Cynthia Dwork
Cynthia Dwork is a Harvard computer scientist whose work on differential privacy and fair classification bears directly on how AI systems handle personal data. She earned degrees at Princeton and Cornell, then worked at IBM Almaden Research Center before joining Microsoft Research in 2001. In 2006 she proposed differential privacy, a concept for protecting personal information in the Big Data era. ICML gave its 2023 Test of Time Award to a paper on fair classification. She received the National Medal of Science in 2025 and the 2026 Japan Prize, and she is Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science at Harvard.
Timeline
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1979
Degrees from Princeton and Cornell
She graduates from Princeton in 1979 and later earns her Ph.D. from Cornell.
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2001–2016
Joining Microsoft Research
She joins the new Silicon Valley campus of Microsoft Research in 2001, after work at IBM Almaden Research Center.
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2006
Proposing differential privacy
In 2006 she proposes differential privacy, a concept for protecting personal information in the Big Data era.
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2016–2017
Moving to Harvard
Harvard announces that she will join in January 2017 as Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science.
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2020
The IEEE Hamming Medal
She receives the IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal in 2020.
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2023
Test of Time for fair classification
ICML gives its 2023 Test of Time Award to a paper on fair classification.
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2025–2026
National medal and Japan Prize
She receives the National Medal of Science in 2025 and the 2026 Japan Prize in Electronics, Information and Communication.
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As of October 2026
Gordon McKay professorship at Harvard
She is Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science at Harvard's John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Sources and credits
Photo: Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, via Wikimedia Commons. License: CC BY 2.0. Source: commons.wikimedia.org. Cropped to a square and resized. Ask us to remove or replace this photo.
