Tardos

va Tardos, the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Computer Science, received the Van Wijngaarden Award from the Centrum Wiskunde and Informatica (CWI), the national research center for mathematics and computer science in the Netherlands, for her "exceptional contribution to mathematics and computer science."

Tardos' research focuses on "optimization," in which a computer is asked to find the most efficient way to organize a large number of elements. She has worked with airlines and the military on scheduling problems that require many elements -- such a pilots, planes, airfield space and passengers -- to match up. Since the computer must try every possible combination to find which is best, and sometimes this can create a tremendous processing load, Tardos also works on ways to approximate ideal solutions and prevent the computer from becoming lost in unsolvable problems.

The Van Wijngaarden Award is presented every five years to two recipients. J. C. Butcher of the University of Auckland, New Zealand, is the other recipient this year.