Karp wins Kyoto Prize!
June 20, 2008
Richard Karp, University Professor of bioengineering, electrical engineering & computer sciences, industrial engineering & operations research and mathematicshas been named a laureate of the 2008 Kyoto Prize, Japan’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize, in recognition of his lifetime achievements in the field of computer theory.
The Kyoto Prize is awarded annually by the Inamori Foundation to those who have contributed significantly to the betterment of humanity in the categories of advanced technology, basic sciences, and arts and philosophy. Karp has been honored in the advanced technology category, which focuses on information science.
A giant in the field of computer science and theory, Karp’s recent work has been in the area of bioinformatics and computational biology, where computers and algorithms are used to analyze and model data to determine how genes and living cells work. He has developed algorithms for constructing various kinds of physical maps of DNA targets, and methods for classifying biological samples on the basis of gene expression data. His current interests are in the application of combinatorial and probabilistic methods to finding hidden patterns in gene expression data and discovering the structure of genetic regulatory networks.
Considered one of the world’s leading computer theorists, Karp, who also holds a position as a senior research scientist at the International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley, and has received many other honors, including the Turing Award are a U.S. National Medal of Science, Fulkerson Prize, Von Neumann Theory Prize, UC Berkeley Distinguished Teaching Award and eight honorary degrees.
Read the full story at the UC Berkeley News Center.