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Eshan Chattopadhyay wins Gödel Prize in theoretical computer science
Chattopadhyay, a Cornell professor and IIT Kanpur alumnus, received the honor for breakthrough research in pseudo-randomness, a longstanding problem in computer science.
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Pranavi Sharma - Tue, 17, Jun 2025
- 02:47 EDT
- 18
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Eshan Chattopadhyay / Cornell University
Eshan Chattopadhyay, Associate Professor of Computer Science at Cornell University and an alumnus of IIT Kanpur, has been awarded the 2025 Gödel Prize—one of the highest honors in theoretical computer science. He shares the award with his Ph.D. advisor, Prof. David Zuckerman of the University of Texas at Austin.
The award recognizes his paper, “Explicit Two-Source Extractors and Resilient Functions,” which addresses a problem in pseudo-randomness that had remained unsolved for nearly 30 years. The research introduces a method to extract reliable randomness from two weak sources—a result with significant implications for complexity theory, cryptography, and data security.
“David and I were fantastically optimistic when we started this work – we had no idea if our approach would actually succeed,” said Chattopadhyay. “It’s been amazing to watch the field move forward since then – what once felt like distant goals are now active areas of progress and discovery. I’m deeply grateful to see our work play a part in that progress, and honored that it’s received this kind of recognition.”
In a Facebook post, the Dean of Resources and Alumni at IIT Kanpur congratulated Chattopadhyay and described the achievement as a “significant breakthrough in pseudo-randomness and explicit constructions”. The post continued, “We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Prof. Chattopadhyay on this global recognition—another shining milestone for the IITK alumni community!”
Chattopadhyay completed his undergraduate degree in computer science at IIT Kanpur in 2011. He went on to earn his Ph.D. at UT Austin, working with Zuckerman, a prominent figure in randomness and complexity theory. He has since held research roles at UC Berkeley, Microsoft Research, and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He joined Cornell University in 2018 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2024.
The Gödel Prize, named after logician Kurt Gödel, is awarded jointly by the ACM Special Interest Group on Algorithms and Computation Theory (SIGACT) and the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science. It honors outstanding papers that make lasting contributions to the field.
Chattopadhyay’s work defied longstanding assumptions. For decades, it was believed that producing strong randomness from two weak sources was unachievable. His research proved otherwise. The result has far-reaching applications in cryptography, secure communication, and theoretical computing.
Chattopadhyay is also a recipient of the Sloan Research Fellowship and the NSF CAREER Award. At Cornell, he is known for his rigorous teaching and contributions to major conferences in theoretical computer science.
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