acm
Association for Computing Machinery
Advancing Computing as a Science & Profession
Contacts:
Lance Fortnow
847-579-9310
ACM SIGACT Chair
fortnow@eecs.northwestern.edu
Virginia Gold
ACM
212-626-0505
vgold@acm.org
AT&T LABS RESEARCHER TO RECEIVE ACM AWARD FOR CONTRIBUTIONS
TO DESIGN OF ALGORITHMS AND DEVELOPMENT OF
NP-COMPLETENESS THEORY
David S. Johnson Named 2010 Knuth Prize Winner for Innovations
That Impacted the Foundations of Computer Science
NEW YORK, March 2, 2010 – The ACM Special Interest Group on Algorithms and Computation
Theory (SIGACT) http://sigact.acm.org will present its 2010 Knuth Prize to David S. Johnson of
AT&T Labs for his contributions to theoretical and experimental analysis of algorithms. Johnson’s
innovations helped lay the foundation for algorithms used to address optimization problems, which
involve the process of finding the best solution from all feasible solutions. In addition, Johnson made
many contributions to the early development of NP-completeness theory, which helps identify those
problems that are hard to solve efficiently. The Knuth Prize, named in honor of Donald Knuth of
Stanford University who has been called the "father" of the analysis of algorithms, will be presented at
the ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing (STOC) http://research.microsoft.com/enus/um/newengland/events/stoc2010/ June 6-8, 2010, in Cambridge, MA, where Johnson will present
the Knuth Prize Lecture.
Johnson’s research in approximation techniques to solve computational problems set up the
basic theoretical framework and approach for searching for an “almost” optimal solution. His work
over the years has addressed the approximation of many problems including bin packing, which is an
NP-hard problem that applies to filling up containers, loading trucks with weight capacity, and
creating file backup in removable media. It also addresses TSP (the Traveling Salesman Problem),
which can be useful in planning, logistics, and the manufacture of microchips, as well as DNA
sequencing.
In addition to his theoretical analysis, Johnson has authored a set of highly influential papers
on the experimental analysis of approximation algorithms. This research established equally rigorous
standards for experimental algorithms, which focus on implementations as the standard of value and
provide the key to the transfer of research results from paper to production code.
Johnson is an acknowledged expert on NP-completeness, a reference to the hardest search
problems. His 1979 book, Computers and Intractability: A Guide to the Theory of NP-Completeness,
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=574848&coll=ACM&dl=GUIDE which he coauthored with
Michael Garey, remains the standard reference on the topic. Johnson has also written continuously on
NP-completeness in his columns for the Journal of Algorithms and ACM Transactions on Algorithms.
An active leader in the theoretical computer science community, Johnson founded the ACMSIAM (Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics) Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA)
and the ongoing series of DIMACS (Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer
Science) Implementation Challenges. He served on the ACM Council as Member-at-Large from 19962004, and chaired ACM SIGACT from 1987-1991. He was editor of the Journal of the Association
for Computing Machinery (JACM) from 1983-1987, and ACM Transactions on Mathematical
Software (TOMS) from 1991-2006. He has also served as associate editor of ACM Transactions on
Algorithms(TALG) since its founding in 2004.
Johnson, a Fellow of ACM (http://fellows.acm.org), graduated summa cum laude from
Amherst College and earned S.M. and Ph.D degrees from Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) in mathematics.
The Knuth Prize is given every 18 months by ACM SIGACT and the IEEE Technical
Committee on the Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science and includes a $5,000 award.
About ACM
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery www.acm.org is the world’s largest educational and scientific
computing society, uniting computing educators, researchers and professionals to inspire dialogue, share
resources and address the field’s challenges. ACM strengthens the computing profession’s collective voice
through strong leadership, promotion of the highest standards, and recognition of technical excellence. ACM
supports the professional growth of its members by providing opportunities for life-long learning, career
development, and professional networking.
About SIGACT
The ACM Special Interest Group on Algorithms and Computation Theory http://sigact.acm.org fosters and
promotes the discovery and dissemination of high quality research in the domain of theoretical computer science.
The field includes algorithms, data structures, complexity theory, distributed computation, parallel computation,
VLSI, machine learning, computational biology, computational geometry, information theory, cryptography,
quantum computation, computational number theory and algebra, program semantics and verification, automata
theory, and the study of randomness. Work in this field is often distinguished by its emphasis on mathematical
technique and rigor.
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