Next story on our project from Erin Wolf Chambers: ------------------------ I spent most of my first couple of years of graduate school unsuccessfully trying to figure out what "research" meant. I read papers and had plenty of meetings, but somehow had no luck really making new progress on any of the problems I looked at. … Continue reading Research Life-Stories: Erin Wolf Chambers
Author: Omer Reingold
On intellectual passion and its unfortunate confusion with sexual passion (and how it may relate to issues of gender)
The following is a post by Oded Goldreich which I found very interesting. It is based on a brave and important Hebrew post/essay, and I'm grateful to Oded for bringing it to my attention, translating parts of it and allowing me to post it here as well. I think that this is exactly the kind … Continue reading On intellectual passion and its unfortunate confusion with sexual passion (and how it may relate to issues of gender)
Research Life-Stories: Russell Impagliazzo
Next story on our project from Russell Impagliazzo --------------------- It was my first semester at Wesleyan University. I was shuffling down the path crossing the main lawn in front of the administrative building in a jacket that was not warm enough. I had decided to astound my German professor by actually putting in a half … Continue reading Research Life-Stories: Russell Impagliazzo
Zero-Knowledge Proofs – Inherently Flawed
Update: My calculations were only correct up to a constant. Turns out that Zero-Knowledge Proofs are flawed only on April Fools Days. 364/365 of the time ZK is still as ingenious as it ever was. ----------------------------------------------- I have mixed feelings reporting my last discovery as on one hand it is undoubtedly my greatest discovery but … Continue reading Zero-Knowledge Proofs – Inherently Flawed
Research Life-Stories: Bobby Kleinberg
Our project continues with Bobby Kleinberg. ------------------------------------------------------------ As an undergraduate I majored in mathematics and took only one computer science course. In fact quite a few of the mathematicians who influenced me were openly dismissive of computer science. Of course, throughout this period my brother Jon would continually talk to me about TCS — a … Continue reading Research Life-Stories: Bobby Kleinberg
FOCS 2013 – Submission Server is Open
The FOCS 2013 submission server is open, the main site is up and submission deadline is in two weeks! Please read the call for papers before submitting your paper especially as it has changed since last year. In essence, we are experimenting with less regulation on our part (as far as formatting) and more responsibility on … Continue reading FOCS 2013 – Submission Server is Open
2012 Turing to Goldwasser and Micali
Shafi Goldwasser (MIT and Weizmann) and Silvio Micali (MIT) were announced as the 2012 Turing Award winners. I am so excited! On a personal note, my first research paper was a follow-up on their work (joint with Oded Goldreich on pseudorandom functions) and they kept on inspiring my research ever since (and I’m hardly alone … Continue reading 2012 Turing to Goldwasser and Micali
Research-Life Stories – Oded Goldreich (2nd post)
Oded Goldreich makes a second contribution to the Research-Life Stories Project (see the first one here): ----- How I started enjoying the process of writing technical papers (1983-4) When I was a graduate student at the Technion (1980-3), I really hated the process of writing technical papers. In retrospect, I realize that this was rooted in … Continue reading Research-Life Stories – Oded Goldreich (2nd post)
Research-Life Stories – Oded Goldreich
Our next entry on the Research-Life Stories Project is by Oded Goldreich (a second installment by Oded will be posted in a few days). ------ This collection of my research-life stories was triggered by a request of Omer Reingold to contribute to a collection of research-life stories that he intends to maintain on Windows on … Continue reading Research-Life Stories – Oded Goldreich
Research-Life Stories – Yuri Gurevich
Yuri Gurevich shares an anecdote about beginnings which he refers to as "Research-Life Prehistory" ------------ Mathematics is the last refuge of platonism. In what sense, mathematical objects – from real numbers to Banach spaces – exist? Where are they to be found, detected by experimental means? Mathematical platonism comes very naturally to working mathematicians. When you … Continue reading Research-Life Stories – Yuri Gurevich
Windows On Theory 