Mathematics People
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NEWS Mathematics People Ooguri Awarded Regev Awarded Gödel Prize Hamburg Prize Oded Regev of the Courant Insti- tute of Mathematical Sciences, New Hirosi Ooguri of the California York University, has been awarded Institute of Technology has been the 2018 Gödel Prize for his paper awarded the 2018 Hamburg Prize for “On Lattices, Learning with Errors, Theoretical Physics for his research Random Linear Codes, and Cryp- involving mathematical superstring tography,” Journal of the ACM 56 theory. According to the prize cita- (2009), no. 6. tion, Ooguri “has succeeded in en- The paper introduced the Learn- abling many physical phenomena to ing with Errors (LWE) problem and be computed with the aid of string Oded Regev proved its average-case hardness theory. He was able to overcome assuming the worst-case (quantum) Hirosi Ooguri many of the major mathematical hardness of various well-studied problems on point lat- difficulties of string theory. More- tices in Rn. It also gave an LWE-based public-key encryp- over, Ooguri’s research on the quantum mechanics of tion scheme that is much simpler and more efficient than black holes continues the research of physicist Stephen prior ones having similar worst-case hardness guarantees; Hawking.” this system has served as the foundation for countless Ooguri received his PhD from the University of Tokyo in subsequent works. Lastly, the paper introduced elegant 1989. He has held positions at the University of Tokyo, the and powerful techniques, including a beautiful quantum University of Chicago, Kyoto University, and the University algorithm, for the study of lattice problems in cryptog- of California Berkeley before joining the faculty at Caltech. raphy and computational complexity. Regev’s work has His awards and honors include the AMS Eisenbud Prize ushered in a revolution in cryptography, in both theory (2008, with Andrew Strominger and Cumrun Vafa), a Hum- and practice. On the theoretical side, LWE has served as a boldt Research Award (2008), the Nishina Memorial Prize simple and yet amazingly versatile foundation for nearly (2009), a Simons Investigator Award (2012), the Kodansha every kind of cryptographic object imaginable—along with Prize for Science Books of Japan (2014), and the Chunichi many that were unimaginable until recently, and which Cultural Award (2016). He is a Fellow of the AMS and of the still have no known constructions without LWE. Toward American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS). He also the practical end, LWE and its direct descendants are at served as scientific advisor for a 3D movie, The Man from the heart of several efficient real-world cryptosystems. the 9 Dimensions, which tells the story of the quest for Regev tells the Notices: “Being a theoretical computer sci- the “theory of everything” and which premiered in Tokyo. entist allowed me to have lots of fun collaborations with The Hamburg Prize is awarded by the Joachim Herz Stif- researchers from a wide range of mathematical areas. I tung in partnership with the Wolfgang Pauli Centre of the enjoy living near the Washington Square campus of NYU, University of Hamburg, the German Electron Synchrotron where it seems one lifetime is not enough to explore all the DESY, and the Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging at the great restaurants. I regularly go jogging or cycling along University of Hamburg. The prize carries a cash award of the beautiful Hudson River park.” 100,000 euros (approximately US$118,000). The Gödel Prize includes an award of US$5,000 and is named in honor of Kurt Gödel, who was born in Austria- —Elaine Kehoe Hungary (now the Czech Republic) in 1906. Gödel’s work has had immense impact upon scientific and philosophical thinking in the twentieth century. The award recognizes his major contributions to mathematical logic and the foundations of computer science. —From a Gödel Prize announcement SEPTEMBER 2018 NOTICES OF THE AMS 1021 Mathematics People NEWS and the USAMO became members of the US team and com- Ford Foundation peted in the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), Fellows Announced held July 3–14, 2018, in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. (The results of the IMO will appear in a future issue of the Notices.) The Ford Foundation Fellowship Program has announced the names of 125 scholars who have received predoctoral, —From Mathematical Association dissertation, and postdoctoral fellowships in all areas of of America announcements scholarship. Two mathematical scientists were among the awardees. Elaina K. Aceves of the University of Iowa received a predoctoral fellowship in mathematics and edu- Mathematical Sciences cation. Samniqueka Joi-Weaver Halsey of the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign was awarded a dissertation Awards at 2018 ISEF fellowship in computational