Cornell University expert recognized with 2023 Knuth Prize

Éva Tardos, the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Computer Science and department chair in the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, has been awarded the Donald E. Knuth Prize, which recognizes visionaries in computer science whose work has had foundational, long-term impact.

“As a theoretician, I’m honored to be recognized with the Knuth Prize by my original home community,” Tardos said. “I truly appreciate it.”

The Knuth prize is the latest recognition bestowed on Tardos, a pioneer who has shaped multiple areas of algorithms, including foundational work in combinatorial algorithms, approximation algorithms and algorithmic game theory. Some of her many awards and honors include the Brouwer Medal Award (2023), John von Neumann Medal (2019), the Gödel Prize (2012), the Van Wijngaarden Award (2011) and election to the American Philosophical Society (2020).

The award’s namesake is a professor emeritus at Stanford University known for helping to establish computer science as an intellectual discipline, most notably with his ongoing book series, The Art of Computer Programming.

In selecting Tardos, the Knuth Prize committee cited both her extensive research contributions and field leadership, namely co-authoring an influential textbook, Algorithm Design, co-editing the Handbook of Game Theory, serving as editor-in-chief of the Journal of the ACM and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) Journal of Computing and chairing program committees for several leading field conferences.

Tardos received the award and presented the Knuth Prize lecture on June 21 at the 55th Association for Computing Machinery Symposium on Theory of Computing, in Orlando, Florida.