Shafi Goldwasser

{{short description|Israeli American computer scientist (born 1959)}}

{{Infobox scientist

| birth_name = Shafrira Goldwasser

| name = Shafi Goldwasser

| native_name = {{nobold|{{Script/Hebrew|שפרירה גולדווסר}}}}

| native_name_lang = he

| image = Shafi Goldwasser.JPG

| caption = Goldwasser in 2010

| birth_place = New York City, United States

| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1959}}

| death_date =

| death_place =

| citizenship = {{hlist|Israel|United States}}

| field = Computer science, cryptography

| work_institution = {{Plainlist|

| education = Carnegie Mellon University (BS)
University of California, Berkeley (MS, PhD)

| doctoral_advisor = Manuel Blum{{MathGenealogy|id=35879}}

| thesis_title = Probabilistic Encryption: Theory and Applications

| thesis_url = https://www.proquest.com/docview/303337869

| thesis_year = 1984

| doctoral_students = {{Plainlist|

Salil Vadhan

Vinod Vaikuntanathan}}

| known_for = {{Plainlist|

Zero-knowledge proof
Probabilistic encryption
Blum–Goldwasser cryptosystem
Goldwasser–Micali cryptosystem{{Cite journal | last1 = Goldwasser | first1 = S. | author-link1 = Shafi Goldwasser| last2 = Micali | first2 = S. | author-link2 = Silvio Micali| last3 = Rivest | first3 = R. L. | author-link3 = Ron Rivest| doi = 10.1137/0217017 | title = A Digital Signature Scheme Secure Against Adaptive Chosen-Message Attacks | journal = SIAM Journal on Computing | volume = 17 | issue = 2 | pages = 281 | year = 1988 | citeseerx = 10.1.1.309.8700 | s2cid = 1715998 }}

}}

| prizes = {{Plainlist|

Grace Murray Hopper Award (1996)
Gödel Prize (1993, 2001)
Member of the National Academy of Sciences (2004)
IEEE Emanuel R. Piore Award (2011)
BBVA Award (2018)
RSA Mathematics Award (1998)
Loreal Unesco Women in Science Award (2021)
Turing Award (2012){{Cite journal | last1 = Savage | first1 = N. | title = Proofs probable: Shafi Goldwasser and Silvio Micali laid the foundations for modern cryptography, with contributions including interactive and zero-knowledge proofs| doi = 10.1145/2461256.2461265 | journal = Communications of the ACM | volume = 56 | issue = 6 | pages = 22 | year = 2013 | s2cid = 26769891 }}
Suffrage Science award (2016){{Cite web|url=https://issuu.com/mrccsc/docs/suffrage_science_maths_and_computin|title=Suffrage Science Maths and Computing 2016|website=issuu.com|date=October 7, 2016 }}
ACM Fellow (2017)

AAAS Fellow (2000)}}

| spouse = Nir Shavit

| children = 2

| website = {{Official URL}}

}}

Shafrira Goldwasser ({{langx|he|שפרירה גולדווסר|rtl=yes}}; born 1959{{cite news |url=https://amturing.acm.org/award_winners/goldwasser_8627889.cfm#:~:text=Shafi%20was%20born%20in%201959,grade%20school%20in%20Tel%20Aviv. |title="Shafi Goldwasser - A.M. Turing Award Laureates" |work=ACM |language=en |date= March 13, 2012 |author=Charles Rackoff |author-link=Charles Rackoff}}) is an Israeli-American computer scientist. A winner of the Turing Award in 2012, she is the RSA Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology;{{Cite web|url=https://www.csail.mit.edu/person/shafi-goldwasser|title=Shafi Goldwasser {{!}} MIT CSAIL|website=www.csail.mit.edu|language=en|access-date=2018-11-02}} a professor of mathematical sciences at the Weizmann Institute of Science; the former director of the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing at the University of California, Berkeley; and co-founder and chief scientist of Duality Technologies.{{cite web|url=http://dualitytech.com/|title=About – Duality Technologies|website=Duality Technologies|access-date=10 April 2018}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.jewishexponent.com/2012/12/16/jewish-6-year-old-youngest-of-newtown-shooting-victims/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100927202123/http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/19922/Jewish|url-status=dead|title=Jewish 6-year-old Youngest of Newtown Shooting Victims|first=Deborah|last=Hirsch|date=December 16, 2012|archive-date=September 27, 2010}}{{ACMPortal|id=81100237195}}{{Scopus|id=7005292534}}{{Cite journal | last1 = Goldwasser | first1 = S. | last2 = Micali | first2 = S. | doi = 10.1016/0022-0000(84)90070-9 | title = Probabilistic encryption | journal = Journal of Computer and System Sciences | volume = 28 | issue = 2 | pages = 270 | year = 1984 | doi-access = free }}