biology. The Ford Foundation Fellowship programs seek to increase the diversity of the The 2018 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair nation’s college and university faculties by increasing their (ISEF) was held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in May 2018. ethnic and racial diversity, to maximize the educational The Society for Science and the Public, in partnership with benefits of diversity, and to increase the number of pro- the Intel Foundation, selects a Best of Category contestant, fessors who can and will use diversity as a resource for who receives a cash award of US$5,000; in addition, a enriching the education of all students. US$1,000 grant is given to the student’s school and the Intel ISEF Affiliated Fair he or she represents. The student —From a Ford Foundation announcement chosen this year in the Mathematical Sciences category was Muhammad Abdulla, West Shore Junior/Senior High School, Melbourne, Florida, for his project “A Fine Classification of Second Minimal Odd Orbits.” Abdulla USA Mathematical Olympiad also received the First Award of US$3,000, the Dudley R. The 2018 USA Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO) was Herschbach SIYSS Award in Mathematics, and a trip to held in April 2018. The students who participated in the observe the Nobel Prize ceremony. Olympiad were selected on the basis of their performances All of the award winners in the mathematical sciences on the American High School and American Invitational and the titles of their projects follow. Mathematics Examinations. The twelve highest scorers in First Award (US$3,000): Muhammad Abdulla, “A Fine this year’s AMO, listed in alphabetical order, were: Classification of Second Minimal Odd Orbits.” • Eric Gan, A&M Consolidated High School, College Sta- Second Award (US$1,500): Gustavo Santiago-Reyes tion, Texas and Omar Santiago-Reyes, Escuela Especializada en • Thomas Guo, Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Ciencias, Matemáticas y Tecnología, Caguas, Puerto Rico, Hampshire for “Mathematics of Gene Regulation: Control Theory for • Vincent Huang, Plano West Senior High School, Plano, Ternary Monomial Dynamical Systems”; Anna Savelyeva, Texas Moscow State School #57, Moscow, Russian Federation, for • Joshua Lee, Fairfax County Association for the Gifted “On the Maximum Number of Non-Intersecting Diagonals Middle School, Virginia in Unit Squares Filling an n*n Grid”; and Karthik Yeg- • Michael Ren, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachu- nesh, Methacton High School, Eagleville, Pennsylvania, setts for “Braid Groups on Triangulated Surfaces and Singular • Victor Rong, Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute, To- Homology.” Yegnesh was the recipient of the Best in Cat- ronto, Ontario, Canada egory and First Awards in the 2017 competition. • Carl Schildkraut, Lakeside High School, Nine Mile Third Award (US$1,000): Chavdar Lalov, Geo Milev Falls, Washington High School of Mathematics, Pleven, Bulgaria, for “Generat- • Mihir Singhal, Palo Alto High School, Palo Alto, Cali- ing Functions of the Free Generators of Some Submagmas fornia of the Free Omega Magma and Planar Trees”; Gianfranco • Edward Wan, St. John’s School, San Juan, Puerto Rico Cortes-Arroyo, West Port High School, Ocala, Florida, for • Brandon Wang, Saratoga High School, Saratoga, Cali- “Generalized Persistence Parameters for Analyzing Strati- fornia fied Pseudomanifolds”; Aleksandr Serdiukov, School • Guanpeng Xu, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachu- 564, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation, for “Combinator- setts ics of Circular Codes”; and Theodore Ehrenborg, Henry • Andrew Yao, Weston High School, Weston, Massa- Clay High School, Lexington, Kentucky, for “Pythagorean chusetts Quintuples and Quaternions.” The twelve USAMO winners attended the Mathematical Fourth Award ($500): Kayson Hansen, Twin Falls High Olympiad Summer Program (MOSP) at the University of School, Twin Falls, Idaho, for “From Lucas Sequences to Nebraska, Lincoln, in June 2018. Ten of the twelve took Lucas Groups”; Gopal Goel, Krishna Homeschool, Oregon, the team selection test to qualify for the US team. The six for “Discrete Derivatives of Random Matrix Models and students with the highest combined scores from the test the Gaussian Free Field”; Rachana Madhukara, Canyon 1022 NOTICES OF THE AMS VOLUME 65, NUMBER 8 Mathematics People NEWS Crest Academy, San Diego, California, for “Asymptotics of Solution of Generalized Legendre’s Equation Czn =Ax 2+By 2 Character Sums”; Adisorn Khantong, Kullanut Boor- and Its Application to Cryptography.” anarom, and Witchaya Natemonprapa, all of Princess Chulabhorn Science High School Phetchaburi, Phetchaburi, —From a Society for Science and Thailand, for “The Polar Equations of Water Distribution the Public announcement from Butterfly Sprinkler Heads”; Melih Sahin, Ankara Fen Lisesi, Turkey,