Last year, Prof. Wigderzon, who also received the Abel Award, received an honorary doctorate from the Technion
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) in Princeton. The award is an annual award given by the ACM organization - the American Society for Computing Machinery.
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, cryptography, expanding graphs and more; And as a sign of gratitude for his long-standing ties with the Technion, which began in his undergraduate studies."
Prof. Wigderzon, born in Haifa (1956), 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 Study in Princeton. 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".
Technion President Prof. Uri Sion He congratulated Prof. Wigdarzon and said: "We are very proud of him being a graduate of the Technion and his long-standing ties with our community of researchers. Last year we awarded him an honorary doctorate for his groundbreaking contributions across a broad spectrum of topics from discrete and complex mathematics to cryptography. Winning the Turing Prize expresses the worldwide recognition of Prof. Wigderzon's extraordinary contributions and we congratulate him on the great honor and rejoice in his happiness."
Dean of the Taub Faculty of Computer Sciences, Prof. Danny Raz, said that "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. Wigdarzon is a role model for our graduates - a graduate who has completed his studies and has since devoted 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, it is not appropriate for him to receive the award."
Prof. Avi Wigderzon Speaking on behalf of the degree recipients at the Honorary Doctorate degree ceremony held as part of the events of the Cortorium - the meeting of the Technion's Board of Trustees - he said: "I have no doubt that all of us, the degree recipients, are excited to be here tonight. It's a huge honor. I would like to thank the Israeli Academy and all the people who contributed to my career - my family, teachers and mentors, students and post-doctoral students. I thank all the academic institutions I have been to, with the Technion being of course the first of them, my 'alma mater'. The Technion prepared me well for my academic career. I had excellent teachers here and here in 1980 I met Edna, later my wife, in a class dealing with solving puzzles. This is where we fell in love and here, in the synagogue at the Technion, we got married. Here I also fell in love with my field of practice - computer science theory. The Technion is a beacon of excellence that contributes to the security of the State of Israel and its economy in pursuit of knowledge and truth through inquiry and logic, openness and cooperation with Israeli and global society. It is important to preserve these values."
As mentioned, in 2021 Prof. Wigderzon won the Abel Prize given by the Norwegian Academy of Sciences, together with his friend and colleague László Lóbas from Ataves Lorand University in Budapest, Hungary, "for their enormous contribution to the theory of computer science and discrete mathematics and for their leadership role in the design of fields These are central areas in modern mathematics." The award website states that "Prof. Wigderzon is known for his ability to discover connections between apparently unrelated fields. He deepened the connections between mathematics and computer science. There is no other single person who has made such a great contribution to the expansion and deepening of the field of theories of complexity. He conducted research on all the problems related to this field and over the years the field developed around him. The most important application of the field of complexity today is cryptography on the Internet, and Prof. Wigderzon has made enormous contributions in this context as well, including research on zero-knowledge proof, which is currently used as an important basis in cryptography technologies.
