Complexity theory

Science

Andrew Yao

Turing Award-winning theorist who built China’s top computer science programme

Born 1946

Science

Juris Hartmanis

Latvian-born computer scientist who founded computational complexity theory

1928 – 2022

Science

Stephen Cook

Computer scientist who formulated the P versus NP problem

Born 1939

Science

Richard M. Karp

Computer scientist who showed that many everyday problems are NP-complete

Born 1935

Science

Avi Wigderson

Israeli theorist who showed how randomness and computation relate

Born 1956

Science

Manuel Blum

Venezuelan-born computer scientist who co-invented CAPTCHA

Born 1938

Science

Richard E. Stearns

Co-founder of computational complexity theory with Juris Hartmanis

1936 – 2026