Education and early life

Born in New York City, Goldwasser obtained her bachelor's degree in 1979 in mathematics and science from Carnegie Mellon. She continued her studies in computer science at Berkeley, receiving a master's degree in 1981 and a PhD in 1984. While at Berkeley, she and her doctoral advisor, Manuel Blum, would propose the Blum-Goldwasser cryptosystem.

Career and research

Goldwasser joined MIT in 1983, and in 1997 became the first holder of the RSA Professorship. She became a professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science, concurrent to her professorship at MIT, in 1993. She is a member of the theory of computation group at MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.{{cite book|url=http://www.bookrags.com/biography/shafi-goldwasser-wcs/|title=Shafi Goldwasser Biography|via=www.BookRags.com}} In 2005, Goldwasser was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for contributions to cryptography, number theory, and complexity theory, and their applications to privacy and security,{{Cite web|title=Dr. Shafrira Goldwasser|url=https://nae.edu/30861/Dr-Shafrira-Goldwasser|access-date=2021-09-18|website=NAE Website}} and in 2006, Berkeley awarded her its Computer Science Distinguished Alumni Award.

Goldwasser was a co-recipient of the 2012 Turing Award for "revolutionizing the science of cryptography".{{cite web|url=http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/goldwasser-and-micali-win-turing-award-0313.html|title=Goldwasser and Micali win Turing Award|author=AbAbazorius, CSAIL|date=13 March 2013|work=MIT News}}

Since November 2016, Goldwasser has been the chief scientist and co-founder of Duality Technologies, a US-based start-up which offers secure data analytics using advanced cryptographic techniques.{{cite web|url=http://duality.cloud/|title=About – Duality Technologies|website=Duality Technologies|access-date=10 April 2018}} She is also a scientific advisor for several technology startups in the security area, including QED-it, specializing in the Zero Knowledge Blockchain, and Algorand, a pure proof-of-stake blockchain.{{Cite web|url=https://www.algorand.com/who-we-are/our-team/|title=Team|website=www.algorand.com|access-date=November 27, 2020|archive-date=March 16, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210316025814/https://www.algorand.com/who-we-are/our-team/|url-status=dead}}

On January 1, 2018, she became the director of Berkeley's Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, a position she held until August 2024.{{cite web|url=http://news.berkeley.edu/2017/10/10/shafi-goldwasser-appointed-director-of-the-simons-institute-for-the-theory-of-computing/|title=Shafi Goldwasser appointed director of the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing|date=10 October 2017|website=News.berkeley.edu|access-date=10 April 2018}}

Goldwasser's research areas include computational complexity theory, cryptography and computational number theory.

She is the co-inventor of probabilistic encryption,{{cite web|url=http://groups.csail.mit.edu/cis/pubs/shafi/1984-jcss.pdf|title=Probabilistic Encryption|website=Groups.csail.mit.edu|access-date=10 April 2018|archive-date=March 28, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160328011754/http://groups.csail.mit.edu/cis/pubs/shafi/1984-jcss.pdf|url-status=dead}} which set up and achieved the gold standard for security for data encryption.

