Virginia Vassilevska Williams (née Virginia Panayotova Vassilevska) is a theoretical computer scientist and mathematician known for her research in

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 ...

and

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 ...

. She is currently the Steven and Renee Finn Career Development Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science 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 th ...

. She is notable for her breakthrough results in fast matrix multiplication, for her work on dynamic algorithms, and for helping to develop the field of fine-grained complexity.

Education and career

Williams is originally from

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

, and attended a German-language high school in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...

. She graduated from 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 ...

in 2003, and completed her Ph.D. at

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

in 2008. Her dissertation, ''Efficient Algorithms for Path Problems in Weighted Graphs'', was supervised by

Guy Blelloch Guy Edward Blelloch is a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. He is known for his work in parallel programming and parallel algorithms. He teaches the 15-853: Algorithms in the Real World course, the 15-492: Parallel Algor ...

. After postdoctoral research at 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 schola ...

and

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 un ...

, Williams became an assistant professor of computer science at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

in 2013. She moved to MIT as an associate professor in 2017.

Research

In 2011, Williams found an algorithm for multiplying two

n\times n

matrices in time

O(n^)

. This improved a previous time bound for matrix multiplication algorithms, the Coppersmith–Winograd algorithm, that had stood as the best known for 24 years. Her initial improvement was independent of Andrew Stothers, who also improved the same bound a year earlier; after learning of Stothers' work, she combined ideas from both methods to improve his bound as well. As of 2020, her work also establishes the current best-known algorithm for matrix multiplication with Josh Alman, in time

O(n^)

Recognition

Williams was an NSF Computing Innovation Fellow for 2009–2011, and won a Sloan Research Fellowship in 2017. She was an invited speaker at the 2018

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 rena ...

, speaking in the section on Mathematical Aspects of Computer Science.

Personal life

Williams is the daughter of applied mathematicians Panayot Vassilevski and Tanya Kostova-Vassilevska. She is married to Ryan Williams, also a computer science professor at MIT; they have worked together in the field of fine-grained complexity.

References

External links

Home page
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Virginia Vassilevska Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American computer scientists 21st-century American mathematicians Bulgarian mathematicians Bulgarian women mathematicians American women computer scientists American women mathematicians Theoretical computer scientists California Institute of Technology alumni Carnegie Mellon University alumni Stanford University faculty MIT School of Engineering faculty American people of Bulgarian descent 21st-century women mathematicians 21st-century American women