1999 Knuth Prize

1999 Knuth Prize
László Lovász

The winner of the 3rd Knuth Prize is László Lovász. Lovász had an enormous influence on the theory of algorithms. He has made fundamental discoveries that have became standard tools in theoretical computer science. The Lovász Local lemma, Lattice Basis Reduction - finding short vectors in lattices, and the application of the ellipsoid method for various convex programming problems have all become standard tools in a wide range of areas of algorithms and complexity. Lovász's contribution to the connection between hardness of approximation and probabilistic proofs was essential.

In addition to his fundamental contributions in algorithms Laci Lovász has also written a number of beautiful books all emphasizing algorithms in a variety of topics.

The prize committee for the 3rd Knuth Prize, consisting of Allan Borodin, Ashok Chandra, Herbert Edelsbrunner, Christos Papadimitriou, Éva Tardos (chair), and Avi Wigderson decided to award to prize to Laci Lovász for this impact on the theory of algorithms.


Created by Ian Parberry, May 10, 1999.
Last updated Wed Nov 8 17:02:57 CST 2000