Venkatesan Guruswami selected as director of the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing

We're delighted to announce that following a worldwide search, Venkatesan Guruswami has been selected as director of the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing. He takes the helm as the Simons Institute's third director, following Richard Karp (2012–2017) and Shafi Goldwasser (2018–2024). 

"We are terribly lucky to have Venkat as the next director," says Shafi, describing him as "a stellar researcher, a wonderful human being, a natural leader."

Venkat is a chancellor's professor of EECS and professor of Mathematics at UC Berkeley, and one of the world's leading theoretical computer scientists, with an extensive research record spanning error correction, approximate optimization, and computational complexity. Since 2022, he has served as a senior scientist at the Simons Institute and twice as its acting/interim director. He holds a PhD from MIT, and has been a Miller research fellow at UC Berkeley, and held faculty positions at the University of Washington and CMU. Venkat has an extensive record of professional service, including as the current editor in chief of JACM, and recent president of the Computational Complexity Foundation. He is a recipient of a Simons Investigator award, the Presburger Award, and Guggenheim, Packard, and Sloan Fellowships, as well as the ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award, and an ACM STOC Best Paper Award. He is a fellow of the ACM, AMS, and IEEE.

"I'm honored to have this opportunity to serve the international theory community at an exciting moment, characterized by steady breakthroughs on long-standing problems, unexpected links between distinct areas, and growing influence beyond our field," Venkat remarks. "The Simons Institute is fundamentally community-driven, with its programmatic agenda shaped by our brilliant research community. As director, I will work to sustain and deepen the Institute's hallmark atmosphere of immersion and intensity, enabling continued breakthroughs in the years ahead. I am also excited about how the extraordinary new generation of AI tools — already achieving results far beyond expectations — can accelerate and transform research on the foundations of computing, and how the Institute, working with the tech industry, can lead our community in exploring this new frontier."

Building on the work of his predecessors, Venkat will also be focused on raising funds from a variety of sources to build on the generous support of the Simons Foundation and sustain the Institute beyond its second decade. 

Vice Chancellor for Research Kathy Yelick observes, "I'm very pleased that Venkat will be the next director of the Simons Institute. The Institute is a truly unique resource for the campus and the computer science theory community around the world, advancing fundamental understanding of the power of computation that has broad social and technological implications. With over 4,000 visitors since its founding, the Institute has had tremendous reach and impact. We are grateful for the support of the Simons Foundation, and I'm confident that Venkat's outstanding research record, vision, and leadership skills will ensure the Institute's continued success."

The Simons Institute is the world's leading venue for collaborative research in theoretical computer science. Established on July 1, 2012, with a grant of $60 million from the Simons Foundation, the Institute is housed in Calvin Lab, a dedicated building on the UC Berkeley campus. The Simons Institute brings together the world's leading researchers in theoretical computer science and related fields, as well as the next generation of outstanding young scholars, to explore deep unsolved problems about the nature and limits of computation.

Please join us in congratulating Venkat!