Leonard J. Y. Schulman (born September 14, 1963) is professor 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 ...

in the Computing and Mathematical Sciences Department at the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

. He is known for work on

algorithms In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for performing c ...

information theory Information theory is the scientific study of the quantification (science), quantification, computer data storage, storage, and telecommunication, communication of information. The field was originally established by the works of Harry Nyquist a ...

coding theory Coding theory is the study of the properties of codes and their respective fitness for specific applications. Codes are used for data compression, cryptography, error detection and correction, data transmission and data storage. Codes are stud ...

, and

quantum computation Quantum computing is a type of computation whose operations can harness the phenomena of quantum mechanics, such as superposition, interference, and entanglement. Devices that perform quantum computations are known as quantum computers. Though ...

Personal biography

Schulman is the son of theoretical physicist Lawrence Schulman.

Academic biography

Schulman studied at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

, where he completed a BS degree in mathematics in 1988 and a PhD degree in applied mathematics in 1992. He was a faculty member in the College of Computing at the

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

from 1995 to 2000 before joining the faculty of the

. From 2003-2017, he served as the director of the Center for Mathematics of Information at Caltech. He also participates in the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter. In 2017-2018, he was a EURIAS Senior Fellow at the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Research

Schulman's research centers broadly around algorithms and information. He has made notable contributions to varied areas within this space including clustering, derandomization, quantum information theory, and coding theory. In coding theory he proved the Interactive Coding Theorem (a generalization of the Shannon Coding Theorem.) In clustering, his work on quantifying the effectiveness of Lloyd-type methods for the

k-means ''k''-means clustering is a method of vector quantization, originally from signal processing, that aims to partition ''n'' observations into ''k'' clusters in which each observation belongs to the cluster with the nearest mean (cluster centers o ...

problem, was named a Computing Reviews "Notable Paper" in 2012. In quantum computation, he is known for his work on the non-abelian hidden subgroup problem, and for his work on noise thresholds for ensemble quantum computing.

Awards and honors

Schulman received the MIT Bucsela Prize in 1988, an NSF Mathematical Sciences Postdoctoral Fellowship in 1992 and an NSF CAREER award in 1999. His work received the IEEE S.A. Schelkunoff Prize in 2005. Schulman was also recognized for the ACM Notable Paper in 2012. In 2022 he was awarded the FOCS Test of Time Award for his work on error correction in the setting of interactive communication. He was the editor-in-chief of the

SIAM Journal on Computing The ''SIAM Journal on Computing'' is a scientific journal focusing on the mathematical and formal aspects of computer science. It is published by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM). Although its official ISO abbreviation is ...

for two terms (2013-2018.) He was elected as a Fellow of the

Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) is a professional society dedicated to applied mathematics, computational science, and data science through research, publications, and community. SIAM is the world's largest scientific socie ...

, in the 2022 Class of

SIAM Fellow The SIAM Fellowship is an award and fellowship that recognizes outstanding members of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM). The goal of the program is to: *honor SIAM members who are recognized by their peers as distinguished ...

s, "for seminal contributions to coding theory, quantum computing and matrix analysis, and outstanding service".

References

External links

Leonard Schulman professional home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schulman, Leonard American computer scientists 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians California Institute of Technology faculty Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni Living people Theoretical computer scientists 1963 births Fellows of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics