Richard M. Karp Distinguished Lectures

The Richard M. Karp Distinguished Lectures were created in Fall 2019 to celebrate the role of Simons Institute Founding Director Dick Karp in establishing the field of theoretical computer science, formulating its central problems, and contributing stunning results in the areas of computational complexity and algorithms. Formerly known as the Simons Institute Open Lectures, the series features visionary leaders in the field of theoretical computer science, and is geared toward a broad scientific audience. To view the video of a past lecture, please follow the link in the list below.

The Institute gratefully acknowledges the many contributors to the Richard M. Karp Fund.

Spring 2017

Open Lecture — Does Computational Complexity Restrict Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning?
Speaker: Sanjeev Arora (Princeton University)
May 3, 2017 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Banatao Auditorium, Sutardja Dai Hall
Open Lecture — In Pursuit of Structure: Why a Little Randomness (Almost) Always Helps
Speaker: Julia Wolf (University of Bristol)
Apr. 3, 2017 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Banatao Auditorium, Sutardja Dai Hall
Open Lecture — The Contextual Bandits Problem
Speaker: Robert Schapire (Microsoft Research)
Mar. 13, 2017 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Banatao Auditorium, Sutardja Dai Hall
Open Lecture — Does Randomness Solve Problems?
Speaker: Russell Impagliazzo (UC San Diego)
Feb. 6, 2017 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Banatao Auditorium, Sutardja Dai Hall

Fall 2016

Open Lecture — Logic and Automata and Beyond
Speaker: Mikołaj Bojańczyk (University of Warsaw) 
Nov. 28, 2016 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Banatao Auditorium, Sutardja Dai Hall
Open Lecture — Application-Specific Algorithm Selection
Speaker: Tim Roughgarden (Stanford University) 
Oct. 24, 2016 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Banatao Auditorium, Sutardja Dai Hall
Open Lecture — Number-Theoretic Methods in Quantum Computing
Speaker: Peter Selinger (Dalhousie University) 
Sep. 26, 2016 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Banatao Auditorium, Sutardja Dai Hall
Open Lecture — Algorithm Design in the Modern Era: Dealing with Uncertainty and Incentives
Speaker: Anna Karlin (University of Washington)
Sep. 12, 2016 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Banatao Auditorium, Sutardja Dai Hall

Spring 2016

Open Lecture — Recovering Biological Networks, and the Ubiquitous Inverse of the Variance-Covariance Matrix
Speaker: Martin Vingron (Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin)
Apr. 26, 2016 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Banatao Auditorium, Sutardja Dai Hall
Open Lecture — The Complexity of Computing Quantities
Speaker: Leslie Valiant (Harvard University)
Mar. 28, 2016 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Banatao Auditorium, Sutardja Dai Hall

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