{"325511":{"#nid":"325511","#data":{"type":"news","title":"ACM, IEEE Taps Lipton for Prestigious Knuth Prize","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ERichard Lipton, a professor and the Frederick G. Storey Chair in Computing in the School of Computer Science, added a second major award to his credentials this year as he was recently named the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.acm.org\/press-room\/news-releases\/2014\/knuth-prize-2014\u0022\u003Ewinner of the 2014 Knuth Prize\u003C\/a\u003E for his contributions to the foundations of computer science.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn receiving the award, \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.cc.gatech.edu\/people\/richard-lipton\u0022\u003ELipton\u003C\/a\u003E was cited for \u201cinventing new computer science and mathematical techniques to tackle foundational and practical problems in a wide range of areas in graph algorithms, computation, communication, program testing, and DNA computing.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe Knuth Prize is jointly presented by ACM\u2019s Special Interest Group on Algorithms and Computation Theory (SIGACT) and the IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on the Mathematical Foundations of Computing (TCMF). The award will be presented at the\u0026nbsp;Foundations of Computer Science (FOCS) Conference\u0026nbsp;in Philadelphia, PA, from Oct. 18 to 21, where Lipton will give the Knuth Prize Lecture.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EEarlier this year, Lipton was \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.cc.gatech.edu\/news\/lipton-elected-american-academy-arts-and-sciences\u0022\u003Eelected to the 2014 class of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences\u003C\/a\u003E. With the Knuth Prize, Lipton joins a \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.sigact.org\/Prizes\/Knuth\/\u0022\u003Eshort list\u003C\/a\u003E of extraordinary computer scientists.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe Knuth Prize means a great deal,\u201d Lipton said. \u201cIt is very exciting to be recognized by your peers for work that spans over 40 years.\u0026nbsp;I feel very special\u0026nbsp;and thankful to have been selected.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELance Fortnow, chair of the School of Computer Science, offered his praise:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Dick\u0027s work has had a major impact in quite diverse areas across theoretical computer science and has heavily influenced many researchers including myself. I can think of no one more deserving of this award.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn presenting the award, the selection committee cited:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003ELipton\u2019s development of the planar separator theorem. Working with Turing Award winner Robert Tarjan, Lipton created a \u201cdivide-and-conquer\u201d approach to solving difficult network problems by breaking problems into two or more sub-problems of the same or related type.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003ELipton\u2019s pioneering work in the design of algorithms that make random choices in order to solve computational programs. He showed that when working with complex algebraic problems, it was sufficient to check a program by running it against randomly chosen but related inputs and comparing the results for consistency.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EHis development of a fundamental theorem in circuit complexity with Richard Karp, another Turing Award recipient. This demonstrated that NP-complete problems are unlikely to be solved by the best algorithms even with specialized hardware.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EHis status as an early developer of communication complexity, the study of the number of bits of communication needed for agents to solve computational tasks, and in DNA computing, which uses the combination and replication of the vast numbers of DNA strands that fit in a test tube as a basis for parallel computation.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ul\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe Knuth Prize is named in honor and recognition of Turing Award winner Donald Knuth, professor emeritus at Stanford University. Knuth is well-known for his ongoing multivolume series, \u003Cem\u003EThe Art of Computer Programming\u003C\/em\u003E, which played a critical role in establishing and defining computer science as a rigorous, intellectual discipline.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELipton earned his undergraduate degree in mathematics from Case Western Reserve University and his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University. He taught at Yale, the University of California in Berkeley and Princeton before joining the Georgia Tech faculty in 2000.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELipton explores one of the most daunting puzzles in computation theory in his blog\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/rjlipton.wordpress.com\/\u0022\u003EG\u00f6del\u2019s Lost Letter and P=NP\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;and recently published his second book based on the blog,\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/People-Problems-Proofs-Essays-G%C3%B6dels\/dp\/3642414214\/ref%3Dsr_1_2?s=books\u0026amp;ie=UTF8\u0026amp;qid=1393085404\u0026amp;sr=1-2\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003EPeople, Problems, and Proofs: Essays from G\u00f6del\u0027s Lost Letter\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cem\u003E,\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/em\u003Ewhich he co-authored with Kenneth W. Regan of the University of Buffalo.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EComputing professor cited for \u201cinventing new computer science and mathematical techniques to tackle foundational and practical problems in a wide range of areas in graph algorithms, computation, communication, program testing, and DNA computing.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Richard Lipton, a professor and the Frederick G. Storey Chair in Computing in the School of Computer Science, was recently named the winner of the 2014 Knuth Prize for his contributions to the foundations of computer science."}],"uid":"27998","created_gmt":"2014-09-16 15:28:59","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:17:04","author":"Brittany Aiello","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-09-17T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2014-09-17T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"50569":{"id":"50569","type":"image","title":"Richard Lipton","body":null,"created":"1449175408","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 20:43:28","changed":"1475894463","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:41:03","alt":"Richard Lipton","file":{"fid":"128749","name":"richard-lipton.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/richard-lipton_1.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/richard-lipton_1.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":14847,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/richard-lipton_1.jpg?itok=p_KwDozi"}}},"media_ids":["50569"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"55631","name":"ACM Awards"},{"id":"103451","name":"Algorithms and Computation Theory"},{"id":"103461","name":"Foundations of Computer Science Conference"},{"id":"1187","name":"IEEE"},{"id":"103441","name":"Knuth Prize"},{"id":"114601","name":"Press Release"},{"id":"15711","name":"richard lipton"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71871","name":"Campus and Community"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EPhillip Taylor\u003Cbr \/\u003ENews and Media Relations Manager\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:ptaylor@cc.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Eptaylor@cc.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["ptaylor@cc.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}