The National Science Foundation (NSF) is pleaserd to announce the selection of MIT's Scott Aaronson, an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, to receive its 2012 Alan T. Waterman Award. Dr. Aaronson works with the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, MIT's largest interdepartmental lab.
The Waterman Award is the National Science Foundation's (NSF) highest honor. The annual award recognizes outstanding researchers under the age of 35 in any field of science or engineering NSF supports. This is the first year that two awardees have been selected.
In addition to a medal, each of this year's awardees will receive a $1 million grant---twice the amount of last year's award---over a five-year period for further advanced study in his field.
Prof. Aaronson, a theoretical computational scientist, pursues research interests that focus on the limitations of quantum computers and computational complexity theory more generally. His research addresses a variety of topics, including the information content of quantum states, the physical resources needed for quantum computers to surpass classical computers, and the barriers to solving computer science's vexing P versus NP question, that is, whether every problem whose solution can be quickly verified by a computer can also be quickly solved by a computer.
