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Home , Avi Wigderson, Nevanlinna Prize

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2021

The Norwegian Academy of Science and knowledge’ (see ref. 3). The class P con- countries. The WSF also serves as a venue Letters in Oslo, Norway has awarded the sists of problems which can be solved for the award ceremonies of the two Abel Prize for 2021 to László Lovász, efficiently in a reasonable time whereas prestigious awards namely the UNESCO Hungary and , USA. The the class NP consists of problems, whose Kalinga Prize for the Popularization of prize has a cash award of 7.5 million solutions can be efficiently verified. To Science and the UNESCO Sultan Qaboos Norwegian kroner (USD 870,000). In the date, it is not known if NP is equal to N. Prize for Environmental Conservation6 1970s, when Wigderson and Lovász Lovász was born in 1948 in Hungary. respectively. commenced their careers, theoretical He is at the Eötvös Loránd University in The Abel Prize was instituted in 2001 and pure mathematics Budapest, Hungary. Influenced by the in honour of the Norwegian mathemati- were almost entirely distinct disciplines. legendary Paul Erdős cian Niels Henrik Abel (1802–1829). Now, the two disciplines are interwoven, (whom he met in 1963), Lovász started Along with the (first given with many contributions coming from his journey of prolific publications in in 1936), the Abel Prize is considered to the duo complementing each other. The 1965 with several single-author papers be the highest award in mathematics. The citation is as follows: ‘for their founda- on . In collaboration with inaugural prize was given to Jean-Pierre tional contributions to theoretical com- Erdős in the 1970s, Lovász developed Serre in 2003. Among the twenty-four puter science and discrete mathematics, complementary methods to Erdős’s exist- recipients, Karen Keskulla Uhlenbeck is and their leading role in shaping them in- ing probabilistic graph theory techni- the only woman laureate, who received to central fields of modern mathematics’. ques. Lovász’s research led to profound the honour unshared in 2019. Sathaman- Wigderson was born in , , results in areas including combinatorial galam Ranga Iyengar Srinivasa Varadhan in 1956. He is the Herbert H. Maass Pro- optimization, algorithms, complexity, is the only recipient of Indian (and fessor in the School of Mathematics at graph theory and random walks. These Asian) origin to have won the prize (un- the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in areas span mathematics and theoretical shared in 2007)7. Six of the twenty-four Princeton, , USA and leads computer science. One of his most fam- Abel Laureates are Fields medalists the IAS program in Computer Science ous works is the ‘LLL algorithm’ whose (Jean-Pierre Serre, Sir Michael Francis and Discrete Mathematics. Wigderson is name is derived from the names of the Atiyah, John Griggs Thompson, John recognized for his contributions to the three authors: Arjen K. Lenstra, Hendrik Willard Milnor, and Gri- major areas of computational complexity W. Lenstra and László Lovász4. This gory Aleksandrovich Margulis). The theory, including randomized computa- paper dealing with the factorization of deadline for nomination is 15 September tion, algorithms and optimization, circuit the polynomials with rational coeffi- each year (https://www.abelprize.no/). complexity, proof complexity, quantum cients has numerous applications. Lovász computation, and under- is a recipient of many awards including, standing of fundamental graph proper- Wolf Prize (1999), (1999), 1. Reingold, O., Vadhan, S. and Wigderson, ties1. He has been able to address Gödel Prize (2001) and Kyoto Prize A., Ann. Math., 2002, 155(1), 157–187; questions concerning the power and limi- (2010). doi:10.2307/3062153. tations of algorithms. He also investi- Lovász has immense contributions to 2. Wigderson, A., Mathematics and Compu- tation: A Theory of Revolutionizing Tech- gated the applied aspects such as diverse areas of mathematics and com- nology and Science, in adversarial puter science. His contributions are part Press, USA, 2019; https://doi.org/10.2307/ environments, which is related to the and parcel of standard textbooks in both j.ctvckq7xb. 5 foundations of cryptography. The works the fields . He has also impacted the 3. Malhotra, R., Curr. Sci., 2010, 98(7), 887– of Wigderson have impacted diverse popularization of science and science 888. areas such as digital innovations in in- policy. In 2014, Lovász was elected 4. Lenstra, A. K., Lenstra Jr, H. W. and dustry, medicine, online communications President of the Hungarian Academy of Lovász, L., Math. Ann., 1982, 261(4), 515– and electronic commerce2. Wigderson is Sciences (HAS). In 2003, HAS in part- 534; doi:10.1007/BF01457454. a recipient of many awards including, nership with UNESCO and ICSU (Inter- 5. Bárány, I., Katona, G. O. and Sali, A. (1994), Gödel Prize national Council for Science), initiated a (eds), Building Bridges II: Mathematics of László Lovász, Springer Nature, 2020, vol. (2009) and Knuth Prize (2019). unique forum series on global science 28; http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662- The inauguration of the International policies known as the World Science 59204-5. Centre for Theoretical Sciences, Benga- Forum (WSF, https://worldscienceforum. 6. Khan, S. A., Curr. Sci., 2020, 118(12), luru, India took place in December 2009. org/), organized biannually in Budapest, 1867; 2018, 114(2), 252; 2016, 110(1), 15. The inauguration was marked by the Hungary. Since 2013, it is being held at 7. Karandikar, R. L., Curr. Sci., 2007, 92(10), event ‘Science without Boundaries’, locations between Budapest and partner 1328–1330. where specialists discussed the place of countries (2013 in Brazil, 2017 in Jordan cross-fertilization in research and the and in 2021, it is scheduled to be held in Sameen Ahmed Khan, Dhofar Univer- significance of theoretical sciences. South Africa). Under the leadership of sity, Department of Mathematics and Wigderson gave a public lecture titled, Lovász, the WSF has transformed into a Sciences, College of Arts and Applied ‘The P versus NP problem: efficient gigantic event. Now, it attracts thousands Sciences, Salalah, Sultanate of Oman. computation and the limits of human of participants from over one hundred e-mail: [email protected]

16 CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 121, NO. 1, 10 JULY 2021