Undergraduate alumna honored with National Medal of Science

Written by
Liz Fuller-Wright, Office of Communications
Jan. 14, 2025

Undergraduate alumna Cynthia Dwork received the National Medal of Science “for visionary contributions to the field of computer science and secure public key cryptography,” according to her citation. “Cynthia Dwork’s innovative research, analysis and discoveries on differential privacy, fairness and algorithms, and statistical validity and adaptive data analysis help guide cutting-edge technologies across modern societies and play a critical role in advancing the global public good.”

In addition to Dwork, other recipients of the Medal of Science were Bonnie Bassler, Princeton’s Squibb Professor in Molecular Biology and chair of the Department of Molecular Biology, two emeritus members of the Princeton faculty, Larry Martin Bartels and Ingrid Daubechies, and undergraduate alumnus John O. Dabiri.

The White House honor was announced and awarded to 14 recipients in a ceremony Jan. 3. The ceremony also honored nine individuals with National Medals of Technology and Innovation, the highest honor for technological achievement.

“Congratulations to those recipients of two of our nation’s most prestigious honors, the National Medal of Science and National Medal of Technology and Innovation,” said President Joseph Biden during the livestreamed ceremony. “This year’s honorees represent a simple truth: As I’ve always believed, America can be defined by a single word, ‘possibilities.’ That’s who we are, a nation of possibilities.”

Dwork received a B.S.E. in electrical engineering and computer science at Princeton in 1979. She is now the Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science, a Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and affiliated faculty at Harvard Law School.

While at Princeton, Dwork received the Charles Ira Young Award for Excellence in Independent Research. After completing her degree, she earned a Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1983.

Dwork is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, as well as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). Her many awards include the Gödel Prize, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Richard W. Hamming Medal, the ACM Paris Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award, and multiple test-of-time awards.