Peter Williston Shor (born August 14, 1959) is an American

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

applied mathematics Applied mathematics is the application of mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and industry. Thus, applied mathematics is a combination of mathemat ...

at MIT. He is known for his work on quantum computation, in particular for devising

Shor's algorithm Shor's algorithm is a quantum computer algorithm for finding the prime factors of an integer. It was developed in 1994 by the American mathematician Peter Shor. On a quantum computer, to factor an integer N , Shor's algorithm runs in polynomial ...

, a quantum algorithm for factoring exponentially faster than the best currently-known algorithm running on a classical computer.

Early life and education

Shor was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

to Joan Bopp Shor and S. W. Williston Shor, of Jewish descent. He grew up in Washington, D.C. and Mill Valley, California. While attending Tamalpais High School, he placed third in the 1977

USA Mathematical Olympiad The United States of America Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO) is a highly selective high school mathematics competition held annually in the United States. Since its debut in 1972, it has served as the final round of the American Mathematics Compet ...

. After graduation that year, he won a silver medal at the International Math Olympiad in

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(the U.S. team achieved the most points per country that year). He received his B.S. in Mathematics in 1981 for undergraduate work at

Caltech 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 ...

, and was a Putnam Fellow in 1978. He earned his

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in Applied Mathematics from MIT in 1985. His doctoral advisor was F. Thomson Leighton, and his thesis was on probabilistic analysis of bin-packing algorithms.

Career

After being awarded his PhD by MIT, he spent one year as a

postdoctoral researcher A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to pu ...

at 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 ...

, and then accepted a position at

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...

in New Providence, New Jersey. It was there he developed

, for which he was awarded the Nevanlinna Prize at the 23rd

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 1998 and the Gödel Prize in 1999. In 1999 he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. In 2017 he received the Dirac Medal of the ICTP and for 2019 the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Basic Sciences. Shor began his MIT position in 2003. Currently, he is the Henry Adams Morss and Henry Adams Morss, Jr. Professor of Applied Mathematics in the Department of Mathematics at MIT. He also is affiliated with CSAIL and the MIT Center for Theoretical Physics (CTP). He received a Distinguished Alumni Award from Caltech in 2007. On October 1, 2011, he was inducted into the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, ...

. He was elected as an ACM Fellow in 2019 "for contributions to quantum-computing, information theory, and randomized algorithms". He was elected as a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...

in 2002. In 2020, he was elected a member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of ...

for pioneering contributions to quantum computation. In an interview published in ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans ar ...

'' on October 30, 2020, Shor said that he considers post-quantum cryptography to be a solution to the quantum threat, although a lot of engineering effort is required to switch from vulnerable algorithms.Casteivecchi, Davide,
Quantum-computing pioneer warns of complacency over Internet security
', Nature, October 30, 2020, interview of Peter Shor Along with three others, Shor was awarded the 2023

Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics The Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics is one of the Breakthrough Prizes, awarded by the Breakthrough Prize Board. Initially named Fundamental Physics Prize, it was founded in July 2012 by Russia-born Israeli entrepreneur, venture cap ...

for "foundational work in the field of quantum information."

Notes

External links

*.
Peter Shor's Home Page at MIT

* * * ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qD9XElTpCE The story of Shor's algorithm — Youtube Lectures and panels
Video of "Harnessing Quantum Physics", Peter Shor's panel discussion
with Ignacio Cirac, Michele Mosca, Avi Wigderson, Daniel Gottesman and Dorit Aharonov, at the Quantum to Cosmos festival {{DEFAULTSORT:Shor, Peter American computer scientists Theoretical computer scientists 1959 births Living people MacArthur Fellows Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Gödel Prize laureates Nevanlinna Prize laureates Putnam Fellows Scientists from California California Institute of Technology alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni Tamalpais High School alumni International Mathematical Olympiad participants 20th-century American engineers 21st-century American engineers 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians 20th-century American scientists 21st-century American scientists Quantum information scientists MIT Center for Theoretical Physics faculty

Early life and education

Career

See also

Notes

External links