Goldwasser is a co-inventor of zero-knowledge proofs, which probabilistically and interactively demonstrate the validity of an assertion without conveying any additional knowledge, and are a key tool in the design of cryptographic protocols. Her work in complexity theory includes the classification of approximation problems, showing that some problems in NP remain hard even when only an approximate solution is needed,{{cite web|url=http://groups.csail.mit.edu/cis/pubs/shafi/1996-jacm.pdf|title=Interactive Proofs and the Hardness of Approximating Cliques|website=Groups.csail.mit.edu|access-date=10 April 2018|archive-date=June 10, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110610152928/http://groups.csail.mit.edu/cis/pubs/shafi/1996-jacm.pdf|url-status=dead}} and pioneering methods for delegating computations to untrusted servers.{{cite journal|url=https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/delegating-computation-interactive-proofs-for-muggles/|title=Delegating computation: interactive proofs for muggles|first1=Shafi|last1=Goldwasser|first2=Yael Tauman|last2=Kalai|first3=Guy|last3=Rothblum|date=1 January 2008|journal=Microsoft Research|pages=113–122|access-date=10 April 2018}} Her work in number theory includes the invention with Joe Kilian of primality proving using elliptic curves.{{cite journal |last1=Goldwasser |first1=Shafi |last2=Kilian |first2=Joe |title=Primality testing using elliptic curves |journal=Journal of the ACM |date=July 1999 |volume=46 |issue=4 |pages=450–472 |doi=10.1145/320211.320213|s2cid=12453179 |doi-access=free }} Goldwasser is also a lead on Project CETI, an interdisciplinary initiative for translating the communication of sperm whales.{{cite web |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/scientists-plan-to-use-ai-to-try-to-decode-the-language-of-whales |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210419151847/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/scientists-plan-to-use-ai-to-try-to-decode-the-language-of-whales |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 19, 2021 |title= Groundbreaking effort launched to decode whale language|last=Welch|first=Craig |date=April 19, 2021 |website= National Geographic Society |publisher=National Geographic Society |access-date=October 28, 2021}}

=Awards and honors=

Goldwasser was awarded the 2012 Turing Award along with Silvio Micali for their work in the field of cryptography.{{cite web|title=Goldwasser, Micali Receive ACM Turing Award for Advances in Cryptography|url=http://www.acm.org/press-room/news-releases/2013/turing-award-12|publisher=ACM|access-date=13 March 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130316052703/http://www.acm.org/press-room/news-releases/2013/turing-award-12|archive-date=16 March 2013}}

Goldwasser has twice won the Gödel Prize in theoretical computer science: first in 1993 (for "The knowledge complexity of interactive proof systems"),{{Cite book | doi = 10.1145/22145.22178| chapter = The knowledge complexity of interactive proof-systems| title = Proceedings of the seventeenth annual ACM symposium on Theory of computing – STOC '85| pages = 291| year = 1985| last1 = Goldwasser | first1 = S. | last2 = Micali | first2 = S. | last3 = Rackoff | first3 = C. | isbn = 978-0897911511| citeseerx = 10.1.1.397.4002| s2cid = 8689051 | publisher = Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) }} and again in 2001 (for Interactive Proofs and the Hardness of Approximating Cliques).{{Cite journal | last1 = Feige | first1 = U. |author-link1=Uriel Feige| last2 = Goldwasser | first2 = S. |author-link2=Shafi Goldwasser| last3 = Lovász | first3 = L. |author-link3=László Lovász| last4 = Safra | first4 = S. |author-link4=Shmuel Safra| last5 = Szegedy | first5 = M. |author-link5=Mario Szegedy| title = Interactive proofs and the hardness of approximating cliques | doi = 10.1145/226643.226652 | journal = Journal of the ACM| volume = 43 | issue = 2 | pages = 268–292 | year = 1996 | doi-access = free }} Other awards include the ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award (1996) for outstanding young computer professional of the year and the RSA Award for Excellence in Mathematics (1998) for outstanding mathematical contributions to cryptography. In 2001 she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 2002 she gave a plenary lecture at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Beijing.{{Cite web|url=https://www.mathunion.org/fileadmin/IMU/ICM2002/offline/Beijing/B/Plenary.htm|title=Plenary Speakers|website=www.mathunion.org}} In 2004 she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, and in 2005 to the National Academy of Engineering. She was selected as an IACR Fellow in 2007. Goldwasser received the 2008–2009 Athena Lecturer Award of the Association for Computing Machinery's Committee on Women in Computing.{{cite web|url=http://www.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il|title=Home|work=weizmann.ac.il}} She is the recipient of The Franklin Institute's 2010 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science.{{cite web|url=http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/franklin-laureates.html|title=Goldwasser, Stubbe named Franklin Institute laureates|author=News Office|date=21 October 2009|work=MIT News}} She received the IEEE Emanuel R. Piore Award in 2011.{{cite web|title=IEEE Emanuel R. Piore Award Recipients|url=http://www.ieee.org/documents/piore_rl.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130217000243/http://www.ieee.org/documents/piore_rl.pdf|archive-date=February 17, 2013|access-date=December 30, 2010|publisher=IEEE}}

