Pioneers Linking Math and Computer Science Win the Abel Prize

Kevin Hartnett in Quanta:

When Avi Wigderson and László Lovász began their careers in the 1970s, theoretical computer science and pure mathematics were almost entirely separate disciplines. Today, they’ve grown so close it’s hard to find the line between them. For their many fundamental contributions to both fields, and for their work drawing them together, today Lovász and Wigderson were awarded the Abel Prize, an honor given out by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and regarded as one of the highest honors in mathematics.

“In many ways their work is complementary. Avi is on the computer science side and Lovász is on the mathematics side, but a lot of the issues they work on are related,” said Russell Impagliazzo, a computer scientist at the University of California, San Diego who has collaborated with both researchers.

The opportunity for this pairing to occur at all was a result of the unique period in scientific history in which they both grew up.

More here.