Oded Goldreich ( he, עודד גולדרייך; b. 1957) is a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

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 ...

at the Faculty of

Mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

and

Weizmann Institute 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 univ ...

of Science, Israel. His research interests lie within the

theory of computation In theoretical computer science and mathematics, the theory of computation is the branch that deals with what problems can be solved on a model of computation, using an algorithm, how efficiently they can be solved or to what degree (e.g., a ...

and are, specifically, the interplay of

randomness In common usage, randomness is the apparent or actual lack of pattern or predictability in events. A random sequence of events, symbols or steps often has no order and does not follow an intelligible pattern or combination. Individual rand ...

and computation, the foundations of

cryptography Cryptography, or cryptology (from grc, , translit=kryptós "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or ''-logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adver ...

, and

computational complexity theory In theoretical computer science and mathematics, computational complexity theory focuses on classifying computational problems according to their resource usage, and relating these classes to each other. A computational problem is a task solved by ...

. He won the

Knuth Prize The Donald E. Knuth Prize is a prize for outstanding contributions to the foundations of computer science, named after the American computer scientist Donald E. Knuth. History The Knuth Prize has been awarded since 1996 and includes an award of US ...

in 2017 and was selected in 2021 to receive the

Israel Prize The Israel Prize ( he, פרס ישראל; ''pras israél'') is an award bestowed by the State of Israel, and regarded as the state's highest cultural honor. History The Israel Prize is awarded annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state cer ...

in mathematics.

Biography

Goldreich received a DSc in Computer Science at Technion in 1983 under Shimon Even. Goldreich has contributed to the development of

pseudorandomness A pseudorandom sequence of numbers is one that appears to be statistically random, despite having been produced by a completely deterministic and repeatable process. Background The generation of random numbers has many uses, such as for random ...

zero knowledge proof In cryptography, a zero-knowledge proof or zero-knowledge protocol is a method by which one party (the prover) can prove to another party (the verifier) that a given statement is true while the prover avoids conveying any additional information a ...

secure function evaluation Secure two-party computation (2PC) a.k.a. Secure function evaluation is sub-problem of secure multi-party computation (MPC) that has received special attention by researchers because of its close relation to many cryptographic tasks. The goal of 2PC ...

property testing In computer science, a property testing algorithm for a decision problem is an algorithm whose query complexity to its input is much smaller than the instance size of the problem. Typically property testing algorithms are used to distinguish if s ...

,Oded Goldreich, Shafi Goldwasser, and

Dana Ron Dana Ron Goldreich ( he, דנה רון גולדרייך; b. 1964) is a computer scientist, a professor of electrical engineering at the Tel Aviv University, Israel. Prof. Ron is one of the pioneers of research in property testing, and a leading ...

. 1998 Property Testing and its connection to Learning and Approximation. ''Journal of the ACM'', pages 653-750. and other areas in

and

computational complexity In computer science, the computational complexity or simply complexity of an algorithm is the amount of resources required to run it. Particular focus is given to computation time (generally measured by the number of needed elementary operations) ...

. Goldreich has also authored several books including: ''Foundations of Cryptography'' which comes in two volumes (volume 1 in 2001 and volume 2 in 2004), ''Computational Complexity: A Conceptual Perspective'' (2008), and ''Modern Cryptography, Probabilistic Proofs and Pseudorandomness'' (1998).

Awards

Goldreich received the

Knuth prize The Donald E. Knuth Prize is a prize for outstanding contributions to the foundations of computer science, named after the American computer scientist Donald E. Knuth. History The Knuth Prize has been awarded since 1996 and includes an award of US ...

in 2017 for "fundamental and lasting contributions to theoretical computer science in many areas including cryptography, randomness, probabilistically checkable proofs, inapproximability, property testing as well as complexity theory in general. Goldreich has, in addition to his outstanding research contributions, advanced these fields through many survey articles and several first class textbooks. He has contributed eminent results, new basic definitions and pointed to new directions of research. Goldreich has been one of the driving forces for the theoretical computer science community for three decades."

Israel Prize and controversy

In 2021 he was selected by an Israel Prize committee to win the

in mathematics. Education Minister

Yoav Galant Yoav Galant (; born 8 November 1958) is an Israeli politician currently serving as the Minister of Defense since 2022. He is a former commander of the Southern Command in the Israel Defense Forces. In January 2015, he entered politics, joinin ...

vetoed his selection over Goldreich's alleged support of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement ( BDS) against Israel. One of the reasons for the decision was a letter signed by Goldreich calling German parliament not to equate BDS with Anti-Semitism. However, according to Goldreich, he did not support BDS but instead signed a petition calling for the halt of EU funding for the Israeli

Ariel University Ariel University ( he, אוניברסיטת אריאל), previously a public college known as the Ariel University Center of Samaria, is an Israeli university located in the urban Israeli settlement of Ariel (city), Ariel in the West Bank. The c ...

on the occupied West Bank. The prize committee petitioned to the

Supreme Court of Israel The Supreme Court (, ''Beit HaMishpat HaElyon''; ar, المحكمة العليا) is the Supreme court, highest court in Israel. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all other courts, and in some cases original jurisdiction. The Supreme C ...

to ensure that Goldreich will win the prize. On 8 April 2021 Israel's Supreme Court of Justice ruled in favor of Galant's petition so that Goldreich cannot receive the prize this year and gave Galant a month to further examine the issue. On 11 April 2021 a former Israeli Prize Award winner, in 2004 Professor

David Harel David Harel ( he, דוד הראל; born 12 April 1950) is a computer scientist, currently serving as President of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. He has been on the faculty of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel since 1980, ...

, decided to share his award with Professor Goldreich, as a petition act against the official governmental authorities' decision - not awarding the prize in 2021 for Professor Goldreich. In August 2021 the Supreme Court wrote, "we found appropriate at this stage to accept the position of the Attorney General that the Education Minister should be allowed to examine new information that he received only two days ago regarding a petition that Professor Goldreich signed that was publicized around two weeks ago." This meant that the matter should be resolved by the new Minister of Education

Yifat Shasha-Biton Yifat Shasha-Biton (, born 23 May 1973) is an Israeli educator and politician. She was appointed Minister of Education in June 2021. She was elected to the twenty-fourth Knesset on the New Hope list, after serving as an MK for Kulanu and Lik ...

. In November 2021, Shasha-Biton announced that she would block Goldreich from receiving the prize. In December 2021 Attorney General Mandelblit told the High Court that Prof. Goldreich should be given the Israel Prize in Mathematics, despite Education Minister Shasha-Biton's decision. In an editorial, the ''Jerusalem Post'' wrote that Goldreich's " lling for the boycott of professional colleagues... is a red line that shouldn't be crossed". A ''Haaretz'' editorial said that Shasha-Biton's decision meant "the most prestigious prize awarded by Israel will not be the mark of scientific excellence but of loyalty to the government". In March 2022 the High Court of Israel ruled that the 2021 prize had to be awarded to Prof. Goldreich.

Personal life

He is married to

, who is a computer scientist at

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 ...

, and has collaborated with Ron on approximation algorithms.

References

External links