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Richard M. Karp

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Richard Karp is a famous computer scientist.

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karp

He studies how computers solve problems. This field is called the theory of algorithms. An algorithm is a set of steps to finish a task. Richard finds ways to make these steps fast and smart.

He was born in 1935 in Boston. His parents both went to Harvard University. Richard went there too. He earned his Ph.D. in math in 1959. He later became a professor at UC Berkeley. He also leads a group at the International Computer Science Institute.

Richard has made many big discoveries. In 1972, he showed that many hard problems are linked. He proved that 21 problems were NP-complete. This means they are very hard for computers to solve quickly. He also helped make the Rabin-Karp algorithm. This helps computers search for words in text.

His work has won many awards. He won the Turing Award in 1985. He also won the Kyoto Prize in 2008. These prizes show his great impact on science. He is a member of many top science groups. He even started the Simons Institute at Berkeley.

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