She received the 2018 Frontier of Knowledge award together with Micali, Rivest and Shamir.{{cite web|url=https://www.frontiersofknowledgeawards-fbbva.es/|title=homepage – Premios Fronteras|website=Premios Fronteras|access-date=10 April 2018}}

Goldwasser was elected as an ACM Fellow in 2017.{{citation|url=https://www.acm.org/media-center/2017/december/fellows-2017|title=ACM Recognizes 2017 Fellows for Making Transformative Contributions and Advancing Technology in the Digital Age|publisher=Association for Computing Machinery|date=December 11, 2017|access-date=2017-11-13}} In July 2017, she was a plenary lecturer in the Mathematical Congress of the Americas.{{Cite web|url=https://mca2017.org/|title=Home | Mathematical Congress of the Americas 2017|website=mca2017.org}}

In 2018, Goldwasser was awarded an honorary degree by her alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cmu.edu/leadership/president/campus-comms/2018/2018-03-29.html|title=Commencement Speakers and Honorary Degree Recipients – Leadership – Carnegie Mellon University|last=University|first=Carnegie Mellon|website=www.cmu.edu|language=en|access-date=2018-09-21}} In June 2019 Goldwasser was awarded an honorary doctorate of science by the University of Oxford.{{cite web |title=Honorary degree recipients for 2019 announced |date=March 25, 2019 |url=http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2019-03-25-honorary-degree-recipients-2019-announced |publisher=The University of Oxford |access-date=26 June 2019}}

Goldwasser is featured in the Notable Women in Computing cards.{{Cite web| title = Notable Women in Computing| url = http://www.cs.duke.edu/csed/wikipedia/cards.html}} She won the Suffrage Science award in 2016. She was on the Mathematical Sciences jury for the Infosys Prize in 2020.{{Cite web|title=Infosys Prize – Jury 2020|url=http://www.infosys-science-foundation.com/prize/jury/jury-2020.asp|access-date=2020-12-10|website=www.infosys-science-foundation.com}} She was awarded the 2021 L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science Award in Computer Science.{{Cite news|title=Dickenstein and Goldwasser Receive International Awards for Women in Science|work=Notices of the American Mathematical Society|url=https://www.ams.org/journals/notices/202106/rnoti-p1039.pdf}}

Personal life

Goldwasser is married to fellow computer scientist Nir Shavit, with whom she has two sons.{{Cite book |editor-last=Goldreich |editor-first=Oded |editor-link=Oded Goldreich |date=2019 |title=Providing Sound Foundations for Cryptography: On the Work of Shafi Goldwasser and Silvio Micali |publisher=Association for Computing Machinery |isbn=978-1-4503-7266-4 |pages=20–21 |doi=10.1145/3335741}}