Noga Alon

Noga Alon (Hebrew: ‫ ;נוגה אלון‬born 1956) is an

Israeli mathematician and a professor of mathematics Noga Alon
at Princeton University noted for his contributions to ‫נוגה אלון‬
combinatorics and theoretical computer science,
having authored hundreds of papers.

Education and career

Alon was born in 1956 in Haifa, where he graduated
from the Hebrew Reali School in 1974. He graduated
summa cum laude from the Technion – Israel Institute
of Technology in 1979, earned a master's degree in
mathematics in 1980 from Tel Aviv University,[1] and
received his Ph.D. in Mathematics at the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem in 1983 with the dissertation
Noga Alon
Extremal Problems in Combinatorics supervised by
Micha Perles.[2] Born 1956 (age 67–68)
Israel
After postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts
Alma mater Hebrew University of
Institute of Technology he returned to Tel Aviv Jerusalem
University as a senior lecturer in 1985, obtained a
Known for Combinatorial Nullstellensatz
permanent position as an associate professor there in
1986, and was promoted to full professor in 1988. He Awards George Pólya Prize (2000)
was head of the School of Mathematical Science from Gödel Prize (2005)
1999 to 2001, and was given the Florence and Ted Israel Prize in Mathematics
Baumritter Combinatorics and Computer Science (2008)

Chair,[1] before retiring as professor emeritus and Shaw Prize (2022)

moving to Princeton University in 2018.[3] Wolf Prize in Mathematics
(2024)
He was editor-in-chief of the journal Random
Scientific career
Structures and Algorithms from 2008 through 2023.[4]
Fields Mathematics
Theoretical computer science

Research Institutions Tel Aviv University

Institute for Advanced Study
Alon has published more than five hundred research Microsoft Research, Herzeliya
papers, mostly in combinatorics and in theoretical Princeton University
computer science, and one book, on the probabilistic Thesis Extremal Problems in
Combinatorics (1983)
method. He has also published under the pseudonym Doctoral Micha Perles
"A. Nilli", based on the name of his daughter Nilli advisor
Alon.[5] Doctoral Gregory Gutin
students Tali Kaufman
His research contributions include the combinatorial
Nullstellensatz, an algebraic tool with many Michael Krivelevich
applications in combinatorics; color-coding, a Benny Sudakov
technique for fixed-parameter tractability of pattern- Uri Zwick
matching algorithms in graphs; and the Alon–Boppana
Website www.math.tau.ac.il/~nogaa/ (ht
bound in spectral graph theory.
tp://www.math.tau.ac.il/~noga
a/)

Selected works

Book
The Probabilistic Method, with Joel Spencer, Wiley, 1992. 2nd ed., 2000; 3rd ed., 2008; 4th
ed., 2016.[6]

Research articles
Alon, N. (1986). "Eigenvalues and expanders". Combinatorica. 6 (2): 83–96.
doi:10.1007/BF02579166 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2FBF02579166). MR 0875835 (https://m
athscinet.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=0875835). S2CID 41083612 (https://api.semantic
scholar.org/CorpusID:41083612).
Alon, N.; Boppana, R. B. (1987). "The monotone circuit complexity of Boolean functions".
Combinatorica. 7 (1): 1–22. doi:10.1007/BF02579196 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2FBF02579
196). MR 0905147 (https://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=0905147).
S2CID 17397273 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:17397273).
Alon, Noga (1987). "Splitting necklaces" (https://doi.org/10.1016%2F0001-8708%2887%299
0055-7). Advances in Mathematics. 63 (3): 247–253. doi:10.1016/0001-8708(87)90055-7 (ht
tps://doi.org/10.1016%2F0001-8708%2887%2990055-7). MR 0877785 (https://mathscinet.a
ms.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=0877785).
Alon, Noga; Kleitman, Daniel J (1992). "Piercing convex sets and the Hadwiger–Debrunner
(p, q)-problem" (https://doi.org/10.1016%2F0001-8708%2892%2990052-M). Advances in
Mathematics. 96 (1): 103–112. doi:10.1016/0001-8708(92)90052-M (https://doi.org/10.101
6%2F0001-8708%2892%2990052-M). MR 1185788 (https://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet
-getitem?mr=1185788).
Alon, Noga; Yuster, Raphael; Zwick, Uri (1995). "Color-coding" (https://doi.org/10.1145%2F2
10332.210337). Journal of the ACM. 42 (4): 844–856. doi:10.1145/210332.210337 (https://d
oi.org/10.1145%2F210332.210337). MR 1411787 (https://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet-g
etitem?mr=1411787). S2CID 208936467 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:2089364
67).
Alon, Noga; Matias, Yossi; Szegedy, Mario (1999). "The space complexity of approximating
the frequency moments" (https://doi.org/10.1006%2Fjcss.1997.1545). Journal of Computer
and System Sciences. 58 (1, part 2): 137–147. doi:10.1006/jcss.1997.1545 (https://doi.org/1
0.1006%2Fjcss.1997.1545). MR 1688610 (https://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?
mr=1688610). Previously in the ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing (STOC), 1996.
 Alon, Noga (1999). "Combinatorial Nullstellensatz". Combinatorics, Probability and
Computing. 8 (1–2): 7–29. doi:10.1017/S0963548398003411 (https://doi.org/10.1017%2FS0
963548398003411). MR 1684621 (https://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=1684
621). S2CID 209877602 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:209877602).

