Madhu Sudan elected to National Academy of Sciences

Madhu Sudan, the Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science at the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).

Madhu Sudan, who researches computational complexity theory, algorithms and reliable communication, is among 84 new members and 21 foreign associates recognized for their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.

Eighteen current SEAS faculty members, including Madhu Sudan, have been elected to the NAS. In addition, 18 SEAS faculty are members of the National Academy of Engineering and four are members of the National Academy of Medicine.

Madhu Sudan’s research focusses on how computers can interact reliably with each other. He draws on tools from computational complexity, which studies efficiency of computation, and many areas of mathematics including algebra and probability theory.  He is best known for his works on probabilistic checking of proofs, and on the design of list-decoding algorithms for error-correcting codes.

Madhu Sudan joined SEAS in 2015. Before that, he was a permanent researcher at Microsoft Research New England. Madhu Sudan earned his B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology at New Delhi and his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley.

Madhu Sudan’s many awards include the Nevanlinna Prize from the International Congress of Mathematicians, the 2014 Infosys Foundation Prize in Mathematical Sciences, NSF Career Award and the Godel Prize. Madhu Sudan is a fellow of the ACM, the IEEE, the AMS and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was a Radcliffe Fellow from 2003-2004.

Other Harvard-affiliated newly elected NAS members include:

• David Charbonneau, Professor of Astronomy
• Noam D. Elkies, Professor of Mathematics
• David D. Ginty, Edward R. and Anne G. Lefler Professor of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School
• Barbara B.Kahn, Vice Chair for Research Strategy and George R. Minot Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School
• Ariel Pakes, Thomas Professor of Economics, Department of Economics
• Rachel I. Wilson, Martin Family Professor of Basic Research in the Field of Neurobiology, Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston
• Junying Yuan, Elizabeth D. Hay Professor of Cell Biology, Department of Cell Biology