Dana Moshkovitz

Dana Moshkovitz is a theoretical computer scientist whose primary field of research is computational complexity theory. She focuses specifically on the limits of efficient computation and the foundational mathematics of computing.

She is best known for her groundbreaking work on Probabilistically Checkable Proofs (PCPs) and the PCP Theorem. Her research established tight connections between PCPs and the inherent difficulty of approximating solutions to computational problems.

She serves as a faculty member in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin. She joined UT Austin after holding positions at MIT and Princeton.

The PCP theorem states that mathematical proofs can be rewritten in a format that allows them to be verified by reading only a few random bits. Moshkovitz's work proved that these proofs could be constructed efficiently, which has massive implications for modern cryptography.