ACM Prize Awarded to Scott Aaronson for Groundbreaking Contributions to Quantum Computing

(GlobeNewsWire) ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, today announced that Scott Aaronson has been named the recipient of the 2020 ACM Prize in Computing for groundbreaking contributions to quantum computing. Aaronson is the David J. Bruton Jr. Centennial Professor of Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin.
Aaronson helped develop the concept of quantum supremacy, which denotes the milestone that is achieved when a quantum device can solve a problem that no classical computer can solve in a reasonable amount of time. Aaronson established many of the theoretical foundations of quantum supremacy experiments. Such experiments allow scientists to give convincing evidence that quantum computers provide exponential speedups without having to first build a full fault-tolerant quantum computer.
The ACM Prize in Computing recognizes early-to-mid-career computer scientists whose research contributions have fundamental impact and broad implications. The award carries a prize of $250,000, from an endowment provided by Infosys Ltd.
“Few areas of technology have as much potential as quantum computation,” said ACM President Gabriele Kotsis. “Despite being at a relatively early stage in his career, Scott Aaronson is esteemed by his colleagues for the breadth and depth of his contributions. He has helped guide the development of this new field, while clarifying its possibilities as a leading educator and superb communicator. Importantly, his contributions have not been confined to quantum computation, but have had significant impact in areas such as computational complexity theory and physics.”