Goldwasser and Micali Awarded Turing Prize

Shafi Goldwasser of the Massachusetts Institute Shafi Goldwasser is the RSA Professor of of Technology (MIT) and the Weizmann Institute Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at of Science and Silvio Micali of MIT have received MIT, principal investigator at the MIT Computer the 2012 A. M. Turing Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL), and Award of the Associa- professor of computer science and applied math- tion for Computing ematics at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Machinery (ACM). The Israel. She is the recipient of a National Science award, considered the Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award “Nobel Prize in Com- and of the ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award for puting”, carries a cash outstanding young computer professional. She has award of US$250,000. twice won the Gödel Prize presented jointly by the The prize citation ACM Special Interest Group on Algorithms and reads in part: “Working Computation Theory (SIGACT) and the European Shafi Goldwasser Silvio Micali together, [Goldwasser Association for Theoretical Computer Science and Micali] pioneered (EATCS). She was elected to the American Academy the field of provable security, which laid the math- of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sci- ematical foundations that made modern cryptog- ences, and the National Academy of Engineering. raphy possible. By formalizing the concept that She was recognized by the ACM Council on Women cryptographic security had to be computational in Computing (ACM-W) as the Athena Lecturer and rather than absolute, they created mathematical received the IEEE Piore Award and the Franklin structures that turned cryptography from an art Institute’s Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer into a science. Their work addresses important and Cognitive Science. She received her B.A. degree practical problems such as the protection of data in mathematics from Carnegie Mellon University from being viewed or modified, providing a secure and her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science means of communications and transactions over from the University of California Berkeley. the Internet. Their advances led to the notion of Silvio Micali, the Ford Professor of Engineering at interactive and probabilistic proofs and had a MIT and a principal investigator at the MIT CSAIL, profound impact on computational complexity, has received the Gödel Prize from ACM SIGACT an area that focuses on classifying computational and EATCS. A fellow of the American Academy of problems according to their inherent difficulty.” Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sci- Their 1983 paper “Probabilistic encryption” ences, and the National Academy of Engineering, defined the security of encryption as a “game” he is the recipient of the RSA Mathematics Award, involving adversaries; this definition has become the Berkeley Distinguished Alumnus of the Year a trademark of modern cryptography. Their simu- Award, and the ISE (Information Security Executive) lation paradigm approach led to the construction New England Rising Star Award. He is coeditor of a of a secure encryption scheme. They observed five-volume series of textbooks, Advances in Com- that to satisfy their security definition, encryp- puting Research, and has published more than one tion schemes must be randomized rather than hundred scientific papers. A graduate of Sapienza, deterministic, with many possible encrypted texts University of Rome, with a degree in mathematics, corresponding to each message. This development he earned a Ph.D. degree in computer science from revolutionized the study of cryptography and laid the University of California Berkeley. the foundation for the theory of cryptographic The A. M. Turing Award was instituted in 1966 to honor the computer scientists and engineers security that was developed throughout much of who created the systems and underlying theoreti- the 1980s. cal foundations that have propelled the informa- Their introduction of the idea of zero-knowledge tion technology industry. Financial support for the proofs provided the essential language for speak- Turing Award is provided by the Intel Corporation ing about security of cryptographic protocols by and Google Inc. controlling the leakage of knowledge.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1090/noti1021 —From an ACM announcement

762 Notices of the AMS Volume 60, Number 6