Andrew Chi-Chih Yao, born December 24, 1946, is a highly influential Chinese computer scientist, theoretical physicist, and computational theorist. He is currently a professor and the Dean of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences (IIIS) at Tsinghua University. Yao is also a Distinguished Professor-at-Large at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He obtained a Bachelor of Science in Physics from National Taiwan University, a Ph.D. in Physics from Harvard University in 1972, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois in 1975.
Yao is renowned for his fundamental contributions to the theory of computation, including complexity-based theory of pseudorandom number generation, cryptography, and communication complexity. His pioneering work includes Yao's principle, the Dolev-Yao model, and the concept of communication complexity. He received the ACM Turing Award in 2000 for these achievements. In addition to the Turing Award, Yao has received the Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology in 2021, the George Pólya Prize in 1987, and the Knuth Prize in 1996. Recently, in May 2024, Yao co-authored an expert consensus paper highlighting the significant risks associated with AI, emphasizing the urgent need for proactive governance mechanisms. In 2024, he was appointed as head of Tsinghua's newly-created College of AI and praised by President Xi Jinping for his dedication to teaching and research.
