Nitin Saxena obtained his B Tech in Computer Science and Engineering in 2001 from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur where he is currently a Doctoral student. As a B Tech student, Nitin Saxena was part of the team that recently announced a polynomial time algorithm for primality testing. This solves one of the most outstanding open problems of mathematics and Computer Science - as prime numbers play a pivotal role in all the areas of Mathematics and Computer Science. The result is now considered as the biggest advancement in a decade in computational number theory. What has astounded the scientific community is the elegance of the solution - the algorithm is only thirteen lines long, and its proof of correctness takes less than three pages.

Nitin is a very gifted individual. Besides doing excellently in his field of study, computer science, he has also demonstrated his talent in mathematics. Nitin had ranked 10th in the Indian National Mathematics Olympiad, and was awarded the prize for the Best Solution to a challenging problem. What, however, distinguishes him from the majority, is the motivation and dedication to work at hard problems. By carrying out the outstanding work on primality testing, Nitin has undoubtedly done IIT Kanpur and its alumni immensely proud. He, along with his team members, has demonstrated in the most decisive fashion that the very best possible research work can be done at IIT Kanpur.

Nitin Saxena has been conferred with the Distinguished Alumnus Award of the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur for his outstanding contributions in Complexity Theory by developing a Polynomial Time Algorithm for Primality Testing.