Awards
Alon has received a number of awards, including the following:

1989 – Erdős Prize;[7]

2000 – George Pólya Prize in Applied Combinatorics of the Society for Industrial and
Applied Mathematics[8]
2001 – Michael Bruno Memorial Award of the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies;[9]
2005 – Gödel Prize, with Yossi Matias and Mario Szegedy, for their paper "The space
complexity of approximating the frequency moments" on streaming algorithms[10]
2008 – Israel Prize, for mathematics.[11][12]
2011 – EMET Prize, with Saharon Shelah, for mathematics.[13]
2019 – Paris Kanellakis Award, with Phillip Gibbons, Yossi Matias and Mario Szegedy, "for
foundational work on streaming algorithms and their application to large scale data
analytics"[14]
2021 – Leroy P. Steele Prize for Mathematical Exposition, with Joel Spencer, for The
Probabilistic Method[15]
2022 – Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences, with Ehud Hrushovski, "for their remarkable
contributions to discrete mathematics and model theory with interaction notably with
algebraic geometry, topology and computer sciences"[16]
2022 – Knuth Prize, "for foundational contributions in combinatorics and graph theory and
applications to fundamental topics in computer science"[17]
2024 Wolf Prize in Mathematics "for his fundamental contributions to Combinatorics and
Theoretical Computer Science”.
Alon gave plenary addresses in the 1996 European Congress of Mathematics and in the 2002
International Congress of Mathematicians,[4] the 2009 Turán Memorial Lectures,[18] and a lecture in the
1990 International Congress of Mathematicians.[4] In 2015 he gave the Łojasiewicz Lecture (on the
"Signrank and its applications in combinatorics and complexity") at the Jagiellonian University in
Kraków.[19] He was given an honorary doctorate by ETH Zurich in 2013[20] and by the University of
Waterloo in 2015.[21]

In addition, Alon has been a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities since 1997.[22]
He was elected to the Academia Europaea in 2008.[4] In 2015 he was elected as a fellow of the American
Mathematical Society.[23] In 2017 he became a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery.[24]
In 2019 he was named an honorary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.[25]

See also
Necklace splitting problem
 List of Israel Prize recipients

References
1. "Curriculum vitae" (https://www.ae-info.org/attach/User/Alon_Noga/CV/Alon_Noga_cv.pdf)
(PDF). Academia Europaea. Retrieved 2023-05-06.
2. Noga Alon (https://mathgenealogy.org/id.php?id=58918) at the Mathematics Genealogy
Project
3. "Short CV" (https://web.math.princeton.edu/~nalon/cvshort.html). Princeton University.
Retrieved 2023-05-06.
4. "Noga Alon" (https://www.ae-info.org/ae/Member/Alon_Noga). Members. Academia
Europaea. Retrieved 2023-05-05.
5. Ceccherini-Silberstein, Tullio; Scarabotti, Fabio; Tolli, Filippo (2018). Discrete Harmonic
Analysis: Representations, Number Theory, Expanders, and the Fourier Transform (https://b
ooks.google.com/books?id=HYRnDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA300). Cambridge Studies in
Advanced Mathematics. Vol. 172. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. p. 300.
doi:10.1017/9781316856383 (https://doi.org/10.1017%2F9781316856383). ISBN 978-1-
107-18233-2. MR 3791831 (https://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=3791831).
S2CID 125447782 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:125447782).
6. Reviews:
Fishburn, Peter (1 June 1994). "Probability galore (review of The Probabilistic Method,
1st ed.)". Journal of Mathematical Psychology. 38 (2): 286–292.
doi:10.1006/jmps.1994.1018 (https://doi.org/10.1006%2Fjmps.1994.1018).
Fristed, Bert (1993). "Review of The Probabilistic Method, 1st ed". Mathematical
Reviews. MR 1140703 (https://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=1140703).
Review of 2nd ed. (2003), MR1885388 (https://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?
mr=1885388).
Moon, J. W. "Review of The Probabilistic Method, 1st ed". zbMATH. Zbl 0767.05001 (htt
ps://zbmath.org/?format=complete&q=an:0767.05001). Review of 2nd. ed.,
Zbl 0996.05001 (https://zbmath.org/?format=complete&q=an:0996.05001). Review of
3rd ed., Zbl 1148.05001 (https://zbmath.org/?format=complete&q=an:1148.05001)
Bóna, Miklós (8 November 2008). "Review of The Probabilistic Method, 3rd ed" (https://
www.maa.org/press/maa-reviews/the-probabilistic-method). MAA Reviews.
Mathematical Association of America. Retrieved 2022-10-25.
Mukherjee, Sayan (December 2009). "Review of The Probabilistic Method, 3rd ed".
Journal of the American Statistical Association. 104 (488): 1723. JSTOR 40592386 (http
s://www.jstor.org/stable/40592386).
Gouvêa, Fernando Q. (24 February 2016). "Review of The Probabilistic Method, 4th ed"
(https://www.maa.org/press/maa-reviews/the-probabilistic-method-0). MAA Reviews.
Mathematical Association of America. Retrieved 2022-10-25.
7. "The Anna and Lajos Erdős Prize in Mathematics" (https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Ho
nours/Anna_and_Lajos_Erdos_Prize/). MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive. Retrieved
2023-05-05.
8. "George Pólya Prize in Applied Combinatorics" (https://www.siam.org/prizes-recognition/maj
or-prizes-lectures/detail/george-polya-prize-applied-combinatorics). Major Prizes &
Lectures. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. Retrieved 2023-05-05.
9. "Bruno Laureates" (https://iias.huji.ac.il/brunolaureates). iias.huji.ac.il.
10. "Gödel Prize – 2005" (https://eatcs.org/index.php/component/content/article/503). European
Association for Theoretical Computer Science. Retrieved 2023-05-06.
11. "Israel Prize Official Site (in Hebrew) – Recipient's C.V." (http://cms.education.gov.il/Educati
onCMS/Units/PrasIsrael/Tashsah/NogaAlon/CvNohaAlon.htm)
12. "Israel Prize Official Site (in Hebrew) – Judges' Rationale for Grant to Recipient" (http://cms.
education.gov.il/EducationCMS/Units/PrasIsrael/Tashsah/NogaAlon/NsNogaAlon.htm).
13. "Haaretz photographer Miki Kratsman among new recipients of Emet Prize" (https://www.ha
aretz.com/2011-11-21/ty-article/news-in-brief/0000017f-e198-d804-ad7f-f1fafd710000).
News in brief. Haaretz. 21 November 2011. Retrieved 2023-05-06.
14. "Noga Alon" (https://awards.acm.org/award-recipients/alon_6955744). Award recipients.
Association for Computing Machinery. Retrieved 2023-05-05.
15. "News from the AMS" (https://www.ams.org/news?news_id=6484). American Mathematical
Society.
16. "The Shaw Prize" (http://www.shawprize.org/prizes/mathematical-sciences).
www.shawprize.org.
17. "2022 Knuth Prize Awarded to Noga Alon" (https://www.sigact.org/prizes/knuth/citation2022.
pdf) (PDF). ACM Special Interest Group on Algorithms and Computation Theory. Retrieved
2022-07-02.
18. "Paul Turán Memorial Lectures" (https://old.renyi.hu/turanlectures_vk.html). old.renyi.hu.
19. "S.Lojasiewicz Lecture 2015" (https://im.uj.edu.pl/en_GB/lojasiewicz/2015). Institute of
Mathematics of the Jagiellonian University. Retrieved 2023-05-06.
20. "Honorary doctors" (https://inf.ethz.ch/department/awards-rankings/honorary-doctors.html).
ETH Zurich Department of Computer Science. Retrieved 2023-05-06.
21. "Noga Alon to be awarded an Honorary Doctorate" (https://uwaterloo.ca/combinatorics-and-
optimization/news/noga-alon-be-awarded-honorary-doctorate). University of Waterloo
Department of Combinatorics and Optimization. 2 June 2015. Retrieved 2023-05-06.
22. "Noga Alon" (https://www.academy.ac.il/Index2/Entry.aspx?nodeId=809&entryId=18227).
Members. Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Retrieved 2023-05-05.
23. "2016 Class of the Fellows of the AMS" (https://www.ams.org/profession/ams-fellows/new-fe
llows). American Mathematical Society. Retrieved 2015-11-16..
24. Cacm Staff (March 2017). "ACM Recognizes New Fellows". Communications of the ACM.
60 (3): 23. doi:10.1145/3039921 (https://doi.org/10.1145%2F3039921). S2CID 31701275 (ht
tps://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:31701275)..
25. "Prof. Noga Alon has been elected an Honorary member of the Hungarian Academy of
Sciences" (https://physics.tau.ac.il/nogaalon). School of Mathematical Sciences Newsroom.
Tel Aviv University. 8 September 2019. Retrieved 2023-05-06.

External links
Noga Alon's home page (http://www.math.tau.ac.il/~nogaa/)
Author profile (https://zbmath.org/authors/?q=ai:alon.noga) in the database zbMATH
Noga Alon (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vOYl40wAAAAJ) publications indexed
by Google Scholar

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