The Turing Prize, known as the “Nobel of Computer Science”, will be awarded to Prof. Avi Wigderzon, a graduate of the Taub Faculty of Computer Science and a researcher at the Institute for Advanced Research (IAS) at Princeton University. The award is an annual award given by the ACM organization – the American Society for Computing Machinery. Prof. Wigderzon is the sixth Israeli to win the prestigious award. “Prof. Wigderzon’s enormous contribution to the worlds of mathematics and computing led to his selection for the Nobel Prize in Computer Science”
Prof. Wigderzon (67), born in Haifa, completed his bachelor’s degree at the Taub Faculty of Computer Science at the Technion. After completing his undergraduate studies in 1980, he went on to earn a master’s degree and a doctorate at Princeton, and is currently a researcher at the Institute for Advanced Studies at the prestigious university.
Over the years, he has published hundreds of articles and won a number of awards and scholarships, including the Alon Scholarship, the Gadel Prize, the Conant Prize, the Nebelina Prize and the Abel Prize. In order to make the field of complexity and its connections to the theory of computer science accessible, Prof. Wigderzon wrote a book on the subject: “Mathematics and computing – a theory that revolutionized technology and science”.
In June 2023, Prof. Wigderzon received an honorary doctorate from the Technion, this “for his important contribution and leadership in the theoretical fields of computer science and discrete mathematics, including complexity theory, encryption, expanding graphs, and more; and as a token of gratitude for his long-standing ties with the Technion, which began in his undergraduate studies “.
The president of the Technion, Prof. Uri Sion, responded:
“We are very proud of him being a graduate of the Technion and his long-standing ties with our research community. Last year we awarded him an honorary doctorate for his groundbreaking contributions in a wide range of topics from discrete and complex mathematics to cryptography. Winning the Turing Award expresses the global recognition of Prof. Wigderzon’s extraordinary contributions And we congratulate him on the great honor and rejoice with joy.”
The Dean of the Taub Faculty of Computer Sciences, Prof. Danny Raz, commented:
“Prof. Wigderzon’s enormous contribution to the worlds of mathematics and computing, which won him international recognition with the Abel, Gadel, Conant and Nevelina prizes, has now led to his selection for the Nobel Prize in Computer Science, the Turing Prize. Prof. Wigderzon is a role model for our graduates – a graduate who has completed his studies and since then He dedicated his career to the advancement of human knowledge as a brilliant researcher in these two fields, mathematics and computer science, and at the interface between them, he should not receive the award.”
