Letter from the Director, June 2023

Dear friends,

Greetings from the Simons Institute, where our Summer 2023 research programs are ramping up. 

One of the programs this summer is Analysis and TCS: New Frontiers. Back in Fall 2013, Real Analysis in Computer Science was one of the first programs hosted by the Simons Institute, making the current program a beautiful way to mark 10 years of programs at the Institute. The boot camp was filled with illuminating talks covering many recent trends of the field. 

The Institute is also hosting a Summer Cluster on Quantum Computing with a special focus on NISQ (noisy intermediate-scale quantum) computers. To foster more interaction over the course of the summer, the program is experimenting with one-day mini-workshops throughout the summer, with each having a specific focus.

Toward the end of the Spring 2023 semester, we hosted a workshop on Multigroup Fairness and the Validity of Statistical Judgment. We are highlighting some of the themes from this workshop in this issue of the newsletter. I’m happy to share with you my video interview with Omer Reingold, who organized the workshop, and a talk by Huijia (Rachel) Lin, From Pseudorandomness to Multigroup Fairness and Back.

This week, we hosted a workshop on Decoding Communication in Nonhuman Species, the second of two workshops we’ve run on this topic in collaboration with Project CeTI (Cetacean Translation Initiative). We’ll have a report on the workshop to share with you in the next issue of the newsletter. 

I am happy to announce that on July 1, Nikhil Srivastava will be joining the team as senior scientist. And on a personal note, I will be going on a six-month sabbatical. Venkat Guruswami will be taking the reins as interim acting director through the end of 2023. I am looking forward to the infusion of energy and ideas that Nikhil, and Venkat in his new role, will bring to the Institute.

Wishing you a bright summer,
Shafi

Shafi Goldwasser
Director, Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing