The award is given to her for innovations that have become a "standard" when it comes to information security on the Internet * Prof. Goldwasser is the third winner of this prestigious award from the Weizmann Institute of Science and the fifth Israeli. She was preceded by Prof. Amir Panoli in 1996, and Prof. Adi Shamir in 2002, as well as Michael Rabin from the Hebrew University in 1976, and in 2011 he won the Prof. Yehuda Pearl Award from the University of California, Los Angeles.
The ACM Association in the field of computing and computer science announced today (Wednesday) the awarding of the Turing Award to Prof. Shefi Goldwasser from the Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at the Weizmann Institute of Science, and from the Laboratory for Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Along with her, Prof. Silvio Mikli from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will receive the award. The award is given to them for "revolutionary work that laid the theoretical foundations for cryptography in the field of complexity, while inventing new and pioneering methods for the effective verification of mathematical proofs in the field of complexity theory."
The Turing Prize, the most important prize in the field of computer science (in which the Nobel Prize is not awarded), includes a grant in the amount of a quarter of a million dollars, with financial support from the companies "Intel" and "Google". The award will be presented at a gala event of the association that will be held on June 15 in San Francisco.
Prof. Goldwasser is the third winner of this prestigious award from the Weizmann Institute of Science and the fifth Israeli. She was preceded by Prof. Amir Panoli in 1996, and Prof. Adi Shamir in 2002, as well as Michael Rabin from the Hebrew University in 1976, and in 2011 he won the Prof. Yehuda Pearl Award from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Probabilistic encryption
In a scientific article they published in 1982, which dealt with "probabilistic encryption", Goldwasser and Mickel laid solid foundations for modern encryption theory. Their work was recognized by the international community, which saw in their research a transformation in cryptography - from "art" to science.
The article presented a number of pioneering topics, which today are considered fundamental milestones in the field. Among these we can mention: the presentation of formal safety definitions, which are currently considered a "standard" in information security; Introducing random encryption methods, which can meet strict security requirements, which in the past could only be dealt with using deterministic encryption software; And presenting a method for "reductionist proofs", which shows how it is possible to translate extremely easy attacks on information security into algorithms capable of solving classical mathematical problems, such as factorization. One can only profit from such proofs as they show that one of two impressive assertions must be true: either we have a completely secure encryption system, or we have a new algorithm capable of breaking numbers into prime factors.
In the same article, the "simulation paradigm" was also presented, which makes it possible to verify the safety of the encryption system, by showing that the enemy could have obtained, at the very least, on his own, any information he received as a result of monitoring the operation of the encryption system - which shows that the use of the system does not carry any risk . The simulation paradigm has become the most common method for proving the safety of encryption, not only in the field of privacy protection, but also in defining the safety of new data authentication methods and proving it; in the security of software protection systems; and in the security of encryption protocols in which many participants are involved, such as, for example, in electronic elections or auctions.
Interactive proofs with zero knowledge
In another highly influential article, which they published in 1985 together with Prof. Charles Rakoff, Goldwasser and Mickel presented the idea of "interactive proofs with zero knowledge".
An example of the use of interactive proofs in zero knowledge can be an ATM device, which instead of asking you for the secret code, will only have to make sure that you do know what it is. Such proofs allow users working together, but not trusting each other, to perform joint calculations on data stored on the Internet, without revealing the data itself.
Unlike classical mathematical proofs, which can be written and checked, an interactive proof is done through a dialogue. One side - the "prover" - tries to convince the other side - the "verifier" - that he has proof of a mathematical claim. The "verifier" must ask the "prover" a series of questions, which the "prover" does not know in advance. The questions are chosen randomly, but the "verifier" chooses each question according to the answer he received to the previous question. If the "prover" does not know the proof of the mathematical claim, there is a very high probability that the "verifier" will catch him by mistake. Since it is possible to convince the "verifier" that proof does exist without providing him with the proof itself, the proof is called "proof with zero knowledge".
The importance of the article to the theory of cryptography was clear as soon as it was published. For example, it offers an identification method that can be safely used on the Internet. The idea is that the user knows proof of a private and unique claim, which will be used as a password. To identify himself, the user will contact a "verifier" (like, for example, an ATM), and give him proof of his private claim with zero information.
Interactive proofs are not only used as a cryptographic device. They also have a huge impact on complexity theory. The seemingly self-evident measures for cryptographic needs - that is, the use of randomness and interactivity - turned out to have extensive and general applications to complexity theory. They make it possible to verify the truth of mathematical proofs more quickly than classical proofs, and even allow mathematicians to prove that certain mathematical claims are incorrect, by proving the non-existence of classical proofs.
In another series of works by Goldwasser, Mickley and others, the interactive proofs were expanded to include interactions between a "verifier" and several "provers", which led, subsequently, to new and surprising ways of proving results showing that approximation problems are complete problems in the class NP. This field of research is very active to this day.
practical applications
ACM President Vint Cerf noted that the practical impact of the ideas put forth by Goldwasser and Mickel cannot be ignored. "The encryption programs installed in today's browsers meet their security requirements. The methods for encrypting credit card numbers while shopping on the Internet also meet the requirements of Goldwasser and Mickel. We all owe the award winners a big debt, for the innovative approaches to maintaining safety in the digital age."
Alfred Spector, Vice President of Research and Special Initiatives at Google, says that Goldwasser and Mickel developed encryption algorithms whose design is based on solid assumptions in the field of computer science, and therefore difficult to crack. ” Advances in cryptography in the computer age surpassed that in the era of code cracking, in Alan Turing's time. It includes applications for ATMs, computer passwords and e-commerce, as well as keeping user data confidential - as in electronic voting. These are tremendous achievements, which have changed the way we live and work."
The third woman to win the Turing Award
Prof. Goldwasser is the recipient of the President's Award for Young Researchers on behalf of the American National Science Foundation, and won the Grace Murray Hopper Award given by the ACM to a young researcher with exceptional achievements in the field of computer science. She is a two-time winner of the Gödel Prize, awarded jointly by the ACM Group on Algorithms and Computational Theory (SIGACT) and the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS).
Goldwasser was elected to the American National Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American National Science Association, and the American National Academy of Engineering. She was chosen by the ACM Council on Women in Computer Science to deliver the Athena Lecture, and received the Emmanuel Fiore Award from the IEEE, as well as the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer Science and Cognitive Science from the Franklin Institute.
Goldwasser completed her undergraduate studies in mathematics at Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania in 1979, and her graduate and postgraduate studies in computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. Then, in 1983, she went on to do postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1993, she joined the faculty of the Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at the Weizmann Institute of Science, as a full professor.
Prof. Goldwasser is the third woman to win the Turing Award.
4 תגובות
princess!
Miracles, that's the one surprised by the surprised gathering turns you in reduction into a person trapped in a hypothesis definitely converging towards a field with a primary generator.
Asaf
That you are surprised is what will puzzle you here …….
Well done, it turns out that women can also achieve amazing achievements in exact sciences.