Madhu Sudan

Madhu Sudan is the Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science at Harvard University's John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He is a prominent researcher in theoretical computer science, focusing on the theories of computation and communication, with key contributions to coding theory, property testing, algebra in computation, and communication complexity.

His research explores how communication or computation can tolerate errors and how to correct them, leading to breakthroughs in polar codes and semantic communication. He has served on numerous professional committees and editorial boards, including as a founding editor of Foundations and Trends in Theoretical Computer Science and as a scientific advisor to Starkware.

Madhu has mentored 29 current and former PhD students, including notable researchers like Venkatesan Guruswami, Ryan O’Donnell, and Shubhangi Saraf. He is currently on sabbatical leave in Fall 2025 but remains reachable via email.