Document Actions
Michael O. Rabin
- Thomas J. Watson, Sr. Professor of Computer Science
Contact Information
| Office: | Maxwell Dworkin Building 349 |
| Email: | rabin [ AT ] seas [ DOT ] harvard [ DOT ] edu |
| Office Phone: | (617) 496-6294 |
| Office Fax: | (617) 495-9837 |
| Assistant: | Carol Harlow |
| Office: | Maxwell Dworkin Building 343 |
| Email: | harlow [ AT ] seas [ DOT ] harvard [ DOT ] edu |
| Office Phone: | (617) 496-1440 |
| Office Fax: | (617) 496-6404 |
| Lab Phone: | (617) 495-5817 |
Education
- M.Sc., 1953, Mathematics, Hebrew University,
- Ph.D., 1957, Mathematics, Pinceton University
Research Areas
- Applied Mathematics: Theoretical Computer Science
- Computer Science: Theory of Computation
Research Profile
Professor Rabin received his M.Sc. from the Hebrew University and his Ph.D. from Princeton University under A. Church, where he had his first academic appointment. Later he was visiting member of the Institute for Advanced Study, interacting with K. Godel.
He was Albert Einstein Professor of Mathematics at the Hebrew University, serving as its Rector (Academic Head) from 1972 to 1975. At various times he held Visiting Professorships at Yale University, the Weizmann Institute, the Israel Technion, UC Berkeley, MIT, University of Paris, the Courant Institute of Mathematics, Caltech, ETH Zurich, Columbia University, and Kings College London. He was Saville Fellow at Merton College, Oxford, and Steward Fellow at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. From 1982 to 1994 he served on the IBM Science Advisory Committee. In Spring 2009 he was Visiting Researcher at Google.
His contributions have been recognized by numerous awards including:
- The ACM Turing Award in Computer Science
- ACM Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award
- Rothschild Prize in Mathematics
- Weizmann Prize in Exact Sciences
- IEEE Charles Babbage Award
- Harvey Prize for Science and Technology
- Israel Prize in Computer Science
- EME"T Prize in Computer Science
- IACR Fellow
Rabin was elected as member or foreign honorary member to academies including: the US National Academy of Sciences, the French Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and Foreign Member Royal Society. He holds honorary degrees from New York University, Haifa University, the University of Bordeaux I, Israel's Open University, Ben Gurion University, and the University of Wroclaw .
Rabin's research interests include complexity of computations, efficient algorithms, randomized algorithms, DNA to DNA Computing, parallel and distributed computation computer security, cryptography and financial cryptography.
In recent years he has created, with Y. Aumann and Y.Z. Ding, Hyper-Encryption, the first ever encryption scheme provably providing everlasting secrecy against a computationally unbounded adversary; invented, with S.Micali and J. Kilian, Zero Knowledge Sets, a new primitive for privacy and security protocols; invented and implemented, with W. Yang and H. Rao, a micro chip for physical generation of a strong stream of truly random bits. Hyper-Encryption has been implemented at Harvard and MT via a novel limited access model. Most recently he has innovated practical ZKPs applicable to auctions and other financial processes.

