Professor Zvi Galil, who served as TAU President from 2007–2009, has been named the seventh most influential computer scientist of the past decade by Academic Influence, a team of academics and data scientists who provide an objective, influence-based ranking for the people, schools, and disciplinary programs that make up higher education. His name appears among those of computer science legends Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, and Donald Knuth, author of the influential The Art of Computer Programming.

Professor Galil, who was born in Tel Aviv, earned BS and MS degrees in Applied Mathematics from TAU, both summa cum laude, then obtained a PhD in Computer Science from Cornell University. He returned to TAU as a faculty member to serve as Chair of the Computer Science department in 1979–1982.

Most recently, Professor Galil served as the third John P. Imlay Jr. Dean of Computing at Georgia Tech from July 2010 through June 2019. He stands out among the top 10 because he was chosen for his research and for his leadership, in particular for his vital role in founding Georgia Tech’s Online Master of Science in Computer Science (OMSCS) program. Since its founding in 2014, OMSCS has grown to an enrollment of more than 10,000 students, making it the largest computing master’s program in the country.

His mathematical and computer science research interests have included cryptography, the design and analysis of algorithms, stringology, sparsificaiton, and computational complexity. He is a prolific writer with over 200 papers to his credit and is a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery, the National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Click here to read more about Professor Galil’s recognition by Academic Influence.

Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a globally top-ranked university, a leading research institution, and a center of discovery. As Israel’s largest public institution of higher learning, TAU is home to 30,000 students, including 2,100 international students from over 100 countries. The University encompasses nine faculties, 35 schools, 400 labs, and has 17 affiliated hospitals in its network.

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