Frances Yao facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Frances Yao
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|---|---|
| 儲楓 | |
| Alma mater | National Taiwan University (BS) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD) |
| Spouse(s) | Andrew Yao |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Computer science |
| Institutions | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Brown University, Stanford University, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, City University of Hong Kong, Tsinghua University |
| Thesis | On Lower Bounds for Selection Problems (1973) |
| Doctoral advisor | Michael J. Fischer |
Frances Foong Chu Yao (Chinese: 儲楓; pinyin: Chǔ Fēng) is a brilliant Taiwanese-American mathematician and computer scientist. She studies how computers solve problems and how to make them work better. Currently, she is a top professor at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences (IIIS) of Tsinghua University in China. She also used to lead the computer science department at the City University of Hong Kong. Now, she is an honorary professor there.
Her Amazing Journey in Computer Science
Frances Yao earned her first degree in mathematics from National Taiwan University in 1969. She then went on to get her Ph.D. (a very high-level degree) in 1973. She studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a famous science school. Her main teacher there was Michael J. Fischer.
After finishing her studies, Frances worked at several well-known universities. These included the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Brown University, and Stanford University. In 1979, she joined the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. This was a special place where many new computer ideas were created. She worked there until she retired in 1999.
Coming Out of Retirement
In 2003, Frances decided to return to work. She became the head of the Computer Science Department at the City University of Hong Kong. She held this important role until June 2011.
Frances Yao is recognized for her important work. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1991, she and Ronald Graham won the Lester R. Ford Award. They received this award for an article they wrote about a field called Computational Geometry.
Family and Research
Frances Yao's husband, Andrew Yao, is also a very famous computer scientist. He even won the Turing Award, which is like the Nobel Prize for computer science!
Frances Yao's research often focuses on computational geometry. This area of computer science deals with how computers can understand and work with shapes and spaces. She also studies combinatorial algorithms. These are special step-by-step instructions for solving problems.
She is known for her work with other scientists:
- With Mike Paterson, she worked on something called binary space partitioning. This helps computers organize space, like in video games.
- With Dan Greene, she explored how computers handle shapes with limited detail.
- With Alan Demers and Scott Shenker, she studied scheduling algorithms. These help computers manage power efficiently, saving energy.
More recently, Frances Yao has been working in cryptography. This is the science of keeping information secret and secure. She, her husband Andrew Yao, and Wang Xiaoyun found new ways to test a security tool called SHA-1.
