{"688976":{"#nid":"688976","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Groundbreaking Speaker Series Will Welcome Its 15th Turing Award Winner as Its Last Guest","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAlthough it\u2019s often unintentional, faculty can seem intimidating. So, reaching out to a professor with questions can be quite a challenge for some students. For others, not so much.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/zackaxel\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EZachary Axel\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E is a great example. Reaching well beyond Georgia Tech faculty, he started sending \u201ccold call\u201d emails in 2023 to A.M. Turing Award winners and other computing luminaries.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe emails shared Axel\u2019s vision for a virtual platform that would enable Georgia Tech students and faculty to connect with some of the most distinguished minds in computing.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe first to accept was \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/awards.acm.org\/award_winners\/vardi_9543503#150\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMoshe\u0026nbsp;Vardi\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, a distinguished professor of computer science at Rice University and recipient of the 2020 AAAI Allen Newell Award and several other ACM awards. \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/youtu.be\/ZjKQTgxAOkU?si=tCcdVKLyaRrMgf4j\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EVardi\u2019s January 2024 presentation\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E was a hit and served as a template for what grew to become the Turing Mind Series at Georgia Tech.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThree years and nearly two dozen emails later, the series is wrapping up later this month, hosting its 22nd event and its 15th Turing Award winner.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/luma.com\/n3fqy7hu\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ERegistration is open for the final session of the Turing Mind Series on March 30, featuring 2019 Turing Laureate Patrick Hanrahan\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, widely renowned for his enduring contributions to 3D computer graphics.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThere are approximately 70-75 living Turing Award winners. I am proud to say that we have hosted roughly 20% of them for the Turing Minds Series,\u201d said Axel, a former\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/omscs.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EOnline Master of Science in Computer Science (OMSCS)\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E student.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cFifteen felt like the right number to end on. We set out to connect Georgia Tech students and researchers with Turing Laureates, and we did exactly that. Mission accomplished.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs one might guess, Turing Award winners don\u2019t receive a lot of unsolicited emails from students.\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.turing.rsvp\/speaker\/vint-cerf\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EVinton Cerf\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, a 2004 Turing Award winner, says people typically hesitate to engage without some form of endorsement or introduction.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWhat is notable about Zachary\u2019s initiative is that he undertook to \u2018cold call,\u2019 well, \u2018cold email,\u2019 Turing Award recipients to ask them to participate in the program,\u201d said Cerf, who, along with fellow 2004 Turing Laureate\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/amturing.acm.org\/award_winners\/kahn_4598637.cfm\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ERobert Kahn\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, was instrumental in the pioneering development of fundamental internet communication protocols.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt is a measure of his confidence and optimism that he succeeded in persuading Turing awardees to engage in the speaking program. Zachary did not hesitate and, in some ways, that may be why he was so successful,\u201d said Cerf.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAxel credits GT Computing Dean Emeritus\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.cc.gatech.edu\/people\/zvi-galil\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EZvi Galil\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E with encouraging him and offering guidance along the way.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cZach is amazing, and he has a lot of chutzpah,\u201d said Galil. \u201cThe Turing Minds Series is a remarkable achievement and has become the premier global speaker platform for computer science luminaries.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAxel thinks he was successful early on for two reasons: he kept it simple, and he used his Georgia Tech email address. He emailed the first five Turing Laureates from the perspective of a student hungry for knowledge.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI simply asked the Laureates I reached if they would give 30 minutes of their time to virtually present to me and my GT classmates,\u201d said Axel.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe says he would thoroughly research each winner so he could reference a presentation, paper, or another specific aspect of their work in his email. \u201cI did my homework. I made it very easy for them to say yes.