Peter Shor

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Not to be confused with the British politician Peter Shore.
Peter Williston Shor
Born August 14, 1959 (1959-08-14) (age 48)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Residence U.S.
Nationality US
Fields Computer Scientist
Institutions MIT
Alma mater Caltech
MIT
Doctoral advisor Tom Leighton
Known for Shor's algorithm
Notable awards Putnam Fellow (1978)[1]

Nevanlinna Prize (1998)[2]
MacArthur Fellowship (July 1999)[3]

Gödel Prize (1999)[4]

Peter Williston Shor (born August 14, 1959) is an American theoretical computer scientist most famous for his work on quantum computation, in particular for devising a quantum algorithm for factoring exponentially faster than the best currently-known algorithm running on a classical computer (see Shor's algorithm). He was working then at AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1994. Currently, he is a professor of applied mathematics at MIT, and he is affiliated with CSAIL and the Center for Theoretical Physics (CTP).

While attending Tamalpais High School, in Mill Valley, California, he placed third in the 1977 USA Mathematical Olympiad.[5] After graduating that year, he won a second prize at the International Math Olympiad in Yugoslavia, helping the US team to achieve the most points per country.[6][7] He received his B.S. in Mathematics in 1981 for undergraduate work at Caltech, and was a Putnam Fellow in 1978. He then earned his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from MIT in 1985. His doctoral advisor was Tom Leighton, and his thesis was on probabilistic analysis of bin-packing algorithms. After graduating, he spent one year in a post-doctoral position at Berkeley, and then accepted a position at Bell Laboratories. Shor began his current MIT position in 2003. In the past, Shor has taught MIT courses 18.310: Principles of Applied Mathematics, 18.409: Quantum Information Science, 18.435: Quantum Computation, and 18.091: Mathematical Exposition. Shor is currently teaching a new course for Spring 2007, 18.424: Seminar in Information Theory. Shor always refers to Shor's Algorithm as "the Factoring Algorithm".

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Mathematical Association of America's William Lowell Putnam Competition. Mathematical Association of America. Retrieved on 2007-02-12.
  2. ^ Nevanlinna Prize Winners. International Mathematical Union (2006-08-22). Retrieved on 2007-02-12.
  3. ^ Fellows List - July 1999. John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Retrieved on 2007-02-12.
  4. ^ Parberry, Ian (1999-05-10). 1999 Gödel Prize. ACM SIGACT. Retrieved on 2007-02-12.
  5. ^ Murray Klamkin (Editor). Mathematical Association of America (January 1989). USA Mathematical Olympiads 1972-1986 Problems and Solutions (Anneli Lax New Mathematical Library), ISBN 0883856344 ISBN 978-0883856345, accessed May 10, 2007
  6. ^ Mill Valley Historical Society, 2004, 'History of Homestead Valley'
  7. ^ Stephen R. Dunbar, 'Identifying Talent: American Mathematics Competitions,' in Mathematical Association of America, Focus, Vol 24, Issue 3, March 2004, p 29

[edit] External links


Persondata
NAME Shor, Peter W.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Computer scientist who discovered Shor's algorithm
DATE OF BIRTH August 14, 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City, New York, U.S.
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
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Nevanlinna Prize winners

Tarjan (1982) · Valiant (1986) · Razborov (1990) · Wigderson (1994) · Shor (1998) · Sudan (2002) · Kleinberg (2006)