Manuel Blum

Manuel Blum, winner of the 1995 Turing Award (computing's Nobel Prize equivalent), revolutionized complexity theory and developed fundamental concepts in cryptography that underpin modern digital security. He is a legendary advisor of generations of PhD students who pepper major CS departments across the country. Three of his PhD students are also Turing Award recipients and two of his students have started theory-based companies, Algorand and Duolingo.