Virginia Vassilevska Williams (born Virginia Panayotova Vassilevska) is an expert in computer science and mathematics. She studies how computers solve problems and creates efficient steps for solving them. She currently holds a special professor position named after Steven and Renee Finn at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is known for developing faster ways to multiply large groups of numbers called matrices, for creating algorithms that adjust as new information comes in, and for helping to create a field that examines how small changes affect the speed of solving problems.
Education and career
Williams was born in Bulgaria and went to a high school in Sofia where classes were taught in German. She finished her studies at the California Institute of Technology in 2003 and earned her Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University in 2008. Her Ph.D. research, titled Efficient Algorithms for Path Problems in Weighted Graphs, was guided by Guy Blelloch.
After working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Advanced Study and the University of California, Berkeley, Williams started as an assistant professor of computer science at Stanford University in 2013. She joined MIT as an associate professor in 2017.
Research
In 2011, Williams discovered a method for multiplying two n × n matrices in time O(n².³⁷³). This method improved upon an earlier approach called the Coppersmith–Winograd algorithm, which had been the fastest known method for matrix multiplication for 24 years. Williams' initial improvement was done separately from Andrew Stothers, who had also improved the same bound a year earlier. After learning about Stothers' work, Williams combined parts of both methods to further improve the result. In 2023, with help from others, she updated the bound to O(n².³⁷¹⁵⁵²). Later, in 2024, she refined it again to O(n².³⁷¹³³⁹).
Recognition
Williams was a fellow of the NSF Computing Innovation program from 2009 to 2011. In 2017, she received a Sloan Research Fellowship. In 2018, she gave a speech at the International Congress of Mathematicians, which included a section about the connection between mathematics and computer science.
Personal life
Williams is the daughter of applied mathematicians Panayot Vassilevski and Tanya Kostova-Vassilevska. She is married to Ryan Williams, who is also a computer science professor at MIT. They have worked together in the field of fine-grained complexity.