Rutgers computer scientist Khachiyan dead at 52
May 3, 2005, 12:37 PM EDT

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. -- Leonid G. Khachiyan, a renowned professor of computer science at Rutgers University whose work helped solve how computers process large problems, has died. He was 52.

Khachiyan died of a heart attack Friday. Funeral services were held Tuesday.

"He was among the world's most famous computer scientists," said Haym Hirsh, chairman of Rutgers' computer science department.

In 1979, Khachiyan proved the existence of an efficient way to solve programming problems that were thought to be intractable because they dealt with an often astronomically large number of options. His breakthrough dealt with the underlying mathematics to find the best of a finite but huge number of choices a computer can pursue.

In 1982, he won the Fulkerson Prize from the Mathematical Programming Society and the American Mathematical Society for outstanding papers involving discrete mathematics.

Born in 1952 in St. Petersburg, Russia, Khachiyan came to the United States in 1989. He taught at Cornell University before joining Rutgers in 1990.

He is survived by his wife, two daughters, his parents and two brothers.