Manuel Blum facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Manuel Blum
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Manuel Blum (left) with his wife Lenore Blum and their son Avrim Blum, 1973
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| Born | 26 April 1938 Caracas, Venezuela
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| Alma mater | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (BS, MS, PhD) |
| Known for | Blum complexity axioms Blum integer Blum's speedup theorem Blum Blum Shub Blum–Goldwasser cryptosystem Blum–Micali algorithm CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA Commitment scheme |
| Spouse(s) | Lenore Blum |
| Awards | ACM's A.M. Turing Award, 1995 Distinguished Teaching Award, UC Berkeley, 1977 Sigma Xi's Monie A. Ferst Award, 1991 Herbert A.Simon Teaching award, 2007 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Computer science |
| Institutions | University of California, Berkeley Carnegie Mellon University |
| Thesis | A Machine-Independent Theory of the Complexity of Recursive Functions (1964) |
| Doctoral advisor | Marvin Minsky |
| Doctoral students | Leonard Adleman Dana Angluin C. Eric Bach Shafi Goldwasser Mor Harchol-Balter Russell Impagliazzo Silvio Micali Gary Miller Moni Naor Ronitt Rubinfeld Steven Rudich Jeffrey Shallit Michael Sipser Umesh Vazirani Vijay Vazirani Luis von Ahn Ryan Williams |
Manuel Blum, born on April 26, 1938, is a computer scientist from Venezuela and America. He won the Turing Award in 1995. This award is like the Nobel Prize for computer science. He was honored for his important work on how computers solve problems and keep information secret. He also helped create ways to check if computer programs work correctly.
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Manuel Blum's Early Life and Learning
Manuel Blum was born in Venezuela. He went to a famous school called MIT. There, he earned his first degrees in electrical engineering in 1959 and 1961. Electrical engineering is about designing and using electrical systems.
At MIT, he worked with Warren Sturgis McCulloch. They explored math problems related to how our brains work, like neural networks. In 1964, he earned his highest degree, a Ph.D., in mathematics. His teacher for this was Marvin Minsky, another very famous computer scientist.
Manuel Blum's Career in Computer Science
Manuel Blum taught computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. He worked there until 2001. After that, he became a professor at Carnegie Mellon University until 2018. His wife, Lenore Blum, is also a computer science professor.
In 2002, he was chosen to join the United States National Academy of Sciences. This is a very high honor for scientists in the U.S. In 2006, he also became a member of the National Academy of Engineering. This was for his work on how complex computer problems are. It also recognized his ideas for keeping information safe and checking computer programs.
In 2018, he and his wife, Lenore, left Carnegie Mellon University. They did this to protest against unfair treatment. They felt that women were not being treated equally in a special project.
Manuel Blum's Important Research
In the 1960s, Manuel Blum created a new way to measure how hard computer problems are. This idea worked for any computer, no matter how it was built. It used special math rules called Blum axioms. This theory led to important discoveries, like how to make computer programs run faster.
He also worked on many other cool things:
- A way to "flip a coin" over the phone, even if you are far apart. This is used in cryptography.
- The median of medians method. This is a quick way to find the middle number in a large list.
- The Blum Blum Shub method. This creates random-like numbers that are very hard to guess. These are important for computer security.
- The Blum–Goldwasser cryptosystem. This is a way to send secret messages that are very safe.
- CAPTCHAs. You've probably seen these! They are those wavy letters or pictures you have to type to prove you are not a robot. Manuel Blum helped create them.
Manuel Blum is also famous for teaching many students who became top researchers. Some of his students include Shafi Goldwasser, Silvio Micali, and Luis von Ahn. They have all made big contributions to computer science.
See also
- List of Venezuelans
- Graph isomorphism problem
- Non-interactive zero-knowledge proof
- Quantum coin flipping
- Pancake sorting
Images for kids
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A robot, representing computer science.
