Photo credit: Peg Skorpinski

Computer theorist and University Professor Richard Karp (center) celebrated his latest honor, the Kyoto Prize, with (from left) Dean Shankar Sastry, past engineering deans Karl Pister, Paul Gray and Ernie Kuh and about 100 other engineering luminaries. Japan’s equivalent of the Nobel, the Kyoto recognizes scientific, cultural and spiritual contributions to the betterment of mankind. Karp was singled out for his achievements in advanced technology, specifically his theory of computational complexity, which he began developing in the 1970s. The theory streamlined algorithm design for problem solving in engineering and a wide range of other disciplines and continues to contribute to advances in technology. Go to http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/06/20_kyotoprize.shtml for more.