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Kobbi Nissim

Kobbi Nissim is an Israeli computer scientist at Georgetown University, known for introducing differential privacy.

born 1965Introducing differential privacyResearch in cryptographyThe 2017 Gödel Prize

Occupation: researcher, computer scientist, cryptographer
Education: Weizmann Institute of Science, Weizmann Institute of Science

Kobbi Nissim was born in 1965 in Israel

Kobbi Nissim was born in 1965 in Ramat Gan. His parents are Sarah and Yitzhak, and he has one sister.

He earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering at Tel Aviv University between 1983 and 1987. He completed a master's degree in computer science at the Weizmann Institute in 1997 under Uriel Feige. He then earned his doctorate there under Moni Naor, finishing in 2001.

He taught in the computer science department at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and also worked as a researcher at Microsoft in Israel from 2009 to 2011. From 2012 to 2017 he was a member of the Center for Research on Computation and Society at Harvard University. In 2016 he became a full professor at Georgetown University, where he holds the McDevitt Chair of Computer Science and is an adjunct professor of law.

His research covers cryptography and data privacy, including legal aspects. In 2006 he and other computer scientists introduced the definition of differential privacy. He is married to Ravit, has 2 daughters, and lives in Maryland.