Gödel Prize facts for kids
The Gödel Prize is a special award given every year for amazing research papers in theoretical computer science. This field explores the basic ideas behind computers and how they solve problems. The prize is given by two big groups: the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS) and the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Algorithms and Computational Theory (ACM SIGACT).
The award is named after Kurt Gödel, a very smart mathematician. He was one of the first to think about a famous puzzle in computer science called the "P versus NP" question. In 1956, he wrote a letter asking if certain hard problems could be solved very quickly by computers.
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What is the Gödel Prize?
The Gödel Prize celebrates important discoveries in how computers work and solve problems. It focuses on the ideas and theories behind computer programs and algorithms. The prize has been given out since 1993.
When and Where is it Awarded?
The prize is given out at two major computer science conferences. In even-numbered years, it's awarded at ICALP, which stands for the International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming. This is a big conference held in Europe. In odd-numbered years, it's given at STOC, the ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing. This conference takes place in North America.
How Do Papers Qualify?
To win the Gödel Prize, a research paper must have been published in a scientific journal. It needs to have been published within the last 14 years. The winners also receive US$5000.
How Winners Are Chosen
A special committee of six members chooses the winner of the Gödel Prize. The leaders of EATCS and SIGACT each pick three members for this committee. These members serve for three years. The committee's leader changes each year between someone from EATCS and someone from SIGACT.
Gödel Prize vs. Knuth Prize
The Gödel Prize is given for outstanding research papers. It recognizes a specific piece of work. In contrast, the Knuth Prize is awarded to individuals for their overall big impact on the field of theoretical computer science. It celebrates a person's lifetime achievements.
Recipients
| Year | Name(s) | Notes | Publication year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | László Babai, Shafi Goldwasser, Silvio Micali, Shlomo Moran, and Charles Rackoff | for creating interactive proof systems | 1988, 1989 |
| 1994 | Johan Håstad | for showing limits on how small certain computer circuits can be | 1989 |
| 1995 | Neil Immerman and Róbert Szelepcsényi | for their theorem about how much memory computers need for some problems | 1988, 1988 |
| 1996 | Mark Jerrum and Alistair Sinclair | for their work on Markov chains and estimating complex math problems | 1989, 1989 |
| 1997 | Joseph Halpern and Yoram Moses | for defining what "knowledge" means in computer systems | 1990 |
| 1998 | Seinosuke Toda | for Toda's theorem, linking different types of computer problems | 1991 |
| 1999 | Peter Shor | for Shor's algorithm, which can factor large numbers quickly using a quantum computer | 1997 |
| 2000 | Moshe Y. Vardi and Pierre Wolper | for their work on temporal logic and how it relates to computer programs | 1994 |
| 2001 | Sanjeev Arora, Uriel Feige, Shafi Goldwasser, Carsten Lund, László Lovász, Rajeev Motwani, Shmuel Safra, Madhu Sudan, and Mario Szegedy | for the PCP theorem and its uses in finding approximate solutions | 1996, 1998, 1998 |
| 2002 | Géraud Sénizergues | for proving that certain computer programs can be checked for equality | 2001 |
| 2003 | Yoav Freund and Robert Schapire | for the AdaBoost algorithm, used in machine learning | 1997 |
| 2004 | Maurice Herlihy, Michael Saks, Nir Shavit and Fotios Zaharoglou | for using topology (a math field) in distributed computing | 1999, 2000 |
| 2005 | Noga Alon, Yossi Matias and Mario Szegedy | for their important work on streaming algorithms | 1999 |
| 2006 | Manindra Agrawal, Neeraj Kayal, Nitin Saxena | for the AKS primality test, which checks if a number is prime | 2004 |
| 2007 | Alexander Razborov, Steven Rudich | for their work on natural proofs in complexity theory | 1997 |
| 2008 | Daniel Spielman, Shang-Hua Teng | for smoothed analysis of algorithms, which helps understand how algorithms perform | 2004 |
| 2009 | Omer Reingold, Salil Vadhan, Avi Wigderson | for their work on connecting graphs and solving problems in log space | 2002, 2008 |
| 2010 | Sanjeev Arora, Joseph S. B. Mitchell | for finding a way to approximate the Travelling Salesman Problem quickly | 1998, 1999 |
| 2011 | Johan Håstad | for showing how hard it is to approximate certain problems | 2001 |
| 2012 | Elias Koutsoupias, Christos Papadimitriou, Noam Nisan, Amir Ronen, Tim Roughgarden and Éva Tardos | for starting the field of algorithmic game theory | 2009, 2002, 2001 |
| 2013 | Dan Boneh, Matthew K. Franklin, and Antoine Joux | for their work on secure key exchange in cryptography | 2003, 2004 |
| 2014 | Ronald Fagin, Amnon Lotem, and Moni Naor | for algorithms used in middleware to combine information | 2003 |
| 2015 | Daniel Spielman, Shang-Hua Teng | for their papers on solving complex math problems very quickly | 2011, 2013, 2014 |
| 2016 | Stephen Brookes and Peter W. O'Hearn | for inventing Concurrent Separation Logic for computer programs | 2007, 2007 |
| 2017 | Cynthia Dwork, Frank McSherry, Kobbi Nissim, and Adam D. Smith | for creating differential privacy, a way to protect personal data | 2006 |
| 2018 | Oded Regev | for introducing the learning with errors problem, important in cryptography | 2009 |
| 2019 | Irit Dinur | for her new proof of the PCP theorem | 2007 |
| 2020 | Robin Moser and Gábor Tardos | for their constructive proof of the Lovász local lemma | 2010 |
| 2021 | Andrei Bulatov, Jin-Yi Cai, Xi Chen, Martin Dyer, and David Richerby | for their work on classifying the difficulty of constraint satisfaction problems | 2013, 2013, 2017 |
| 2022 | Zvika Brakerski, Craig Gentry, and Vinod Vaikuntanathan | for their big contributions to homomorphic encryption, which allows calculations on encrypted data | 2014, 2014 |
| 2023 | Samuel Fiorini, Serge Massar, and Sebastian Pokutta, Hans Raj Tiwary, Ronald de Wolf, and Thomas Rothvoss | for showing that certain ways to solve the TSP are very complex | 2015, 2017 |
| 2024 | Ryan Williams | for his work on understanding the limits of computer circuits | 2011 |
| 2025 | Eshan Chattopadhyay and David Zuckerman | for their work on "extractors," which are important in computer science theory | 2016 |
See also
In Spanish: Premio Gödel para niños
- List of computer science awards
