Ariel D. Procaccia () is an Israeli-American

computer scientist A computer scientist is a scientist who specializes in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation. Although computer scientists can also focus their work and research on ...

. He is the Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science at Harvard University. He was previously an associate professor of computer science at

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...

. He is known for his research in

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

(AI) and

theoretical computer science Theoretical computer science is a subfield of computer science and mathematics that focuses on the Abstraction, abstract and mathematical foundations of computation. It is difficult to circumscribe the theoretical areas precisely. The Associati ...

, especially for his work on computational aspects of

game theory Game theory is the study of mathematical models of strategic interactions. It has applications in many fields of social science, and is used extensively in economics, logic, systems science and computer science. Initially, game theory addressed ...

social choice Social choice theory is a branch of welfare economics that extends the theory of rational choice to collective decision-making. Social choice studies the behavior of different mathematical procedures ( social welfare functions) used to combine i ...

, and

fair division Fair division is the problem in game theory of dividing a set of resources among several people who have an Entitlement (fair division), entitlement to them so that each person receives their due share. The central tenet of fair division is that ...

. He is the founder of Spliddit, a fair division website.

Biography

Procaccia received his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

, ''

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

'', in computer science from the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

in 2009. His doctoral dissertation won the IFAAMAS Victor Lesser Distinguished Dissertation Award for the best dissertation in the area of autonomous agents and multi-agent systems. Subsequently, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Microsoft and

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, where he was partially supported by a

Rothschild Fellowship The Rothschild Fellowship program is a prestigious grant awarded annually by Yad Hanadiv (The Rothschild Foundation). The Rothschild Scholarship for Outstanding Young Researchers is a awarded since 1979 with the aim of helping outstanding youn ...

from

Yad Hanadiv Yad Hanadiv (The Rothschild Foundation) is a Rothschild family philanthropic foundation in Israel. Goals and objectives Yad Hanadiv defines its mission as: Dedicated to creating resources for advancing Israel as a healthy, vibrant, democratic so ...

. In 2011, he joined the Computer Science Department at

as a faculty member. In spring 2020 he was on sabbatical at Carnegie Mellon University, where he was a faculty member until 2019.

Research and awards

In 2015, Procaccia won the

IJCAI Computers and Thought Award The IJCAI Computers and Thought Award is presented every two years by the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI), recognizing outstanding young scientists in artificial intelligence. It was originally funded with royal ...

, given every two years since 1971 to an outstanding AI researcher under the age of 35, for "his contributions to the fields of computational social choice and computational economics, and for efforts to make advanced fair division techniques more widely accessible". He is a recipient of a 2015

Sloan Research Fellowship The Sloan Research Fellowships are awarded annually by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation since 1955 to "provide support and recognition to early-career scientists and scholars". This program is one of the oldest of its kind in the United States. ...

, a 2018

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

, the 2020 Social Choice and Welfare Prize, and the 2024

Kalai Prize The Prize in Game Theory and Computer Science in Honour of Ehud Kalai is an award given by the Game Theory Society. The prize is awarded for outstanding articles at the interface of game theory and computer science. Following the eligibility rules ...

Misc

Procaccia is an emeritus blogger on the popular algorithmic game theory blog "Turing's Invisible Hand."Turing's Invisible Hand
retrieved on February 5, 2019.

References

External links

Home page
at Carnegie Mellon University
Citations
on Google Scholar {{DEFAULTSORT:Procaccia, Ariel Living people Israeli computer scientists Harvard University faculty Sloan Research Fellows Hebrew University of Jerusalem School of Computer Science & Engineering alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Fair division researchers