Education
Princeton University. Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.
Princeton University. Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.
He has made unexpected and original contributions to the field of computational complexity. He is best known for his unique games conjecture. Khot is a two time silver medalist representing India at the International Mathematical Olympiad in the years 1994 and 1995.
In 1995, Khot topped the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Examination.
Khot obtained his bachelor’s degree in computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in 1999. He received his doctorate degree in computer science from Princeton University in 2003 under the supervision of Sanjeev Arora.
He also received an honorable mention in the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) doctoral dissertation award in 2003 for his dissertation, "New Techniques for Probabilistically Checkable Proofs and Inapproximability Results."
The fellowship recognizes innovative, promising new faculty members who are exploring breakthrough, high-impact research that has the potential to help solve some of today’s most challenging societal problems. The National Science Foundation citation for the Waterman award states: "Foreign unexpected and original contributions to computational complexity, notably the Unique Games Conjecture, and the resulting rich connections and consequences in optimization, computer science and mathematics".
He gave an invited talk at the International Congress of Mathematicians in 2010, on the topic of "Mathematical Aspects of Computer Science".
He was a visiting associate professor at the University of Chicago for 2 years (2011-2012).
Khot was awarded the 2014 Rolf Nevanlinna Prize by the International Mathematical Union, for his work related to the Unique Games Conjecture, as well as for posing the conjecture itself. In 2005, he received the Microsoft Research New Faculty Fellowship Award. In 2010, Khot received the prestigious Alan T. Waterman Award, which recognizes an early career scientist for their outstanding contributions in their respective field He received the 2014 Rolf Nevanlinna Prize by the International Mathematical Union, for his work related to the Unique Games Conjecture, as well as for posing the conjecture itself. According to the International Mathematical Union citation, "he is awarded the Nevanlinna Prize for his prescient definition of the “Unique Games” problem, and leading the effort to understand its complexity and its pivotal role in the study of efficient approximation of optimization problems. His work has led to breakthroughs in algorithmic design and approximation hardness, and to new exciting interactions between computational complexity, analysis and geometry".
