Peter Shor

Template:Short description Template:Distinguish Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox scientist Peter Williston Shor (born August 14, 1959) is an American theoretical computer scientist known for his work on quantum computation, in particular for devising Shor's algorithm, a quantum algorithm for factoring exponentially faster than the best currently-known algorithm running on a classical computer. He has been a professor of applied mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) since 2003.

Early life and education

Shor was born on August 14, 1959, in New York City, to Joan Bopp Shor and S. W. Williston Shor.<ref name="legacy.com">Joan Shor Obituary.</ref><ref>'[1], Shor Family History</ref> He grew up in Washington, D.C. and Mill Valley, California.<ref name="legacy.com"/> While attending Tamalpais High School, he placed third in the 1977 USA Mathematical Olympiad.<ref>Murray Klamkin (Editor). Mathematical Association of America (January 1989). USA Mathematical Olympiads 1972–1986 Problems and Solutions (Anneli Lax New Mathematical Library), Template:Isbn Template:Isbn, accessed May 10, 2007</ref> After graduation that year, he won a silver medal at the International Math Olympiad in Yugoslavia (the U.S. team achieved the most points per country that year).<ref>Mill Valley Historical Society, 2004, 'History of Homestead Valley' Template:Webarchive</ref><ref>Stephen R. Dunbar, 'Identifying Talent: American Mathematics Competitions,' in Mathematical Association of America, Focus, Vol 24, Issue 3, March 2004, p 29</ref>

Shor graduated from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 1981 with a B.S. in mathematics.<ref name=Caltech>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He was a Putnam Fellow in 1978. He then did doctoral study in applied mathematics at MIT, receiving a Ph.D. in 1985.<ref>Template:Cite thesis</ref> His doctoral advisor was F. Thomson Leighton, and his thesis was on probabilistic analysis of bin-packing algorithms.

Career

After being awarded his PhD by MIT, he spent one year as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, and then accepted a position at Bell Labs in New Providence, New Jersey. It was there he developed Shor's algorithm. This development was inspired by Simon's problem. Shor first found an efficient quantum algorithm for the discrete log problem (which relates point-finding on a hypercube to a torus) and,

"Later that week, I was able to solve the factoring problem as well. There’s a strange relation between discrete log and factoring."<ref>Template:Cite arXiv</ref>

Both of these problems are examples of the HSP. For his work discovering the efficient quantum algorithms for factoring and discrete logarithm he was awarded the Nevanlinna Prize at the 23rd International Congress of Mathematicians in 1998<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and the Gödel Prize in 1999.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1999, he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.<ref>Peter W. Shor – Computer Science, Class of 1999, MacArthur Foundation</ref> In 2017, he received the Dirac Medal of the ICTP and for 2019 the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Basic Sciences.<ref>BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award 2019</ref>

Shor began his MIT position in 2003. Currently, he is the Henry Adams Morss and Henry Adams Morss, Jr. Professor of Applied Mathematics in the Department of Mathematics at MIT.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He also is affiliated with CSAIL.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

He received a Distinguished Alumni Award from Caltech in 2007.<ref name=Caltech/>

On October 1, 2011, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He was elected as an ACM Fellow in 2019 "for contributions to quantum-computing, information theory, and randomized algorithms".<ref>Template:Citation</ref> He was elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2002.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2020, he was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for pioneering contributions to quantum computation.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In an interview published in Nature on October 30, 2020, Shor said that he considers post-quantum cryptography to be a solution to the quantum threat, although a lot of engineering effort is required to switch from vulnerable algorithms.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Along with three others, Shor was awarded the 2023 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for "foundational work in the field of quantum information."<ref name=mit-news-breakthrough />

See also

• Entanglement-assisted classical capacity
• Keller's conjecture
• Stabilizer code
• Quantum capacity

External links

• Template:DBLP.
• Peter Shor's Home Page at MIT.
• Quantum Computing Expert Peter Shor Receives Carnegie Mellon's 1998 Dickson Prize in Science.
• Template:MathGenealogy
• Template:IMO results
• The story of Shor's algorithm — Youtube.

Lectures and panels

• Video of "Harnessing Quantum Physics", Peter Shor's panel discussion with Ignacio Cirac, Michele Mosca, Avi Wigderson, Daniel Gottesman and Dorit Aharonov, at the Quantum to Cosmos festival