Shafi Goldwasser
Shafrira Goldwasser | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1959 New York City, United States |
| Occupation(s) | Computer scientist, professor |
| Known for | Cryptography, probabilistic encryption, zero-knowledge proofs |
| Notable work | Blum-Goldwasser cryptosystem, zero-knowledge proofs |
Shafrira Goldwasser (; born 1959) is a distinguished Israeli-American computer scientist and recipient of the 2012 Turing Award. She holds the RSA Professorship in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, serves as a professor of mathematical sciences at the Weizmann Institute of Science, formerly directed the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing at University of California, Berkeley, and is the co-founder and chief scientist at Duality Technologies.
Goldwasser's groundbreaking contributions to cryptography encompass pioneering concepts such as probabilistic encryption and zero-knowledge proofs, which have profoundly influenced data protection and privacy within commercial environments. Her doctoral mentor was Manuel Blum, and among her notable protégés are Elette Boyle and Salil Vadhan.
Her numerous honors include the Grace Murray Hopper Award (1996), Gödel Prize (1993, 2001), IEEE Emanuel R. Piore Award (2011), BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2018), RSA Mathematics Award (1998), and the L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards (2021). She was named an ACM Fellow in 2017 and inducted into the National Academy of Sciences in 2004.
At Duality Technologies, Goldwasser spearheads efforts to enhance privacy-preserving data analytics by applying cryptographic methods that safeguard sensitive corporate information while facilitating collaborative data insights.
Education and early life
Born in New York City, Goldwasser completed her undergraduate studies in mathematics and science at Carnegie Mellon in 1979. She then advanced to graduate studies in computer science at Berkeley, earning a master's degree in 1981 followed by a PhD in 1984. During her time at Berkeley, she collaborated with her advisor, Manuel Blum, to develop the Blum-Goldwasser cryptosystem.
Career and research
Goldwasser began her tenure at MIT in 1983 and was appointed as the inaugural RSA Professor in 1997. Since 1993, she has also held a professorship at the Weizmann Institute of Science, concurrently with her MIT responsibilities. She is an active member of the theory of computation group within the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. In recognition of her influential work in cryptography, number theory, and complexity theory applied to security and privacy, she was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2005. Berkeley honored her with its Computer Science Distinguished Alumni Award in 2006.
She was co-awarded the prestigious 2012 Turing Award for fundamentally transforming cryptographic science.
Since November 2016, Goldwasser has served as chief scientist and co-founder of Duality Technologies, a U.S.-based company delivering secure data analytics powered by advanced cryptographic techniques. She also provides guidance to security-focused technology startups such as QED-it, which specializes in Zero Knowledge Blockchain solutions, and Algorand, a pure proof-of-stake blockchain platform.
From January 2018 through August 2024, she led Berkeley's Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing as its director.
Her research expertise spans computational complexity theory, cryptography, and computational number theory. She co-developed probabilistic encryption, setting a foundational benchmark for securing digital information.
Additionally, Goldwasser co-created the concept of zero-knowledge proofs—methods that allow one party to confirm knowledge without disclosing underlying details—essential for contemporary cryptographic protocols. Her work in complexity theory includes categorizing approximation problems by demonstrating that some remain computationally difficult even when approximate solutions are permitted. She also introduced innovative approaches for delegating computational tasks to untrusted servers. In computational number theory, together with Joe Kilian, she advanced primality testing techniques using elliptic curves. Moreover, she leads Project CETI, an initiative employing artificial intelligence to interpret sperm whale communication patterns.
Awards and honors
In 2012, Goldwasser was honored with the Turing Award together with Silvio Micali for their pioneering contributions to the field of cryptography.
She is a two-time recipient of the Gödel Prize, first in 1993 for her work on "The knowledge complexity of interactive proof systems" and again in 2001 for the paper Interactive Proofs and the Hardness of Approximating Cliques. Additional accolades include the ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award received in 1996 recognizing exceptional young professionals in computing, as well as the RSA Award for Excellence in Mathematics awarded in 1998.
Goldwasser was inducted into several prestigious organizations: the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2001, the National Academy of Sciences in 2004, and the National Academy of Engineering in 2005. She was named a Fellow of the IACR in 2007 and earned the Athena Lecturer Award from ACM’s Committee on Women in Computing for 2008–2009. Her honors further include the 2010 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science and the IEEE Emanuel R. Piore Award in 2011.
In 2018, Goldwasser, along with Micali, Rivest, and Shamir, was presented with the Frontier of Knowledge award. She was designated an ACM Fellow in 2017 and that same year delivered a plenary lecture at the Mathematical Congress of the Americas.
She holds honorary doctorates from Carnegie Mellon University (2018) and the University of Oxford (2019). Goldwasser is also featured among Notable Women in Computing cards, earned the Suffrage Science award in 2016, contributed as a member of the Mathematical Sciences jury for the Infosys Prize in 2020, and was awarded the 2021 L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science Award specifically for her work in Computer Science.
Personal life
Goldwasser is married to fellow computer scientist Nir Shavit, with whom she has two sons.