Cryptography Pioneer Moni Naor Wins 2026 Knuth Prize, Top Career Award in Theoretical CS
fortnow · x · 2026-10-15
Moni Naor has won the 2026 Knuth Prize, the highest career award in theoretical computer science.
The citation spans three decades of contributions: with Moti Yung, he pioneered public-key encryption provably secure against chosen-ciphertext attacks; with Dolev and Dwork he introduced non-malleable cryptography; with Fiat he founded broadcast encryption, and with Chor and Fiat introduced traitor tracing — establishing the foundations of controlled content distribution and illicit-redistribution tracing. He also invented visual cryptography with Adi Shamir.
Notably, his work with Cynthia Dwork on requiring computational effort for access laid an early foundation for proof-of-work. His range spans cryptography, pseudorandomness, algorithms, databases and distributed computing, marked by a rare gift for turning simple questions into entirely new theories.
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