Hacker News Reader

Comment by srvmshr | Hacker News Reader

From ACM:

ACM has named Avi Wigderson as recipient of the 2023 ACM A.M. Turing Award for foundational contributions to the theory of computation, including reshaping our understanding of the role of randomness in computation, and for his decades of intellectual leadership in theoretical computer science.

Wigderson is the Herbert H. Maass Professor in the School of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He has been a leading figure in areas including computational complexity theory, algorithms and optimization, randomness and cryptography, parallel and distributed computation, combinatorics, and graph theory, as well as connections between theoretical computer science and mathematics and science.

Also of interest, he has won the Abel Prize in 2021, making it a rather unique combination of winning the top honors in both theoretical/abstract math & CS

View on HN

> Also of interest, he has won the Abel Prize in 2021, making it a rather unique combination of winning the top honors in both theoretical/abstract math & CS

The overlap between theoretical CS and math is way larger than most people know. For a simple example, check out the theoretical CS course catalog at MIT: https://catalog.mit.edu/subjects/6/ and how many of them are cross listed as course 18 (math) classes.

Theoretical CS is basically a branch of applied math

Perhaps 'an applied branch of math' since the term 'applied math' is claimed by something usually disconnected from the discrete math subjects CS tends to study.

Theoretical CS is not at all applied math. Ordinary computer science overlaps with applied math, but theoretical CS is very abstract.

Highlighting this, Terence Tao gave a tutorial at FOCS 2007.

https://terrytao.wordpress.com/2007/07/31/structure-and-rand...

Combinatorics seems to be a major subfield on the math side of the border.

Technically the Field's medal is the top honor in mathematics.

But who am I to talk.

There's no formal hierarchy so there's nothing technical about it. Field's medal is certainly prestigious but it's not widely applicable, it has a bunch of restrictions that don't have anything to do with math itself, including an age limit. For example no one who has ever been awarded an Abel Prize would qualify for a Field's medal strictly due to age.

Six Abel laureates (out of 22) had previously won the Fields Medal: Serre, Aliyah, Thompson, Milner, Deligne, and Margulis.

True, it is considered one of the two top honors in Math since last decade. Previously it was the only distinguished prize.

There was a growing need for another award which bridged few gaps. The 40 year cutoff age, awarded every 4 years to living mathematical prodigies failed to honor several prominent mathematical breakthroughs which came after decades of painstaking research.

As the field has progressed, monumental breakthroughs are harder to come by early into career. Many of the ingenuity comes from cross-study of disciplines for e.g. Riemannian hypothesis being approached by Algebraic geometry and Topology rather than number theory. These require years of mastery - not just prodigy. Also the prize money offered by Abel Foundation is a good incentive for research into pure math

Yes the Fields is much more similar to the MacArthur Genius Grants.

The Abel is much more similar to the Nobel, though both the Abel and Fields are Nobel-caliber in prestige.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com