Contents
Andrew Yao
Establishing foundations of computational complexity, secure computation and communication between computers.
Yao’s principle · Communication complexity
- Born
- 24 December 1946
- Birthplace
- Shanghai, China
More people
Andrew Yao
Andrew Yao investigates the limits of what computers can calculate and communicate. His theoretical work helped underpin modern cryptography and earned the 2000 Turing Award; he later built major research and teaching programmes at Tsinghua University.
Early life
Shanghai to Taiwan
His family moved through Hong Kong to Taiwan, where he grew up and studied physics.
Two doctorates
Completed a physics doctorate at Harvard in 1972 and a computer-science doctorate at Illinois in 1975.
Career
- 1975–1986
American universities
Taught at MIT, Stanford and Berkeley while developing theoretical computer science.
- 1986–2004
Princeton
Held a professorship and continued research on algorithms, complexity and cryptography.
- 2004 onward
Tsinghua
Moved to Beijing and helped establish advanced programmes in computer science and interdisciplinary research.
Contributions
Yao’s principle
Connected the analysis of randomised algorithms with difficult distributions of inputs.
Communication complexity
Developed a framework for studying how much information computing parties must exchange.
Secure computation
Introduced foundational ideas for computing jointly without disclosing private inputs.
Beyond computing
A computing partnership
His wife, Frances Yao, is also a theoretical computer scientist.
AI safety
Joined other researchers in calling for stronger work on the risks and governance of advanced artificial intelligence.
Sources & photo credit
Life, career and references ↗Institutional biography and research ↗Photo: David.Monniaux. CC BY-SA 4.0 · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
.jpg){kind=link}