Cynthia Dwork
Cynthia Dwork (born 1958) is an American computer scientist and a Distinguished Scientist at Microsoft Research. Beginning in January 2017 she will be the Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science at Harvard University.[1]
She is known for her research placing privacy-preserving data analysis on a mathematically rigorous foundation, including the co-invention of differential privacy, a strong privacy guarantee frequently permitting highly accurate data analysis (with McSherry, Nissim, and Smith, 2006). Dwork has also made contributions in cryptography and distributed computing, and is a recipient of the Edsger W. Dijkstra Prize for her early work on the foundations of fault-tolerant systems. Her contributions in cryptography include Non-Malleable Cryptography (with Dolev and Naor, 1991), the first lattice-based cryptosystem (with Ajtai, 1997), which was also the first public-key cryptosystem for which breaking a random instance is as hard as solving the hardest instance of the underlying mathematical problem ("worst-case/average-case equivalence"), and the idea of, and a technique for, combating e-mail spam by requiring a proof of computational effort, also known as Proof-of-work, (with Naor, 1992). This is the technology underlying hashcash and bitcoin.
She was elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) in 2008,[2][3] as a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2008,[4] as a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2014, and as a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery in 2015.[5] She received the Dijkstra Prize in 2007 for her work on consensus problems together with Nancy Lynch and Larry Stockmeyer.[6][7] In 2009 she won the PET Award for Outstanding Research in Privacy Enhancing Technologies.[8]
Dwork received her B.S.E. from Princeton University in 1979, graduating Cum Laude, and receiving the Charles Ira Young Award for Excellence in Independent Research. Dwork received her Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1983. Her advisor was John Hopcroft.[9][10]
Publications
- Dwork, Cynthia; Lynch, Nancy; Stockmeyer, Larry (1988). "Consensus in the presence of partial synchrony". Journal of the ACM. 35 (2): 288–323. doi:10.1145/42282.42283. — this paper received the Dijkstra Prize in 2007.
- Dwork, Cynthia; Roth, Aaron (2014). The Algorithmic Foundations of Differential Privacy (PDF). Foundations and Trends in Theoretical Computer Science. Now Publishers. ISBN 978-1601988188.
Notes
- ^ "Microsoft's Cynthia Dwork joins SEAS", Harvard Gazette, February 19, 2016.
- ^ Academy Announces 2008 Class of Fellows.
- ^ Cynthia Dwork '79 elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
- ^ National Academy of Engineering: Dr. Cynthia Dwork.
- ^ ACM Fellows Named for Computing Innovations that Are Advancing Technology in the Digital Age, Association for Computing Machinery, 2015, retrieved 2015-12-09.
- ^ PODC web site: Dijkstra Prize 2007.
- ^ Bortnikov, Edward (2007). "Review of DISC '07". ACM SIGACT News. 38 (4): 49–53. doi:10.1145/1345189.1386170. ISSN 0163-5700..
- ^ PET Award for Outstanding Research in Privacy Enhancing Technologies: Past Winners
- ^ Hopcroft, John. "John Hopcroft's Webpage". Retrieved 14 March 2013.
- ^ "Mathematics Genealogy Project - Cynthia Dwork". Mathematics Genealogy Project. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
References
- "Cynthia Dwork". Mathematics Genealogy Project. Retrieved 5 June 2009.
- Dwork, Cynthia (1983). "Bounds on Fundamental Problems in Parallel and Distributed Computation".. Phd thesis, Cornell University.
- "Microsoft Research Faculty Summit 2002 Biographies". Microsoft Research Events. Retrieved 5 June 2009.
- Stevenson, Reed (2 May 2004). "Microsoft project aims to make spammers pay for spam". USA Today. Retrieved 5 June 2009.
- Takahashi, Dean (25 December 2006). "Time to take privacy technology seriously". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 5 June 2009.
- Becker, David (28 July 2000). "Short Take: Compaq hires cryptography expert". CNET News. Retrieved 5 June 2009.
- Greengard, Samuel (2008). "Privacy matters". Communications of the ACM. 51 (9): 17–18. doi:10.1145/1378727.1378734..
External links
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