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAxel\u2019s request emails also offered the Turing Laureates \u2013and the Nobel Prize Laureates who were also invited\u2013 the option of sharing a presentation or participating in a Q\u0026amp;A. It was this decision to offer a Q\u0026amp;A format that led to one of the most significant moments of the Turing Mind Series for Axel.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThat\u0027s how we got legendary 1974 Turing Laureate\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.turing.rsvp\/speaker\/donald-knuth\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EDonald Knuth\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E. Known for being extremely selective in accepting speaking invitations, he specifically stated that the offer to do a Q\u0026amp;A format was the reason he accepted,\u201d said Axel.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI also don\u0027t think it hurt that the email was coming from an @gatech.edu\u0026nbsp;address, as the Georgia Tech name offered us significant credibility.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKnuth, widely regarded as the \u201cfather of algorithm analysis,\u201d and renowned for his foundational work, \u003Cem\u003EThe Art of Computer Programming\u003C\/em\u003E, joined the Turing Minds Series in October 2025 as its 12th guest.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThanks so much to you and Parsa for honoring me with an invitation to speak in the online \u2018Turing Minds\u2019 series at Georgia Tech,\u201d Knuth said in a note written to Axel.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt was lots of fun for me this morning to try to answer the excellent questions posed by so many of the viewers.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/parsas\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EParsa Khazaeepoul\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E is also a former OMSCS student and the co-founder of the series. Axel says that Khazaeepoul\u2019s technical expertise led to the success of the series\u2019 virtual platform.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cParsa built the series website and managed all of the challenges of hosting and scaling a platform that has impacted to date 4,000+ students and faculty from Georgia Tech and throughout the world.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe Turing Minds Series at Georgia Tech hosted its first speaker in January 2024. The\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/luma.com\/n3fqy7hu\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003Efinal installment is scheduled for March 30 at 1 p.m.\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut this isn\u2019t the end of the series. Live video recordings of each of the soon-to-be 15 events in the series are available at\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.turing.rsvp\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003Ehttps:\/\/www.turing.rsvp\/\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBeyond the website, Axel says the Turing Minds Series is partnering with the ACM, the creators and distributors of the A.M. Turing Award. The goal is to integrate the series into the ACM ecosystem, where it will be accessible to the ACM\u2019s 110,000 student and professional members in more than 170 countries.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022We had a lot of people reach out to us to thank us for what we were doing. Knowing that students left these conversations seeing what\u0027s possible in computer science, that meant everything to us,\u0022 said Axel.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EFollowing 22 events featuring conversations with some of the brightest minds in computing, the Turing Minds Series at Georgia Tech draws to a close on March 30.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"What started with cold-call emails turned into a premier platform for students and faculty to connect with computing luminaries."}],"uid":"32045","created_gmt":"2026-03-17 17:52:19","changed_gmt":"2026-03-17 18:40:56","author":"Ben Snedeker","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-03-17T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-03-17T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"679658":{"id":"679658","type":"image","title":"Turing-Mind-Letter.jpg","body":"\u003Cp\u003EA composite graphic of the mind featuring an overlay of a thank you note from Turing Award winner Donald Knuth following a virtual Q\u0026amp;A at Georgia Tech.\u003C\/p\u003E","created":"1773769948","gmt_created":"2026-03-17 17:52:28","changed":"1773769948","gmt_changed":"2026-03-17 17:52:28","alt":"A composite graphic of the mind featuring overlay of thank you note from Turing Award winner Donald Knuth following a virtual Q\u0026A at Georgia Tech.","file":{"fid":"263841","name":"Turing-Mind-Letter.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/03\/17\/Turing-Mind-Letter.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/03\/17\/Turing-Mind-Letter.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":114546,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/03\/17\/Turing-Mind-Letter.jpg?itok=VZoQgW4S"}}},"media_ids":["679658"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"431631","name":"OMS"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[{"id":"133","name":"Special Events and Guest Speakers"},{"id":"193157","name":"Student Honors and Achievements"}],"keywords":[{"id":"10199","name":"Daily Digest"},{"id":"181991","name":"Georgia Tech News Center"},{"id":"168868","name":"Turing Award Winner"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBen Snedeker, Senior Communications Mgr.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech College of Computing\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003Ealbert.snedeker@cc.gatech.edu\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}