Gödel Prize 2025: Cornell Professor Eshan Chattopadhyay and UT Austin Professor David Zuckerman Receive Prestigious Award

Corning, NY - Two prominent computer science professors, Eshan Chattopadhyay of Cornell University and David Zuckerman of The University of Texas at Austin, have been awarded the 2025 Gödel Prize for their groundbreaking research paper, "Explicit Two-Source Extractors and Resilient Functions," published in 2019.

The prestigious prize was given by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) SIGACT and the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science to recognize significant contributions to theoretical computer science. Chattopadhyay and Zuckerman's research paper presented a landmark solution to a central open problem in randomness extraction, offering a novel method for constructing explicit two-source extractors.

Chattopadhyay, an Indian-origin professor at Cornell University, has been recognized with numerous awards for his work, including the National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2021. Zuckerman, who earned his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, is widely regarded as a leading expert in pseudorandomness and computational complexity.

Upon receiving the award, Chattopadhyay expressed his gratitude, saying, "This recognition is truly an incredible honor... It feels surreal—and deeply gratifying—that our paper is being placed in that category." Zuckerman noted that their work built upon previously existing research on seeded extractors, but demonstrated major advances in two-source extractors and Ramsey graphs, calling it a milestone for young researchers to enter the field.

The Gödel Prize, named after renowned logician Kurt Gödel, aims to recognize outstanding contributions to theoretical computer science. A formal ceremony will take place at the ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing (STOC) in Prague this June to honor the award winners.

This prestigious recognition is a testament to the remarkable contributions of Chattopadhyay and Zuckerman to their respective fields and solidifies Cornell University's position as a leader in computer science research.