Proofs, Knowledge, and Computation

Berkeley ACM A.M. Turing Laureate Colloquium

Silvio Micali

Wednesday, October 3, 2018

Banatao Auditorium, Sutardja Dai Hall
4:00 – 5:00 pm

Abstract

We show how Theory of Computation has revolutionized our millenary notion of a proof, revealing its unexpected applications to our new digital world. In particular, we shall demonstrate how interaction can make proofs much easier to verify, dramatically limit the amount of knowledge released, and yield the most secure identification schemes to date.

Biography

Silvio Micali has received his Laurea in Mathematics from the University of Rome, and his PhD in Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley. Since 1983 he has been on the MIT faculty, in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department, where he is Ford Professor of Engineering. Silvio’s research interests are cryptography, zero knowledge, pseudorandom generation, secure protocols, and mechanism design. Silvio is the co-recipient of the Turing Award for Probablistic Encryption in 2012 with Shafi Goldwasser, and the recipient of the Goedel Prize (in theoretical computer science) and the RSA prize (in cryptography). He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.