Peter Shor Explained

Peter Shor
Birth Date:August 14, 1959
Birth Place:New York City, New York, U.S.
Nationality:American
Field:Computer science, applied mathematics
Work Institution:
Alma Mater:
  • Caltech
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Thesis Title:Random planar matching and bin packing
Thesis Year:1985
Thesis Url:http://www-math.mit.edu/~shor/thesis/
Doctoral Advisor:Tom Leighton
Prizes:

Peter Williston Shor (born August 14, 1959) is an American professor of applied mathematics at MIT. He is 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.

Early life and education

Shor was born in New York City to Joan Bopp Shor and S. W. Williston Shor.[10] [11] He grew up in Washington, D.C. and Mill Valley, California.[10] While attending Tamalpais High School, he placed third in the 1977 USA Mathematical Olympiad.[12] 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).[13] [14] He received his B.S. in Mathematics in 1981 for undergraduate work at Caltech,[15] and was a Putnam Fellow in 1978. He earned his PhD in Applied Mathematics from MIT in 1985.[16] 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, where he first solved 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."[17]
Due to their similarity as HSP problems, Shor discovered a related factoring problem (Shor's algorithm) that same week for which he was awarded the Nevanlinna Prize at the 23rd International Congress of Mathematicians in 1998[18] [19] and the Gödel Prize in 1999.[20] In 1999, he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.[21] In 2017, he received the Dirac Medal of the ICTP and for 2019 the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Basic Sciences.[22]

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.[23] He also is affiliated with CSAIL.[24]

He received a Distinguished Alumni Award from Caltech in 2007.[15]

On October 1, 2011, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[25] [26] He was elected as an ACM Fellow in 2019 "for contributions to quantum-computing, information theory, and randomized algorithms". He was elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2002.[27] In 2020, he was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for pioneering contributions to quantum computation.[28]

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.[29]

Along with three others, Shor was awarded the 2023 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for "foundational work in the field of quantum information."

See also

External links

Lectures and panels

Notes and References

  1. Web site: The Mathematical Association of America's William Lowell Putnam Competition . February 12, 2007 . .
  2. Web site: Fields Medalists / Nevanlinna Price (sic) Winner 1998. September 26, 2010. International Mathematical Union. August 22, 2006. https://web.archive.org/web/20160303192134/http://www.mathunion.org/o/General/Prizes/Nevanlinna/1998/. March 3, 2016. dead.
  3. Web site: Fellows List – July 1999 . February 12, 2007 . . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20060928193615/http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.1142725/k.2948/Fellows_List__July_1999.htm . September 28, 2006 .
  4. Web site: 1999 Gödel Prize . February 12, 2007 . Parberry . Ian . May 10, 1999 . ACM SIGACT.
  5. Web site: 2002 King Faisal International Prizes for Science Announced. King Faisal Foundation.
  6. Web site: ICS Prize. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20160306024932/https://www.informs.org/Community/ICS/Prizes/ICS-Prize. March 6, 2016.
  7. https://www.ictp.it/about-ictp/prizes-awards/the-dirac-medal/the-medallists/dirac-medallists-2017.aspx Dirac Medal of ICTP 2017
  8. https://web.archive.org/web/20180713075400/https://www.ieee.org/about/awards/bios/sumner-recipients.html List of IEEE Eric E. Sumner Award Recipients
  9. News: Chu . Jennifer . September 22, 2022 . Peter Shor wins Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics . MIT News . September 23, 2022.
  10. https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/marinij/name/joan-shor-obituary?id=8877491 Joan Shor Obituary
  11. 'https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=shor, Shor Family History
  12. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0883856344/ Murray Klamkin (Editor). Mathematical Association of America (January 1989). USA Mathematical Olympiads 1972–1986 Problems and Solutions (Anneli Lax New Mathematical Library)
  13. http://www.millvalleyhistoricalsociety.org/history-of-homestead-valley-2004.html Mill Valley Historical Society, 2004, 'History of Homestead Valley'
  14. http://www.maa.org/pubs/mar04.pdf Stephen R. Dunbar, 'Identifying Talent: American Mathematics Competitions,' in Mathematical Association of America, Focus, Vol 24, Issue 3, March 2004, p 29
  15. Web site: 2007 Recipients. Distinguished Alumni Award. Caltech Alumni Association. April 22, 2010. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20110716194044/http://alumni.caltech.edu/distinguished_alumni/by_year?year=2007. July 16, 2011.
  16. Shor . Peter Williston . Random Planar Matching and Bin Packing . Ph.D. thesis . MIT . September 1985 . 14107348.
  17. Shor . Peter W. . 2022-08-21 . The Early Days of Quantum Computation . quant-ph . 2208.09964.
  18. Jackson, Allyn. Peter Shor Receives Nevanlinna Prize. Notices of the AMS. November 1998. 1361.
  19. Book: Shor, Peter. Quantum computing. Doc. Math. (Bielefeld) Extra Vol. ICM Berlin, 1998, vol. I. 1998. 467–486. https://www.elibm.org/ft/10011733000.
  20. Web site: Parberry, Ian. 1999 Gödel Prize — Peter W. Shor. sigact.org. May 10, 1999.
  21. https://www.macfound.org/fellows/623/ Peter W. Shor – Computer Science, Class of 1999
  22. https://www.frontiersofknowledgeawards-fbbva.es/ BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award 2019
  23. Web site: Department of Mathematics Faculty and Teaching Staff. Catalog. MIT. 2024-05-19.
  24. Web site: Peter Shor. People. MIT CSAIL. 2024-05-19.
  25. Book: Academy Members: 1780–present. 2011. American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 502.
  26. Web site: 2011 Members and Their Affiliations. American Academy of Arts & Sciences. October 17, 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20120319172054/http://www.amacad.org/news/alphalist2011.pdf. March 19, 2012. dead.
  27. Web site: Peter Shor. March 28, 2021. www.nasonline.org.
  28. Web site: Dr. Peter W. Shor. September 9, 2021. NAE Website.
  29. 10.1038/d41586-020-03068-9 . Quantum-computing pioneer warns of complacency over Internet security . 2020 . Castelvecchi . Davide . Nature . 587 . 7833 . 189 . 33139910 . 2020Natur.587..189C . 226243008 .

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