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Manindra Agrawal
PhD (IIT Kanpur)
Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Research Interest
Computational Complexity Theory, Computational Number Theory and Algebra
Office
CS-225,
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
IIT Kanpur, Kanpur 208016
Specialization
Theoretical Computer Science
Education
PhD (Computer Science), IIT Kanpur, 1991 .
Thesis Title: Towards a Characterization of NP-Complete Sets
Supervisor: Somenath Biswas
B.Tech (Computer Science), IIT Kanpur, 1986
Teaching Area
Algorithms
Complexity Theory
Computational Number Theory and Algebra
Cryptography
Professional Affiliations
Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Kanpur, 1996-present
Selected Publications
PRIMES is in P, Annals of Mathematics, 160(2), 781-793, 2004
Primality and Identity Testing via Chinese Remaindering, Journal of the ACM, 50(4), 429-443, 2003
The Isomorphism Conjecture for Constant Depth Reductions, Journal of Comp and Sys Sci, 77(1), 3-13, 2011
Arithmetic Circuits: A Chasm at Depth Four, proceedings of 49th Foundations of Computer Science (FOCS), 48-53, 2008
Quasi-polynomial hitting sets for set depth-D formulas, proceedings of Symposium on Theory of Computation (STOC), 321-330, 2013
Designed encryption algorithms for Indian Navy and Indian Air Force, 1998-2008
Awards & Fellowships
Padma Shri, 2013.
Infosys Prize, 2008
Godel Prize, 2006
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award, 2003
Clay Research Award, 2002
S S Bhatnagar Award, 2003
FNA, FTWAS, FNAE, FASc
Research Result
Designed the first efficient and deterministic algorithm for testing if a number is prime.
Research Group
Nitin Saxena, Satyadev Nandkumar
Professional Experience
Fellow, School of Mathematics, SPIC Science Foundation, Chennai, 1993-95
Humboldt Fellow, University of Ulm, Germany, 1995-96
Additional information
Prof. Manindra Agrawal, currently serving as the Director of the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, is a renowned computer scientist, globally known for his contributions in Complexity Theory and Cryptography.
He received his BTech and PhD in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Kanpur in 1986 and 1991, respectively. He later worked as a fellow at the School of Mathematics, SPIC Science Foundation, Chennai, and as a Humboldt Fellow at the University of Ulm, Germany, before joining as a faculty in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Kanpur in 1996.
Prof. Agrawal comes with extensive administrative experience. Before joining his alma mater, IIT Kanpur, as the Director in April 2024, Prof. Agrawal served in several administrative roles at the Institute, including as Head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering from 2006 to 2010, Dean of Resource Planning and Generation from 2011 to 2012, Dean of Faculty Affairs from 2013-2015, and as Deputy Director from 2017-2019. He was also the Project Director at C3iHub - A Cybersecurity Technology Innovation Hub at IIT Kanpur from 2020-2024.
Prof. Agrawal has numerous accomplishments, including the development of the AKS Primality Test -the first unconditional deterministic algorithm to test an n-digit number for primality in a time that is proven to be polynomial in n. He has received multiple national and international honors for his contributions, including the Padma Shri Award, the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award, the coveted Gödel Prize, the Fulkerson Prize, and the first Infosys Prize for Mathematics, among others. Prof. Agrawal is a foreign associate of the US National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of The World Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of all the three Indian Science Academies, namely, the Indian National Science Academy, Indian Academy of Sciences, and The National Academy of Sciences, and also a fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering.