Maria Chudnovsky, mathematician, is one of 23 MacArthur Fellowship recipients in 2012. She is an associate professor in the department of industrial engineering and operations research at Columbia University and specializes in graph theory. With colleagues she successfully solved the "Srong Perfect Graph Theorem" which was proposed in the 1960s, and her research is potentially "deepening the connections between graph theory and other major branches of mathematics, such as linear programming, geometry, and complexity theory." A video featuring the awardee can be viewed on the web site.
"Abstract
What does it mean to have random numbers? Without understanding where a group of
numbers came from, it is impossible to know if they were randomly generated. However,
common sense claims that if the process to generate these numbers is truly understood,
then the numbers could not be random. Methods that are able to let their internal
workings be known without sacrificing random results are what this paper sets out to
describe. Beginning with a study of what it really means for something to be random, this
paper dives into the topic of random number generators and summarizes the key areas. It
covers the two main groups of generators, true-random and pseudo-random, and gives
practical examples of both. To make the information more applicable, real life examples
of currently used and currently available generators are provided as well. Knowing the
how and why of a number sequence without knowing the values that will come is
possible, and this thesis explains how it is accomplished."