Georgia Tech Set to Host Two Turing Award Winners

In the world of computing, there is no higher honor than being selected as a recipient of the prestigious A.M. Turing Award. The annual prize is presented by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and is considered by many to be the “Nobel Prize” for computing.

With only 42 living recipients, it’s not often that a Turing Award winner visits Georgia Tech to share a lecture or participate in a public forum. That’s why it is such a rare honor that not one, but two Turing Award winners are set to be on campus in the next month.

Renowned computer scientist and 1992 Turing Award winner Butler Lampson is presenting a Capital One Fall ’16 Distinguished Lecture, Sept. 27. Sponsored by the Institute of Information Security and Privacy (IISP), the presentation is titled, “Retroactive Security.” Lampson will share his perspective on why it is time to change the way we think about computer security. The event is free, but registration is required.

The second laureate speaking on campus is 1995 Turing Award recipient Manuel Blum. Currently serving as the Bruce Nelson Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, Blum will present a lecture titled, “Human Computation with an Application to Passwords.” This event is scheduled for Oct. 27 at 11 a.m. and is hosted by the Algorithms and Randomness Center (ARC).

Noted computer scientist Lenore Blum is also speaking on campus, Oct. 27. She will present the College of Computing’s annual John P. Imlay Jr. Distinguished Lecture. Blum’s presentation, titled “Alan Turing and the Other Theory of Computation,” begins at 5 p.m. in the Howey Physics Building. Blum, a Distinguished Career Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, is married to Manuel Blum.

The Turing Award honors Alan Mathison Turing (1912–1954), a British mathematician and computer scientist. He is widely known for his innovative work advancing computer architecture, algorithms, and artificial intelligence. Turing was also key to British code-breaking efforts during World War II. Presented each year by the ACM, the prize given to "an individual selected for contributions of a technical nature made to the computing community" that are of “lasting and major technical importance to the computer field.”