Columbia Engineering Dean Emeritus Zvi Galil received an honorary Doctor of Letters from Columbia University. he was also awarded Columbia’s Michael Pupil  Medal for Service to the Nation In Engineering, Science, or Technology Beyond the Candidate’s Professional Field. 

Galil is a renowned computer scientist specializing in algorithms, complexity, and cryptography. He earned his BS and MS in applied mathematics from Tel Aviv University and a PhD in computer science at Cornell University. He began his academic career at Tel Aviv University and IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center before joining Columbia University in 1982, where he chaired the Department of Computer Science (1989–1994) and served as dean of Columbia Engineering (1995–2007). He served as the dean of Georgia Tech’s College of Computing from 2010 to 2019 and the president at Tel Aviv University from 2007 to 2009.