PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Pravesh K Kothari

Pravesh K Kothari is a theoretical computer scientist whose research connects algorithms with AI-assisted mathematical research. An algorithms class with Surender Baswana at IIT Kanpur sparked his interest in theory, and he earned a PhD at UT Austin in 2016 after graduating from IIT Kanpur in 2010. He served as a Research Instructor jointly hosted by Princeton and the Institute for Advanced Study from 2016 to 2019, then as an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon from 2019 to 2023. In 2024, he joined Princeton's computer science faculty in January and shared the EATCS Presburger Award for Young Scientists with Justin Hsu; in September 2025, he and Raghu Meka received AI for Math Fund support for proof-search research. His August 2026 case study described AI-assisted work that improved bounds for the Grothendieck constant; he is an associate professor of computer science at Princeton as of October 2026.

Works
138
Citations
2,121
h-index
22

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2010–2016

    Algorithms at IIT Kanpur

    An algorithms class with Surender Baswana at IIT Kanpur sparks his interest in theoretical computer science. He graduates with a bachelor's degree in computer science and engineering in 2010, joins UT Austin in 2011, and earns a PhD in theoretical computer science in 2016.

  2. 2016–2019

    Research Instructor at IAS and Princeton

    From 2016 to 2019, he serves as a Research Instructor of Computer Science, jointly hosted by the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and Princeton University's Department of Computer Science.

  3. 2019–2023

    Assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon

    From 2019 to 2023, he serves as an assistant professor in Carnegie Mellon's Computer Science Department.

  4. January 2024

    Joining Princeton's computer science faculty

    He joins Princeton's computer science faculty in January 2024.

  5. 2024

    A Presburger Award

    He shares the 2024 EATCS Presburger Award for Young Scientists with Justin Hsu for contributions to theoretical computer science.

  6. September 2025

    AI for Math Fund proof search

    In September 2025, he and Raghu Meka receive AI for Math Fund support to develop a theoretical framework and scalable search algorithms for automated proof discovery. Their proof of concept will create a robust method for finding resolution proofs for Boolean satisfiability formulas and apply machine learning to Sidorenko's conjecture, a major open problem in combinatorics.

  7. August 2026

    AI research on Grothendieck constant

    In August 2026, he coauthors an arXiv case study of AI-assisted mathematical work on the Grothendieck constant. The paper reports improved bounds achieved with an AI research system.

  8. As of October 2026

    Associate professor at Princeton

    As of October 2026, he is an associate professor of computer science at Princeton.

Career

  1. Since 2016Princeton UniversityResearch Instructor of Computer Science, Associate Professor of Computer Science
  2. 2019–2023Carnegie Mellon UniversityAssistant Professor
  3. 2016–2019Institute for Advanced StudyResearch Instructor of Computer Science

Education

  1. 2016University of Texas at AustinPhD
  2. 2010Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

Most-cited works

  1. A randomized scheduler with probabilistic guarantees of finding bugs2010 · 215 citationsWith Madanlal Musuvathi
  2. A Nearly Tight Sum-of-Squares Lower Bound for the Planted Clique Problem2016 · Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science · 165 citationsWith Boaz Barak
  3. An Analysis of the t-SNE Algorithm for Data Visualization2018 · 149 citationsWith Sanjeev Arora
  4. Differentially Private Online Learning2012 · 141 citations
  5. The Power of Sum-of-Squares for Detecting Hidden Structures2017 · Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science · 103 citations

From OpenAlex, as of 21 October 2026.

  1. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes Princeton University. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.
  2. 84% of people shaping AI with recorded undergraduate and doctoral schools changed institutions for their doctorateIncludes Princeton University. 84% of people shaping AI with recorded undergraduate and doctoral schools changed institutions for their doctorate. Across 2,116 people with both an undergraduate degree and a doctorate recorded, we trace which undergraduate schools feed which doctoral programs, how often students stay at the same school, and how paths differ by birth-country region.
  3. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Princeton University. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  4. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes Princeton University. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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  1. Pravesh Kothari has joined the faculty, bringing expertise in theoretical computer science | CS cs.princeton.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Dr Pravesh K Kothari | IIT Kanpur iitk.ac.in. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Pravesh K Kothari biography cs.princeton.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. Presburger Award 2024 – Laudatio eatcs.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. AI For Math Fund Awards Raghu Meka | CS cs.ucla.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. A Principled Approach to Proof Search with Applications to Siderenko’s Conjecture renaissancephilanthropy.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. AI is great at math, but does it know how to do research? - Princeton Engineering engineering.princeton.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. [2608.11195] Long-Horizon AI Research for Grothendieck Constant: A Case Study in Human-AI Mathematical Collaboration arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.