journal|url=http://www.sciencenews.org/sn_arc99/11_20_99/bob2.htm |title=Quantum Games |first=Ivars |last=Peterson |journal=Science News |volume=156 |issue=21 |date=November 20, 1999 |pages=334–335 |publisher=Science Service|access-date=December 1, 2008|doi=10.2307/4012018|jstor=4012018 }} The Age,{{cite news|url=http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/11/16/1037080961482.html|title=Two-digit theory gets two fingers |access-date=December 1, 2008|work=The Age|date=November 17, 2002 |first=Roger |last=Franklin |location=Melbourne}} ZDNet,{{cite web |url=http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-175054.html|title=D-Wave's quantum computer ready for latest demo|first=Peter|last=Judge|date=November 9, 2007|work=ZDNet|publisher=CNET|access-date=December 1, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081226033821/http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-175054.html |archive-date=December 26, 2008}} Slashdot,{{cite web |url=http://news.slashdot.org/news/08/11/29/1814222.shtml |date=November 29, 2008 |title=Improving Wikipedia Coverage of Computer Science |author=Dawson, Keith |publisher=Slashdot |access-date=December 1, 2008 }} New Scientist,{{cite journal|journal=New Scientist |title=Outside of time: The quantum gravity computer |date=March 31, 2007 |first=Michael |last=Brooks |issue=2597|url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19325971.500-outside-of-time-the-quantum-gravity-computer.html?full=true}} The New York Times,{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/08/business/yourmoney/08slip.html?pagewanted=all |title=A Giant Leap Forward in Computing? Maybe Not |work=The New York Times |access-date=December 1, 2008 |first=Jason |last=Pontin |date=April 8, 2007}} and Forbes magazine.{{cite news |url=https://www.forbes.com/sciencesandmedicine/2008/12/10/hot-topics-contradictions-tech-sciences_cz_lg_1211gomes.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081214061917/http://www.forbes.com/sciencesandmedicine/2008/12/10/hot-topics-contradictions-tech-sciences_cz_lg_1211gomes.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 14, 2008 |date=December 12, 2008 |title=Your World View Doesn't Compute | work=Forbes |first=Lee |last=Gomes}}

Awards

Aaronson is one of two winners of the 2012 Alan T. Waterman Award.[https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=123406 NSF to Honor Two Early Career Researchers in Computational Science With Alan T. Waterman Award], National Science Foundation, March 8, 2012, retrieved March 8, 2012.
Best Student Paper Awards at the Computational Complexity Conference for the papers "Limitations of Quantum Advice and One-Way Communication" (2004) {{cite conference |author=Aaronson, Scott |year=2004 |title=Limitations of Quantum Advice and One-Way Communication |conference=Computational Complexity Conference |pages=320–332}} and "Quantum Certificate Complexity" (2003).{{cite conference |author=Aaronson, Scott |year=2003 |title=Quantum Certificate Complexity |conference=Computational Complexity Conference |pages=171–178}}{{cite web |title=Future and Past Conferences |url=https://computationalcomplexity.org/conferences.php |publisher=Computational Complexity Conference}}
Danny Lewin Best Student Paper Award at the Symposium on Theory of Computing for the paper "Lower Bounds for Local Search by Quantum Arguments" (2004).{{cite web |title=Danny Lewin Best Student Paper Award |url=https://www.sigact.org/prizes/student.html |publisher=ACM}}
2009 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers{{cite web |title=The Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers: Recipient Details: Scott Aaronson |url=https://www.nsf.gov/awards/PECASE/recip_details.jsp?pecase_id=261 |publisher=NSF}}
2009 Sloan Research Fellowship{{cite web |date=2009-02-17 |title=Six junior faculty named Sloan Research Fellows |url=https://news.mit.edu/2009/sloan-fellows-0217 |access-date=2024-03-18 |website=MIT News}}
2017 Simons Investigator[https://www.simonsfoundation.org/mathematics-physical-sciences/simons-investigators/simons-investigators-awardees/ Simons Investigators Awardees], The Simons Foundation
He was elected as an ACM Fellow in 2019 "for contributions to quantum computing and computational complexity".{{citation |title=2019 ACM Fellows Recognized for Far-Reaching Accomplishments that Define the Digital Age |url=https://www.acm.org/media-center/2019/december/fellows-2019 |access-date=December 11, 2019 |publisher=Association for Computing Machinery}}
He was awarded the 2020 ACM Prize in Computing "for groundbreaking contributions to quantum computing".{{citation |title=2020 |url=https://awards.acm.org/about/2020-acm-prize |access-date=April 14, 2021 |publisher=Association for Computing Machinery}}

Personal life

Aaronson is married to computer scientist Dana Moshkovitz. Aaronson identifies as Jewish.{{Cite web |date=2023-02-16 |title=Statement of Jewish scientists opposing the "judicial reform" in Israel |url=https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=7032 |access-date=2023-03-28 |website=Shtetl-Optimized |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=Statement of concern - Signatories |url=https://sites.google.com/view/scientistsletter/signatories |access-date=2023-03-28 |website=sites.google.com |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=2022-11-13 |title=Sam Bankman-Fried and the geometry of conscience |url=https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=6797 |access-date=2023-03-28 |website=Shtetl-Optimized |language=en-US |quote="SBF and I both grew up as nerdy kids in middle-class Jewish American families,..."}}