Rūsiņš Mārtiņš Freivalds

Rūsiņš Mārtiņš Freivalds (1942 to 2016) was a Latvian computer scientist and mathematician, born in Cesvaine, known for Freivalds' algorithm, a simple randomized procedure for checking matrix multiplication in less time than recomputing the product, which he introduced in 1977. He studied physics and mathematics at the Latvian State University, graduating in 1965, earned his Candidate of Sciences in 1972 under Boris Trakhtenbrot at Akademgorodok, Novosibirsk, and his Doctor of Science at Moscow State University in 1985. With Jānis Bārzdiņš he founded the University of Latvia school of theoretical computer science, and his students included Daina Taimiņa and Andris Ambainis. His work covered probabilistic algorithms, inductive inference, quantum computing and, from 2012, ultrametric algorithms based on p-adic amplitudes. He became a full member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences in 1992 and of Academia Europaea in 2010.