Andrew Yao

Submitted by editor on Fri, 03/11/2011 - 00:58

Andrew Yao

Andrew Chi-Chih Yao

Born December 24, 1946 (1946-12-24) (age 64)
Shanghai, China
Fields Computer science
Institutions Stanford University
Princeton University
Tsinghua University
Chinese University of Hong Kong
Notable awards Pólya Prize (SIAM) (1987)
Knuth Prize (1996)
Turing Award (2000)

Andrew Chi-Chih Yao (Chinese: 姚期智; pinyin: Yáo Qīzhì) is a prominent computer scientist and computational theorist. Yao used the minimax theorem to prove what is now known as Yao's Principle.

Yao was born in Shanghai, China. He completed his undergraduate education in physics at the National Taiwan University, before completing a Ph.D. in physics at Harvard University in 1972, and then a second PhD in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1975.

In 1996 he was awarded the Knuth Prize. He received the Turing Award, the most prestigious award in computer science, in 2000, "in recognition of his fundamental contributions to the theory of computation, including the complexity-based theory of pseudorandom number generation, cryptography, and communication complexity".

From 1982 to 1986, he was a full professor at Stanford University. From 1986 to 2004, he was the William and Edna Macaleer Professor of Engineering and Applied Science at Princeton University, where he continued to work on algorithms and complexity. In 2004, he became a Professor of the Center for Advanced Study, Tsinghua University (CASTU) and the director of the Institute for Theoretical Computer Science (ITCS), Tsinghua University in Beijing. He now is the Distinguished Professor-at-Large in Chinese University of Hong Kong.

He is a member of U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery, and a foreign member of Chinese Academy of Sciences. His wife, Frances Yao, is also a well-known theoretical computer scientist.

See also

  • Important publications in cryptography
  • Yao's test
  • Yao's Millionaires' Problem
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Bei Shizhang • Chung-Yao Chao • Chen Jingrun • Chen Zhongwei • Chen Jiaer • Chen Jiangong • Chen Zhu • Chen Ziyuan • Cheng Chemin • Cheng Kaijia • M. T. Cheng • Chien Wei-zang • Coching Chu • Dai Chuanzeng • Hou Debang • Ding Ying • Ding Zhongli • Feng Duan • Feng Kang • Jiamo Fu • Gu Binglin • Gu Chaohao • Guo Kexin • Guo Yonghuai • Han Qide • Han Zhenxiang • He Jifeng • He Xiantu • He Zuoxiu • Hsiang-Tung Chang • Hu Haiyan • Hu Haichang • Hu Hesheng • Hu Jimin • Hu Ning • Hu Qiaomu • Hua Luogeng • Hongjia Huang • Huang Kun • Huang Minlon • Thomas Huang • Jia Lanpo • Deng Jiaxian • Jin Guozhang • Charles K. Kao • Ke Zhao • Li Bo (phytoecologist) • Li Guohao (engineer) • Li Siguang • Li Zhensheng (geneticist) • Li Zhijian • Liang Sicheng • Liu Dongsheng • Liu Gaolian • Liu Yuanfang • Lo Tsung-lo • Lo Elgan • Lu Yongxiang • Mao Yisheng • Min Enze • Niu Jingyi • Pan Jiazheng • Pei Wenzhong • Peng Huanwu • Qi Kang (architect) • Qian Sanqiang • Qian Xuesen • Qiu Fazu • Rao Yutai • Ren Mei'e • Shao Xianghua • Shen Tianhui • Yuen-Ron Shen • Shi Zhongci • Su Buqing • Tan Jiazhen • Gang Tian • Chang-Lin Tien • Samuel C. C. Ting • Tong Dizhou • Wang Yuan (mathematician) • Wang Ganchang • Wang Xuan • Wang You • Wang Zhuxi • Weng Wenhao • Wu Zhengyi • Chien-Shiung Wu • Wu Mengchao • Wu Wenjun • Wu Youxun • Xi Zezong • Daoxing Xia • Xie Xide • Xie Xuejing • Xu Guangxian • Xu Zhihong • Shi Yafeng • Yang Fujia • Yang Fuyu • Yang Huanming • Andrew Yao • Yao Zhen • Ye Qisun • Ye Duzheng • Ye Peijian • Yu Min (physicist) • Zhang Guangdou • Zhang Jie (scientist) • Zhang Yuzhe • Zhang Zhongjun • Zhao Jiuzhang • Zhou Chaochen • Zhou Guangzhao • Zhou Guozhi • Zhou Peiyuan • Zhu Guangya • Zhu Wuhua • Zhu Zuxiang • Olgierd Zienkiewicz • Ouyang Ziyuan
Knuth Prize laureates

Yao (1996) · Valiant (1997) · Lovász (1999) · Ullman (2000) · Papadimitriou (2002) · Ajtai (2003) · Yannakakis (2005) · Lynch (2007) · Strassen (2008) · Johnson (2010) · Kannan (2011)
A. M. Turing Award laureates

Alan Perlis (1966) · Maurice Vincent Wilkes (1967) · Richard Hamming (1968) · Marvin Minsky (1969) · James H. Wilkinson (1970) · John McCarthy (1971) · Edsger W. Dijkstra (1972) · Charles Bachman (1973) · Donald Knuth (1974) · Allen Newell / Herbert Simon (1975) · Michael O. Rabin / Dana Scott (1976) · John Backus (1977) · Robert W. Floyd (1978) · Kenneth E. Iverson (1979) · Tony Hoare (1980) · Edgar F. Codd (1981) · Stephen Cook (1982) · Ken Thompson / Dennis Ritchie (1983) · Niklaus Wirth (1984) · Richard Karp (1985) · John Hopcroft / Robert Tarjan (1986) · John Cocke (1987) · Ivan Sutherland (1988) · William Kahan (1989) · Fernando J. Corbató (1990) · Robin Milner (1991) · Butler Lampson (1992) · Juris Hartmanis / Richard Stearns (1993) · Edward Feigenbaum / Raj Reddy (1994) · Manuel Blum (1995) · Amir Pnueli (1996) · Douglas Engelbart (1997) · Jim Gray (1998) · Fred Brooks (1999) · Andrew Yao (2000) · Ole-Johan Dahl / Kristen Nygaard (2001) · Ron Rivest / Adi Shamir / Leonard Adleman (2002) · Alan Kay (2003) · Vint Cerf / Bob Kahn (2004) · Peter Naur (2005) · Frances E. Allen (2006) · Edmund M. Clarke / E. Allen Emerson / Joseph Sifakis (2007) · Barbara Liskov (2008) · Charles P. Thacker (2009) · Leslie G. Valiant (2010)
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