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Noam Nisan

Noam Nisan is an Israeli computer scientist and professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, known for his work in computational complexity theory and algorithmic game theory.

born 1961Algorithmic game theoryCoining algorithmic mechanism designPseudorandom generators researchThe Elements of Computing Systems

Born: 20 June 1961, Israel
Occupation: computer scientist
Education: Hebrew University of Jerusalem, University of California, Berkeley

Noam Nisan was born in 1961 in Israel

Noam Nisan was born in Israel on June 20, 1961, to Rachel and Mordechai Nisan. His father was a full professor at the Hebrew University School of Education. His two brothers are also professors at the Hebrew University.

He earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics and computer science at the Hebrew University in 1984. He completed a Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1988, under Richard Karp. His thesis on pseudorandom generators won an ACM dissertation award.

After postdoctoral work at MIT, he joined the Hebrew University faculty in 1990 and later served as dean of its School of Engineering and Computer Science. With Amir Ronen he coined the term algorithmic mechanism design. He coedited the book Algorithmic Game Theory and wrote The Elements of Computing Systems with Shimon Schocken.

His awards include the Gödel Prize in 2012, the Knuth Prize in 2016 and the Rothschild Prize in 2018. He joined the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities in 2022. He is married to Michal Steinitz, and they have 3 daughters.