Irit Dinur (Hebrew: אירית דינור) is an Israeli mathematician. She is professor of computer science at the

Weizmann Institute of Science The Weizmann Institute of Science ( he, מכון ויצמן למדע ''Machon Vaitzman LeMada'') is a public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, 14 years before the State of Israel. It differs from other Israeli unive ...

. Her research is in foundations of

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

and in

combinatorics Combinatorics is an area of mathematics primarily concerned with counting, both as a means and an end in obtaining results, and certain properties of finite structures. It is closely related to many other areas of mathematics and has many appl ...

, and especially in

probabilistically checkable proof In computational complexity theory, a probabilistically checkable proof (PCP) is a type of proof that can be checked by a randomized algorithm using a bounded amount of randomness and reading a bounded number of bits of the proof. The algorithm i ...

s and

hardness of approximation In computer science, hardness of approximation is a field that studies the algorithmic complexity of finding near-optimal solutions to optimization problems. Scope Hardness of approximation complements the study of approximation algorithms by prov ...

Biography

Irit Dinur earned her doctorate in 2002 from the school of computer science in

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...

, advised by

Shmuel Safra Shmuel Safra ( he, שמואל ספרא) is an Israeli computer scientist. He is a Professor of Computer Science at Tel Aviv University, Israel. He was born in Jerusalem. Safra's research areas include Computational complexity theory, complexity ...

; her thesis was entitled ''On the Hardness of Approximating the Minimum Vertex Cover and The Closest Vector in a Lattice''. She joined the Weizmann Institute after visiting the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...

NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It provides IT and network soluti ...

, and the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. Dinur published in 2006 a new proof of the PCP theorem that was significantly simpler than previous proofs of the same result.

Awards and recognition

In 2007, she was given the Michael Bruno Memorial Award in Computer Science by

Yad Hanadiv Yad Hanadiv (The Rothschild Foundation) is a Rothschild family philanthropic foundation in Israel. Goals and objectives Yad Hanadiv defines its mission as: Dedicated to creating resources for advancing Israel as a healthy, vibrant, democratic so ...

. She was a plenary speaker at the 2010

International Congress of Mathematicians The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) is the largest conference for the topic of mathematics. It meets once every four years, hosted by the International Mathematical Union (IMU). The Fields Medals, the Nevanlinna Prize (to be rename ...

. In 2012, she won the Anna and Lajos Erdős Prize in Mathematics, given by the

Israel Mathematical Union The Israel Mathematical Union (IMU) ( he, הַאִיגּוּד הַיִשְׂרְאֵלִי לְמָתֶמָטִיקָה) is an association of professional mathematicians in Israel. It is a member of the European Mathematical Society and the Int ...

. She was the William Bentinck-Smith Fellow at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 2012–2013. In 2019, she won the

Gödel Prize The Gödel Prize is an annual prize for outstanding papers in the area of theoretical computer science, given jointly by the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS) and the Association for Computing Machinery Special Inter ...

for her paper "The PCP theorem by gap amplification".EATCS 2019 Gödel Prize
retrieved 2019-09-11.

References

External links

Personal HomePage

Turing Centennial Post 1: Irit Dinur
guest post on

Luca Trevisan Luca Trevisan (21 July 1971) is an Italian professor of computer science at Bocconi University in Milan. His research area is theoretical computer science, focusing on randomness, cryptography, probabilistically checkable proofs, approximation, p ...

's blog "in theory" concerning Dinur's experiences as a lesbian academic {{DEFAULTSORT:Dinur, Irit Academic staff of Weizmann Institute of Science Living people Tel Aviv University alumni 21st-century Israeli mathematicians 21st-century women mathematicians Year of birth missing (living people) Gödel Prize laureates Erdős Prize recipients